How Do Trees Impact Our Health?

Trees are medicine

“Edmonton already had a great program called Root for Trees with a goal of planting 2 million trees across the city,” says Mike Hurley. He’s the executive director of Trees for Life, a national charity whose stated mission is “to create a healthier, happier Canada by planting native trees where we live, work, and play.”

Hurley’s organization worked with the city in 2023 to plant nearly 20,000 trees across Edmonton, including the ones at Grey Nuns Hospital. “Today, the hospital’s staff, patients, and the broader community have access to an enhanced public greenspace,” he says.

It was the charity’s biggest tree-planting project in its history, but it wasn’t just about beautifying an urban space.

“I want to give credit for the inspiration that came from the United Kingdom,” explains Hurley. “They have the national healthcare forest—it’s a series of plantings along the lines of what we’re trying to accomplish here in Canada, where we’re planting trees near or on health facility grounds.”

That movement is coming to Canada due in part to irrefutable evidence of how forests and nature improve every aspect of our general wellness and health.

Take mental health, for instance. Researchers at Stanford University found that simply being exposed to nature decreased overall risks of mental illness—critical when one in five Canadians experiences a mental illness, and an increasing number of us are reporting mental health concerns.

But that’s not all:

• People with an office view of trees take fewer sick days and see a significant rise in productivity compared to those who don’t.
• A systematic review of more than 50 different studies found that access to nature significantly reduced the odds of mortality from heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases.
• Hospital patients with a view of trees recover faster than patients who don’t have an outdoor view or who have a view but without trees.

Experts say there may be many reasons for this since trees contribute numerous benefits, including increasing an area’s oxygen levels, muffling sound pollution, and creating cleaner air. While the underlying factors are multifaceted, the results are clear.

“Hospitals and healthcare facilities love the idea of beautifying their communities and their grounds, and they like the fact that there are measurable health benefits that come with planting more trees on or near health facilities,” says Hurley.

And you can see that taking shape from coast to coast to coast.

The growing movement to plant trees for health

In 2023 alone, Trees for Life worked with 19 partners and 2,400 volunteers to plant 137,000 trees in Alberta, Ontario, and New Brunswick. Past projects include trees planted at Sunnybrook Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, and the Ottawa Hospital.

Hurley’s charity isn’t the only one that sees the value that nature and trees bring to healthcare.

Other organizations and projects include the Canadian Health Care Forests by the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care; Trees for Hamilton, which recently worked with St. Joseph’s Urgent Care; and the City of London’s Million Tree Challenge which has partnered with health care facilities like London Health Sciences Centre.

“From fewer hospital visits to lower reported stress and anxiety levels, these tree projects align perfectly with these hospitals’ goals,” says Hurley. “It’s a movement that continues to gain momentum to this day. We constantly have different communities and health facilities reaching out wanting to plant trees for health.”

This article was originally published in the April 2025 issue of alive magazine.