Before Jennifer Owens led me into the woods at The Parklands of Floyds Fork in Louisville for my “forest bathing” session, I was skeptical. Visions of hugging trees and swatting mosquitoes filled my mind, which had simultaneously scurried off to the deadlines awaiting me while I went off to relax with the trees.
Owens led our little group to a peaceful spot near a creek. “Great,” I thought. I grew up playing in the forests of upstate New York and could practically touch tree leaves from my bedroom window. But I was sure that this one time in the forest “to relax” would be the time I’d be bitten by a copperhead. I was eager for Owens, the co-founder and wellness director at Louisville’s Bridge Counseling and Wellness, to demonstrate her tree methods and for my stress to melt away.
For urbanites like me, getting (back) to the forest is important. We lead stressed lives illuminated by artificial light, and we rely on measly backyards to feed our body’s need for nature. For Owens, the forest is a preferred antidote to modern life’s ailments.
Research reveals she’s on to something, and some progressive doctors prescribe nature for common complaints. Owens has a background in holistic health, including massage therapy, and is one of Kentucky’s few trained ecotherapists. She’s also a licensed clinical social worker.
Owens was raised a nature lover but didn’t immediately realize that forest bathing, which gets its name from the Japanese translation of shinrin-yoku, could be one tool in her belt to help her patients. When she worked as a licensed massage therapist, she saw people riddled with trauma and anxiety, and often, that anxiety was stored in the body. She got a master’s degree in social work to offer more help, but eventually, her own mental health issues crept in.
“I started suffering from severe panic attacks about 10 years ago, and it was severe enough where I had to quit my job,” Owens said. “It ruled my life.”
She tried everything to overcome it and eventually decided she needed to go back to what she knew was good for her—back to the forest. “I decided to adopt a part of Cherokee Park in Louisville and was going to pick up trash in the creek,” she said. “After some time of doing that, I started to realize [that] I’m not caring for the land; it’s caring for me. I realized I didn’t have anxiety or panic attacks anymore.”
Owens then embarked on months of study and came across shinrin-yoku. She obtained certification through a school in Canada and now leads forest bathing sessions. The practice is gaining popularity but isn’t yet clinically mainstream.
I wasn’t sick when I ventured with Owens into the woods. I simply needed to unwind, and she made this happen in a short period of time. After about 30 minutes following her gentle cues to look at this, smell that, notice this, feel that, I walked out of the forest feeling as though I had gotten a massage. I didn’t get any bug bites, and I still haven’t seen a copperhead.
“The only negative part is the anticipation of the experience,” Owens said. “I’ll never forget, early on I had someone whose friend dragged her along, and she said, ‘I hate this.’ So I eased her in … and midway through, she was lying on the forest floor. She didn’t know she needed it. For other people, they’ve gone hiking, and it’s hot, and bugs are getting them. But forest bathing is slower, more gentle. I’ve never had one person give negative feedback.”
My brain slowed down, and I felt refreshed and peaceful. I had the phytoncides to thank. Phytoncide emanates from certain plants and trees, and is also known as the “aroma” of the forest. Owens said phytoncides help plants and trees protect themselves from harmful insects and germs; they are comparable to an immune system. Phytoncides also seem to help humans’ immune systems. They are free medicine, which I suspect is why “go to the woods” isn’t commonly scribbled on prescription pads.
“It boosts our immune system, reduces blood pressure and improves sleep,” Owens said of phytoncide. “In Japan, they’ve been doing research on this for at least 25 years. Most people who go on guided trips get their vitals taken before and after. They found that, with two hours in the forest, the phytoncides boost immune system cells for up to a week.”
If forest bathing in a new-growth forest area close to major urban centers can offer health benefits, then it’s worth looking at some of Kentucky’s oldest trees. Off the beaten path in eastern Kentucky sit the majestic giants of the state’s largest old-growth forest, Blanton Forest State Nature Preserve.
Greg Abernathy, executive director of the Kentucky Natural Lands Trust, said there are two categories of old-growth forest: those that have never been logged (primary forests) and second-growth forests with limited disturbance for at least a century. Some experts suggest 150-200 years as a minimum age indicator of old growth and that eventually, with limited disturbance, second-growth forests will become old-growth forests. Over time, forests inevitably experience compositional changes.
“I so enjoy the symphony of the forest—the birds calling, the streams bubbling, and the leaves rustling,” Abernathy said of Harlan County’s Blanton Forest. “For me, wildlands offer solace and inspiration, a grounding and reset, an opportunity to be reminded of what is important and to strive toward balance in my life. And time in wild places is essential for both mental and physical health.”
KNLT works to protect the wildlands all along the entire 125 miles of the Pine Mountain ridgeway, where Blanton Forest is located.
