Blog Posts
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Silent Trails Presented at International Forest Therapy Conference
At the 2nd International Conference on Forest Therapy, Kristine Koster (BC Parks) and Dr. Tara Tiger Brown (UBC) presented findings from the Silent Trails Pilot Project—an initiative to create therapeutic spaces within Metro Vancouver’s urban parks. Noise pollution is now recognized by the World Health Organization as a major public health issue, linked to stress,…
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Reasons to Be Cheerful Features Our Sound Science
Reasons to Be Cheerful featured our Silent Trails pilot in collaboration with Quiet Parks International, with the headline: “Preserving Natural Quiet in an Ever-Louder World.” Reading it provided unexpected validation, as they fully understood the initiative we piloted with Metro Vancouver Regional Parks. Reading it brought unexpected validation. They understood exactly what we piloted with Metro…
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Shaping BC’s Environmental Future
As a PhD candidate in UBC’s Faculty of Forestry studying the relationship between natural soundscapes and well-being, I’m excited to share insights from our Silent Trails initiative, featured in Global BC’s “Shaping BC’s Environmental Future” series. In our increasingly noisy urban environments, finding moments of true quiet has become a rare commodity. Together with my…
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Exploring Natural Soundscapes Through Community Science
At Silent Trails, we’re inviting our community to be part of our research study that goes beyond just measuring sound – it explores how we experience it. When you participate in the Silent Trails community science project, you’ll be measuring sound levels using A-weighted decibels. This gives us objective data about the intensity of the…
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Experience a Silent Trail
According to research, spending time in nature is the antidote to many health issues. But what if a walk on a local nature trail feels as noisy and busy as a downtown street at rush hour? This has been my experience while living in the Lower Mainland. After a long day, I would head to…