PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 20, 2023
Turns out that hugging a tree may very well be good for you. Participants in the city’s first Tree Hugging Event, held beneath the dense canopy in Deering Oaks park Saturday, did indeed hug trees, but not before learning how doing so can improve their health. City Park Ranger Liz Collado explained that forest bathing, or “shinrin-yoku,” originated in Japan in the 1980s from research on what happens to humans when they enter a forest. What researchers found was profound.