Kira Rambles

On February 13th, the White House created the Make America Healthy (MAHA) commision. Shortly thereafter, its policies on government downsizing gutted Forest Service and National Park staffing, yet the very chronic health issues MAHA claims to address are almost universally improved by access to the outdoors. 

According to the commission’s fact sheet, it will address “the root causes of America’s escalating health crisis, with an initial focus on childhood chronic diseases,” including “the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), antipsychotics, and mood stabilizers.” The fact sheet also names overmedication for attention deficit disorders, especially for kids, as a major concern. 

And that’s true. A study at Avalere Health and IBM Watson Health in DC saw a 34.6% increase in pediatric mental illness from 2012 to 2018, including ADHD. It also showed an alarming 96% increase in anxiety and 73% in depression and acknowledges that these rates are likely underrepresented. And attention deficit disorders are often comorbid with other mental health concerns; the CDC says 78% of kids with ADHD/ADD have at least one other co-occurring condition, including anxiety, behavioral problems, and depression. 

And we need to focus on youth mental because the statistics just aren’t as scary for older Americans; while the pandemic has increased anxiety across age ranges since, a San Diego State University study in 2019 saw a 63% increase in major depression in young adults and a 71% increase in psychological distress from 2008 to 2017 but no significant increase in older adults. In fact, psychological distress decreased for those over 65. 

Why? Cultural trends including digital and social media, economic factors, mass shootings, and other stressors. Young people also sleep less than their parents did at their age. We’re living a mental health crisis, and as a young adult recently prescribed SSRIs, I get it. But I’m also an outdoor educator alarmed by Trump’s administration’s strip back of protections for public land because being outside combats everything MAHA is worried about. 

If the goal was really to address the mental health crisis, the government wouldn’t be gutting a cheap, non medicated, proven option for treatment: outdoor recreation. The Mayo Clinic confirms being in nature for as few as five minutes can regulate the sympathetic nervous system, reducing chronic stress, improving mood, and mitigating anxiety, depression, ADHD, and PTSD symptoms. In fact, if MAHA wants to decrease kids’ dependency on ADHD/ADD meds, outdoor recreation can do that too. A University of Chicago study in 2019 showed “that green spaces near schools promote cognitive development in children and green views near children’s homes promote self-control behaviors.” It even works for grown-ups. Adults assigned to public housing units near green space showed better attentional functioning. 

But, this week, Trump’s policies led to the firing of 3,400 Forest Service and 1,000 National Park Service workers, the very people who maintain public outdoor spaces. In addition to losing hundreds of miles of Forest Service-maintained trails to disrepair, this will mean restrictions to visitor safety and comfort in National Parks, including disruptions to waste removal, search and rescue, and more. Basically, there won’t be people to log out trails, clean bathrooms, or help you if you get injured on public lands this summer if they’re even open at all. 

But that’s likely the goal. Dozens of national park sites are located next to public lands open to oil and gas drilling, and Trump and his Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum have both issued orders to expand oil and gas leasing and drilling and mining on public lands. But I have a hard time believing it’s all about energy production either because the orders also restrict wind and solar development on public lands, just like I have a hard time believing that the goal is to reduce childhood chronic illness while the administration is simultaneously threatening all Americans’ access to the outdoors, a proven treatment. No, gutting protections and support for public lands shows the real aim is to make money in the short term at the expense of American people and land.