top of page
Search

26. Parkscriptions: Your Prescription to Get Outside with Todd Elsworth

Writer's picture: Meg CarneyMeg Carney


Have you ever wished you could get a doctor’s note to go take a hike?


Well, in episode 26 of the Outdoor Minimalist podcast, we discuss parkscriptions– your prescription to get outside.


It is no secret that we often feel better after just spending 20 minutes outside, whether we are sitting and forest bathing or on a walk in the park. The physical and mental benefits are astounding.


There are several movements that focus on helping people get outside more often and many organizations like the National Park Service and Recreate Northwest that make opting outdoors easier. To help me discuss what parkscriptions are and how the idea can be added to your life, I’d like to introduce Todd Elsworth.


Todd Elsworth likes to play outside, go on adventures with family and friends, and give back to his community. In 2013, Elsworth turned his passion into a profession, founding the Bellingham-based non-profit Recreation Northwest. The organization’s mission to “teach the health benefits of nature, promote outdoor recreation, and steward the places where we play” guides his work.


Recreation Northwest provides opportunities for people to be introduced to beginner and intermediate experiences learning outdoor recreation skills, enjoying the health benefits of being mindful outdoors through immersive experiences in nature, and having a local guide to connect our parks and our people together through adventure and storytelling.


Recreation Northwest


Episode Resources

Park RX America: https://parkrxamerica.org/

National Park RX Program: https://www.parkrx.org/



 

This transcript was edited to remove some filler words and phrases and is not verbatim according to what is spoken in the audio recording.



Meg: So thanks for joining me today, Todd. I'm looking forward to learning more about your organization and the importance of parkscriptions. But before we jump into all of that, I also want to know more about you—how you got involved in outdoor recreation and how it fits into your life today.


Todd: Well, thanks for having me today, Meg. I’m fortunate to have had parents who introduced me to the outdoors. My family has always been involved in outdoor activities. Growing up, I was involved with camping, the Boy Scouts, and just being general outdoor recreationists. That really led my life’s pursuits and activities.


Meg: Yeah, so what types of activities do you really like?


Todd: I’m a committed commuter cyclist, and I’m an all-around cyclist. I love mountain biking and road biking. I also hike, paddle, and ski—I really enjoy snow sports. Hiking, walking, and just being outside in nature are what drive me. I love getting out, exploring, and simply enjoying the outdoors. It’s what fuels my passion to get others outside as well.


Meg: Awesome. Yeah, you have a very well-rounded approach to outdoor recreation. That’s so cool. So, I guess the first thing I wanted to talk about with you is to give people a better background into the topic: your organization, Recreation Northwest. What is that, and what are your main areas of focus?


Todd: Thank you. Recreation Northwest—I’m the founder and executive director. We started back in 2013, and at the time, I built the organization around a multi-sport race I founded in 2001 called the Bellingham Traverse. It was a very community-oriented event and really served as the genesis of Recreation Northwest.


We’ve evolved tremendously over the years as a consequence of our own growth. More recently, because of COVID, we’ve shifted our business model significantly. We used to host large-scale events for the outdoor recreation community, both public-facing and inward-facing for the recreation industry as a whole. We also have a stewardship project in Fairhaven Park, which has been our one consistent piece through the years. We adopted a local area in a park and built a wetland trail and boardwalk to provide better community access to a public park in an urban forest.


Then there’s our parkscriptions program, where we’ve worked with local healthcare providers to create outdoor recreational programming. This has really become the core of what we do. Moving into 2022 and beyond, we hope to continue offering this and expanding it.


As a result of our programs’ evolution, we’ve updated our mission, vision, and values to reflect the work we’re doing. I’m happy to share this—this is a “you heard it here first” moment—because we just had our new mission approved by our board of directors earlier this month.


The new mission that drives our work is: "We teach the health benefits of nature, promote outdoor recreation, and steward the places where we play."


Our vision as an organization is "community connected to nature," and the values that drive this work are fun, respect, positivity, and leadership.


So, with all of that, we’re really laying the foundation for creating opportunities and experiences for the public to engage with us and get outside to enjoy the space around us.


Meg: Yeah, I love that new mission, which seems really related to your original mission as well. But are all of your programs just based in Washington? Are you located in Bellingham?


Todd: We are located in the fourth corner of the Northwest. Our headquarters are in Bellingham, and that’s another evolution in our organization. Up until 2019, and the beginning of 2020, we were actually working on a statewide level in scope. But with the pandemic, we’ve really shifted to hone in and focus on being hyper-local—really just focusing on getting people out into local cities and parks within a short radius around our great town of Bellingham.


