ABSTRACT
Forest and woodlands, from the tundra through temperate zones to tropical rain forests, have provided human cultures with shelter, food, and firewood for fuel for many thousands of years. The connection between humans and the forest is not only pragmatic but there is increasing evidence that the simple immersion and prolonged exposure to a forest environment is physiological and psychologically beneficial. The slopes of the valley had been planted with a mixture of beech and pine trees in the 1800s and the pines had subsequently been felled, leaving the beech trees to fill the canopy. The plan was to develop a therapeutic and education woodland management project that integrated the principles of therapeutic education, productivity, and ecological sustainability. There seem to be three main theories as to why encountering nature is a therapeutic experience. These are: the Biophilia hypothesis; the attention restoration theory; and psychophysiological stress recovery theory.
