wisconsin state parks

It doesn’t matter if it’s January or June, snowing or sunny and 85 degrees; it’s always a good idea to get outdoors in Wisconsin.

Sure, we have plenty of beautiful opportunities all across our state. But it’s not just a matter of looking at some pretty scenery. Studies have found a significant link between getting outdoors and improved mental health. 

On episode 57, we spoke with Dr. Shilagh Mirgain, a psychologist with UW Health about the benefits of stepping away from the screen, logging off and getting outdoors. Listen in to learn more about Nature Deficit Disorder, how even just a few minutes a day can be beneficial, and what you can do to reap the benefits of nature, even if you simply cannot get outside.

Learn more about Dr. Shilagh Mirgain at https://www.drshilaghmirgain.com/

Find your next adventure at https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/adventure
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TRANSCRIPT
ANNOUNCER: [00:00:00] Welcome to Wisconsin DNR's Wild Wisconsin "Off the Record" podcast. Information straight from the source.

KATIE GRANT: [00:00:12] Welcome back to another episode of Wild Wisconsin Off the Record. I'm your host. DNR's Digital Communication Section Chief Katie Grant. With all the changes from the COVID-19 public health emergency, I'm sure a lot of adults feel the same way that I do lately. I stare at a screen all day while working from home with no meetings to use as an excuse to get away from those screens anymore.

Then after work, I stare at a little screen while staring at a big screen until I go to bed and I start it all over again. And studies confirm what many adults are feeling. The average adult spends more time behind a screen than they do even sleeping. And it's not just the adults. Even before the pandemic, kids spent as little as 30 minutes a day playing outside. But they spent more than seven hours in front of a screen.

All of this screen time really takes a toll on people's physical and mental health. But in a world where we're telecommuting and increasingly reliant on technology, how can we minimize the effect of all of that screen time on our mental health? In this episode, we sat down with Dr. Shilagh Mirgain. A psychologist with UW Health to talk about the benefits of getting outside, nature deficit disorder and how you can get a little bit of those benefits of being outdoors, even when you can't get out there. So sit back and listening to learn more.

All right. We are welcoming Dr. Shilagh Mirgain to the show today. Thank you so much for joining us. Uh, can you go ahead and get us started by telling us a little bit about yourself, your background, um, and what it is that you do? 

DR. SHILAGH MIRGAIN: [00:02:02] Thanks, Katie. I'm really honored to be a guest on today's episode. I am a clinical psychologist at UW Health who specializes in health and sports psychology.

I've been at the University of Wisconsin for 15 years and have really um... One of the highlights for me of moving to Wisconsin has been discovering all the amazing outdoor, um, places to go in Wisconsin. And I've just had lots of adventures over the years of discovering, um, what, what is called Wild Wisconsin. All those natural, uh, wilderness areas that really make our state amazing.

KATIE GRANT: [00:02:41] Yeah, it is one of the things that we are truly blessed with here in Wisconsin. And I've, I've talked about this with a lot of, of guests on the show. Um, it's something that I think a lot of Wisconsinites take for granted because, you know, especially if you've grown up here, it's, it's been around you all along and it's easy to take that for granted. What would you say is your favorite part of your job? 

DR. SHILAGH MIRGAIN: [00:03:05] That's a great question. I love helping people. And with my job, I'm really working on the mind-body connection and really harnessing the power of the mind to really improve various health outcomes. I work with chronic medical patients like heart disease or chronic pain, um, injury rehab.

And then as a sports psychologist, I'm also working on that mind-body connection to really fuel optimal performance. And many people you know, we can look to medical management taking the pill, but the favorite part of my job is to have people learn how to use a skill. And a variety of skills from mindfulness to cognitive behavioral therapy to acceptance work can really have profound impacts on people's quality of life and really allow them instead of just surviving to go to thriving and really flourishing.

KATIE GRANT: [00:03:56] Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned that mind-body connection and, um, you know, one of the things that a lot of your articles that we've looked into, uh, talk about is the benefit of spending that time outdoors. Generally speaking, why is getting out in nature, even when it's cold and snowy and you maybe don't want to go out there. Why is that so important to our overall wellbeing? 