Meg: Very cool. I think all of your programming is very interesting and impactful, but I am most interested in talking about parkscriptions. You touched a little bit on how you started to transition toward that, but what was the main draw or specific thing that led you to wanting to pursue the parkscriptions idea?


Todd: It actually goes back to one of our board members, Pamela Joel. She’s a researcher who had a contract with the National Park Service down in San Francisco. It was a group of folks down there, partnering with the Institute for the Golden Gate, that really started what we refer to as a movement in the United States. And this idea actually originated with New Zealanders who had the concept of having doctors prescribe outdoor time and activity in local parks. So, Park RX was developed out of the National Park Service.


Pamela looked at it because she was doing contract work for them and said, “Hey, this work they’re doing down there sounds like it really aligns with our mission, and this is needed here in Whatcom County.” So, we explored it as an organization. We dove in, and staff and volunteers started putting together a scope of work. That’s when we came across another group in Washington, D.C.—Park RX America—who had a mapping tool created for doctors, by doctors, to help prescribe outdoor activities by assigning local parks for people to get outdoors into.


In our first years of exploring this, back in 2016 and 2017, we were able to get some strong buy-in from a local clinic, Family Care Network, and we identified a couple of doctors who were really interested in engaging with this and integrating it into their practice. So, for the first couple of years, we had a few outdoor recreation champions who were our parkscriptions leaders, integrating this into their practice.


But the challenge was that the mapping tool had its limitations. Also, just telling people to go to a park worked for some, but not for many. What we really came to realize, as we talked to the doctors and got their feedback, was that people really need something more—what was surprising for me to learn was that many people just don’t feel comfortable going outdoors alone or even in groups with their families.


So, we looked at the needs and the opportunities. By 2019, we made the intentional shift to start offering outdoor programming for people—especially for the underserved or just people who needed it for their mental health. We started this transition a long time ago, and the pandemic was just a big road bump for us being able to do this. But now that we’ve moved through most of this, we’ve shifted our business completely. We’re now offering that programming to help people feel comfortable as we hold their hands and take them outside.


Meg: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense because I could see some people really latching onto that actual parkscription or RX—whatever it is—“Go to a park, get outside, it’s good for your mental and physical health,” from a doctor. But also, it’s really interesting that your role is kind of creating the opportunity for them to actually pursue that effectively.


Because it looks a little different for everyone and can be intimidating in so many different ways, but it really doesn’t have to be a big, grand adventure, which is kind of the vibe I’m getting from you. It’s just about opting to get outside for a set amount of time each day because it’ll make you feel better.


Todd: Absolutely. And so one thing that we’re actually moving toward offering, to create frequency and easier access for people, is that we’re going to be hosting daily walks and hikes in local Bellingham parks. We’ll be charging a nominal fee of only fifteen dollars for a two-hour experience.


Meg: So, what would that kind of look like if someone were to attend that type of hike? Would it just be you have a leader, or are they also giving you instructions on how to go and do this on your own, or maybe teaching about local flora and fauna?


Todd: We essentially have two different layers of what we’re going to be offering. For the daily experiences—the inexpensive $15 outdoor time with us—we will have one of our guides take people out. We’ll be focusing on mindfulness in the outdoors, but it won’t be a fully immersive experience.


We have other experiences, for which we charge more—around the $40 range—where the activity specifically focuses on mindfulness in nature. We also offer outdoor recreation and nature education experiences, where we teach about local flora and fauna, different naturalist topics, and outdoor recreation skills. These are for longer hikes throughout Bellingham’s parks or even the Chuckanut Mountains.


So, we have these two layers to offer people a variety of experiences and learning levels.


Meg: That’s really great. I’m not sure how you would measure this or gauge it, but from your experience in introducing people to this parkscriptions idea and helping them find local places to easily get outside, do you think it has been really helpful to a lot of novice hikers or beginners—people entering the outdoors? Do you think they take a lot from one experience and then are able to venture on their own, or do you see them returning often?


Todd: I will say that with the experience we had with the doctors we were engaged with, for those who were integrating this into their clinics and having conversations with their patients, they were seeing great results. They reported exciting advances in their patients’ mental and consequently physical health. That’s more on the medical side of things.