“The story of protecting Blanton is a great piece of Kentucky’s history,” he said. “It was spearheaded by KNLT in partnership with the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. Blanton Forest remains the largest tract of old-growth forest in Kentucky. It is 2,000-plus acres of old growth within a 3,510-acre state nature preserve buffered by another 3,000-plus acres protected by KNLT. There are other smaller patches of old growth around the state.”
Abernathy has heard Blanton referenced as the 13th-largest tract of old growth in the eastern United States. He likes to imagine the native peoples who were present before European colonization and how they stewarded this lush Appalachian landscape. Trees that tower 100 feet above the forest floor are the same ones the settlers saw as they came through the Cumberland Gap and moved westward into Kentucky in the 1700s. This forest showcases a union of past and present and is one of the rare places in Kentucky where nature has gone unchallenged. A walk or session with Owens here could be named “full forest submersion” rather than bathing.
Several distinct natural communities are found in Blanton Forest, most notably the mixed mesophytic forest, one of the most diverse temperate zone forests in the world. This forest typically includes a variety of canopy trees such as sugar maple, beech, tulip poplar, basswood, hemlock and several species of oak and magnolia. In the larger ravines, or hollows, the forest is dominated by hemlock and rhododendron. Drier sites on ridges support chestnut oak-dominated forests as well as oak-pine forests. Small open seeps, often called bogs or mires, contain sphagnum moss, cinnamon ferns and wildflowers.
“Another factor that greatly influences biodiversity is the human history of a region,” Abernathy said. “Kentucky has a nearly 12,000-year documented human history, with the most significant impacts to biodiversity occurring over the last 200 years since European-American settlement. Eastern Kentucky has a history of extensive resource extraction, and although the region was nearly completely logged, these forests are incredibly resilient and today are extremely important to sustaining the biodiversity and local communities throughout the region.”
Kentuckians can gain a deeper appreciation of the state’s heritage in its old-growth forests. “Greater awareness of the importance of old growth and biodiversity are essential to preservation,” Abernathy said.
In Lexington, Burgess Carey hopes to build that awareness. He founded Boone Creek Outdoors nearly 20 years ago as a companion to the Boone Creek Angler’s Club on property just off Interstate 75. He hopes the land on Old Richmond Road, which used to house tourist shops, boat works, hemp mills and maybe even part of the Native American Buffalo Trace, will become a model for preservation-minded recreation and adventure tourism in central Kentucky.
The palisades gorge, limestone cliffs, creek, waterfalls, ferns, wildflowers and a largely preserved hardwood forest previously were overrun by invasive species such as wintercreeper and bush honeysuckle. Carey and his team worked to restore the native ecosystem, including an old-growth tree on the property dubbed “Chief.”
“Our iconic 300-plus-year-old white oak Chief is as healthy and robust as it is because it is located on property that was never agricultural,” Carey said. “Chief’s roots were allowed to grow in uncompacted soil, while on the other side of the fence, livestock compacted the soil over the past 200 years, killing the trees just a few feet away.”
Hardwood trees on cliffs were spared from logging because of the steep terrain. Still, there are tree problems to fix, as there are in so many forests around the state, such as the emerald ash borer.
“We have motivation and incentive to treat the ash trees in and around our tour, which we do using medicine injected into the trees by our consulting arborist, and to try to control the wintercreeper and honeysuckle,” Carey said, adding that chestnut trees once prevalent in Kentucky are now gone because of blight.
Courtesy of Boone Creek Outdoors
For its treetop canopy tours, Boone Creek Outdoors uses platforms that don’t restrict the trees’ growth and movement. Tours include ziplines, sky bridges, a spiral staircase, a rappel and a floating staircase, all suspended from the trees 250 feet over Boone Creek Gorge. It is an engaging experience that includes the thrill of flying over the creek on 1,400-foot lines. Guests pass through blue and green ash, red and white oak, cedar, poplar and cherry trees. Carey likes to point out how the region shaped the signature brands of central Kentucky such as bourbon and Thoroughbred horses.
“We have a small corner of Fayette County that more closely resembles what it looked like before it was settled,” he said. “We are about having fun on tour but also exposing people to things that might connect them to the past and how the geology and limestone shaped all of it.”
It’s also a chance for rejuvenation.
“It’s a significantly proven fact that being in the woods and forest can lower stress levels and improve energy,” Carey said. “You drop down into this palisades region for only an hour or two, but you feel like you’ve gone on vacation.”
For adventure, health or history, Kentucky’s trees are calling.
Trees in Kentucky
When most people think of Kentucky, forests typically are not at the top of their list. But trees are an integral part of the state’s history, and the forests here today are only a glimpse of what they once were.
“Kentucky was 85 to 90 percent forested, with vast prairies and wetlands making up the remainder of what is now Kentucky,” Greg Abernathy, executive director of Kentucky Natural Lands Trust, said about Kentucky before European colonization here. “Today, the forest has been reduced to 50 percent of the state and is highly fragmented due to urbanization … Less than 8 percent of the state is currently comprised of interior tracts of forests of 1,000 acres or more in size.”