THE LEAFLET

DC Park RX is a new community health initiative to fight chronic disease with nature. Many doctors have started to recognize the positive impact nature has on many health conditions and have begun to prescribe parks as an aid to maladies such as childhood obesity.

Park RX works similar to Yelp or other search and rating databases. You simply choose a zip code within D.C. then a mile radius you want to search for parks. The site generates a list of parks in your search criteria and you are able to select a park. Once you do, it brings you to a downloadable and printer friendly document that is extremely detailed in the parks amenities.

Dr. Robert Zarr, the founder and director of the program spoke out our Livable Communities Conference this past August. In his presentation he stated, “Nature clearly shows an effect on your health in terms of prevention. So you may not have a diagnosis yet, but if you’re headed that way, you can certainly turn that around by spending more time outside.”

Can you imagine a park with out trees? Not only would it be empty of much green scenery but it would lack all the benefits trees provide from oxygen to shade. This is one of the reasons we work so diligently to keep parks and other public spaces filled with trees!

So take a note from the doctor and spend these last few weeks of fall weather out in your neighborhood park!