The challenge for us is that with HIPAA barriers, it’s hard for us to track this and really dive into it, so that’s just another barrier for us in moving forward with the healthcare industry. But as far as us now offering these programs—this is something we’ve just launched in the last six months, so we’re just now getting traction. People are showing up for our experiences. We don’t have enough of a long tail to see repeat visitors yet.


Surveys and follow-up questions from the guests we’ve had have been very positive. They’re excited to engage with us and learn from our guides, so we’re taking that knowledge and using it to create more experiences that we think people need and would appreciate.


Meg: Yeah, I wasn’t sure how you would be able to measure that type of thing, so it’s interesting to hear about the surveys and stuff. Also, in your experience, do you have a certain amount of time that you recommend to people to go outside?


I know that you're not necessarily the medical professional prescribing the time out to people, but do you think that, if they’re integrating this into their daily life, something as small as 10 to 15 minutes is sufficient? Or do you encourage people to go longer?


Todd: I think the literature says 15 minutes, but I would encourage people to go longer. But they might still see benefits even if they are really short on time. It’s just about trying to work it into that 15-minute window. That kind of makes sense as a starting point.


Meg: Yes, and that’s the “getting outdoors” part. But then, it’s been really rewarding to see, again, this movement taking shape and getting support, even from the academic healthcare community. There’s more and more research and reports coming out on this.


And one of the interesting things that complements people going outside into nature is also bringing nature inside to help with the feeling of being outdoors. Some examples are hospitals that really try and open up the space for patients to be able to view the outdoors.


Or, if they don’t have windows in areas that are more closed-in, they simply have pictures of plants or plants themselves. Bringing nature inside has also shown health benefits, particularly for people’s mental health and well-being.


Meg: That’s really interesting because that is something I think would be really easy for people to integrate into their personal lives. How you decorate your home could revolve around those natural elements and bring those types of feelings there as well.


Todd: Yes, absolutely. And since more and more people are working from home and in home offices, we encourage people to put a picture of a plant or have a plant in their space.


Meg: I want to continue talking about parkscriptions, but I also want to talk about a few of your other programs. You have a lot of different public health campaigns, and a lot of those you discussed are just about getting people more involved in their communities and more involved in the natural spaces that already exist.


These concepts are really interesting to me and inspiring. But do you see them integrated in a lot of other areas in the country, or is it pretty isolated to the Northwest? How can other people start to pursue and adapt them in their cities?


Todd: What’s been interesting is to see how this movement has spread across the country. It comes from one of three different angles—or maybe two working together—and this is really following along the Parks RX outline. It really comes down to parks providers and programs.


So, with the Parks RX program, that’s the National Park Service because they’re the managers of these parks. They’re creating programs to get people outside, and that model kind of leaves the healthcare providers out of it.


Other models actually have healthcare providers taking it on themselves to do this and integrate it into their practice. We’ve watched this, followed it, and been part of this. I’ve talked to people across the country who are trying to create programs and keep them running, and that’s the biggest uphill battle—continued support and funding for these types of programs. It’s such a new thing, and the literature is just being built to support this. That’s where we’ve shifted to kind of waiting on getting the medical industry behind this and really encouraging people to focus on creating programs in local parks.


The movement is still strong across the country. There are different champions doing this in a variety of communities. Whether it’s the parks departments leading this, it just varies. It’s really interesting to see, though, that what’s lacking is a common body of knowledge and community between the outfits, organizations, and agencies that are trying to do this.


Meg: Yeah, so there’s not necessarily one outline for people to kind of look at and pick up and apply in their own areas. It’s just kind of like everyone’s building their own version of it?


Todd: Yes, and it usually comes from a handful of people that have passion and interest and “get it.” So, fortunately, here in Washington state, last year’s legislature passed a bill to explore a Parks RX model.


When my colleague Elizabeth Nelson, she serves on a steering committee now for the state, she’s trying to help figure out what we, as a state, can do to approach this model. And so, again, we’re trying to help lead people down the path to create programming and give people somewhere to go when they do go outside. Then, eventually, we’ll loop back around to healthcare providers and say, "Hey, here are these programs for people; send them our way."


Meg: When you say healthcare providers, I don’t want to get too deep into this, but I’m just curious on a surface level. Do you mean just doctors that you would go to for a general health checkup, or are you also talking like therapists and psychiatrists?


Todd: Both. We originally started with Family Care Network, which is primarily primary care physicians—your family doctor. But as we got traction around this and visibility, we started hearing from the mental health community and then tried to expand into integrating it into more mental health counseling groups as well.


So a lot of it is really anyone that works in the healthcare industry that’s interested in sharing this philosophy—that nature is good for your mental health—and finding ways for them to share that with their patients.


Meg: Did you see kind of more of a push and more of a shift for getting outside during COVID, like during the shutdowns and even now, because working from home, you're more isolated and it is still difficult in some areas to get together with people, especially with the new variants and things like that?


Todd: The silver lining in the early days of the pandemic was that people were finding that nature was a healer. While everything was shut down, we didn’t necessarily have to stay locked in our homes. More and more people were getting outside and finding recreation as a new lifestyle.


Meg: Yeah, and the good news is you don’t necessarily need a prescription to go outside from your doctor; you can just go and do it.


So I’m wondering, if someone is intimidated by getting outside or just not sure how to start, what would you recommend to them?


Todd: Come join us on a trip.


Meg: What if they don’t live in Washington?


Todd: There are plenty of community recreation groups that exist, whether it’s hiking, walking, biking, paddling. Look for those local outdoor recreation activity clubs or other social-type groups to connect with a community of people outdoors.


Meg: Yeah, I do think that a lot of cities and parks offer a lot of different types of programming for all levels, so just doing a little bit of research in your specific area can be really helpful.


But if people do live in the Bellingham area, or I guess anywhere in Washington, they could probably find you or find programs. So how can people sign up for those?


Todd: All of our stuff is on our website at recreationnorthwest.org.


Meg: And I believe you also have social media? Is that just Recreation Northwest on all of the platforms?


Todd: Yes.


Meg: As far as the different programming that you offer, what is your recommendation?


Todd: It really just depends on what you want to experience and what you want to learn. We offer short walks in local neighborhood parks and longer hikes through some of those same parks, and then even longer hikes up in the Chuckanuts.


Caleb, our main naturalist, also does great courses outdoors in our parks—really from a naturalist standpoint—whether it's learning local fungi, wildlife tracking, astronomy, night hikes. Yesterday we talked about starting a new one on moss and lichen.


Really, one of the elements that we’re really looking to share with people is that we not only want them to feel comfortable when they are outdoors, but also to take the learning that they have to create a better sense of place—whether they’re just visiting, new to Bellingham, or have lived here for decades. We just want people to feel a deeper connection to the nature around them.


Meg: Yeah, I love that because you can find adventure right in your backyard. I feel like your organization is really representing that—you don’t have to travel deep into the mountains to have an enlightening or impactful experience outside.


Todd: Yeah, and we’ve really intentionally narrowed our geographic scope to just stay in Bellingham city limits and do front-country experiences as opposed to backcountry experiences.


It’s really just to be able to let people know there’s nature right here—you don’t have to go too far. Yes, you can get out and do this on a daily basis or for a longer time on a weekend, but just, you know, get to know what’s around you.


Meg: Awesome. Well, are there any other final points that you wanted to add?


Todd: One of the things I’m really excited about, because it’s literally starting to take root, is our stewardship area in Fairhaven Park. We’re evolving our work there to build on the mitigation sites we have as a result of our Wetland Boardwalk. What we’ve done is open up our mitigation sites, and we’ve essentially named them for what they are, which are native plant gardens.


We’ve really created this opportunity for people to engage with our stewardship work, and we’re now evolving to transform a former blackberry patch that we removed earlier last year to create a natural space and an outdoor classroom for local environmental education groups that work predominantly with children. We also want this space to be an outdoor passive space for the public to use—just to sit and be and enjoy this little slice of nature in the city of Bellingham’s Fairhaven Park.


So, we’re excited to bring this concept that other communities have used, and start integrating it into one of our local city parks. Hopefully, we can use it as an example to implement in other city parks around town, so these educational groups and individuals can get outside, feel like they’re in a safe space that’s dedicated to the appreciation, enjoyment, and learning about nature.


Meg: Oh, yeah, that sounds amazing. It will be really interesting to watch how that grows, like you’re saying, to integrate it into more areas and to watch other cities in Washington hopefully adopt similar programs.


Todd: Yeah, I’m really excited about it.


Meg: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to jump on the show and talk about all of the Recreation Northwest missions, but especially the parkscriptions.


Todd: Excellent. Thanks, Meg, for your time. I appreciate you having me on.



0 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

留言


  • Youtube
  • Pre Order
  • RSS
  • TikTok
  • Threads

JOIN THE MOVEMENT

Thanks for submitting!

Black-Footed Ferret Productions, LLC

© 2025 Black-Footed Ferret Productions, LLC

bottom of page