DR. SHILAGH MIRGAIN: [00:04:22] It's such a great question and there's that, uh, phrase that nature is the best medicine and there's really some truth to that. And I am often prescribing nature to my patients and there's really robust research on this. Um, for example, one study looked at two groups of walkers.

The two groups went for a walk for just a few minutes, five, ten minutes. The first group went for a walk in the park while the other just walked around the city looking at the city landscape of skyscrapers and sidewalks. And the results were really interesting that they showed that just a short walk in a park and that natural landscape, as little as 10 minutes actually affected participants' brains. The walk helped decrease stress hormones, like cortisol and actually improved thinking and memory. You know, and all of this really goes to suggest that time in nature can help relieve mental fatigue, improve focus and help boost our mood. And I think a real takeaway is that nature is restorative in many ways. And I always say that nature offers us something beyond what human connection can. There's a way when we go into a natural environment that we feel a sense of relief or calm or peace or perspective and it can really enhance our wellbeing.

KATIE GRANT: [00:05:44] Yeah, for sure. And I think this is something that obviously with the COVID-19 pandemic has been kind of top of mind. Um, but this isn't new science. Um, you published an article about this all the way back in 2015. And in that you cited some alarming facts. Uh, the average adult spends more time behind a screen than they do sleeping.

And kids spend as little as 30 minutes in unstructured outdoor play each day but more than seven hours on average in front of a screen. What are some of the consequences of all of this screen time? 

DR. SHILAGH MIRGAIN: [00:06:19] There is a concept that was coined in the book Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv, who said, um, nature deficit disorder, that term Nature Deficit Disorder. And we had it pre-pandemic, but you know, I think everyone can appreciate during the pandemic, our screen time has gone through the roof. Kids are spending all day behind screens if they're doing virtual learning. So many of us adults are working remotely and on Zoom calls all day. And so we're kind of tethered to our screen and it's in part of what has really taken a toll during the pandemic that we are connecting to one another ...

2020 has been an unpredictable year. Despite the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Wisconsinites have remained resilient. Although times have been tough, Wisconsinites have gotten outdoors to enjoy the many adventures available in our state.

In this episode of Off the Record, we asked residents on Facebook to share their inspirational stories of how they found their adventure at Wisconsin State Parks this summer. These four stories represent a collective upward trend in outdoor activity throughout Wisconsin. 

Find your adventure in Wisconsin at https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/outdoorrecreation/adventure.html
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TRANSCRIPT

ANNOUNCER: [00:00:00] Welcome to Wisconsin DNR's Wild Wisconsin Off the Record podcast. Information straight from the source.

KATIE: [00:00:12] Welcome back to another episode of Wild Wisconsin Off the Record. I'm your host DNRs Acting Communications Director, Katie Grant. While the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly presented its fair share of challenges, Wisconsinites have remained resilient. And if there's one thing Wisconsinites did a lot of this year, it was get outdoors. Between the middle of March and June 20, 26.4 million people visited Wisconsin state parks, and throughout all of summer, our parks saw 14% more visitors than in 2019.

The spring turkey season saw 20% more turkey licenses sold. And sales of first time fishing licenses nearly doubled with more than 20,000 more sold this year, than in 2019. In this year of uncertainty, the DNR is proud of the upward trend of people partaking in the exploration of all of the outdoor activities our state has to offer. Here's DNR Secretary Preston Cole with more.

PRESTON: [00:01:17] Outdoor recreation is essential to our economy. Our quality of life, our personal well being and happiness. Wisconsin is home to 49 state parks, 15 state forests, 44 state trails, 84,000 miles of rivers and streams and roughly 15,000 lakes. Leaving folks with tons of opportunity to get outdoors. Being outdoors impacts us in a myriad of ways. But specifically our individual health and wellbeing. Outdoor recreation accounts for 7.8 billion economic impact in Wisconsin. Businesses that sell and rent bikes, kayaks, camping gear are all busier than ever.

The increases that people are enjoying the great outdoors and everything that Wisconsin has to offer has been incredible for us to witness. It's clear to us that navigating this pandemic, that parks and Wisconsin's natural resources, in general, are essential for us as a people. And certainly for Wisconsinites.

While we'll be exploring ways to enrich our parks in the short term and long term, looking for ways to improve the opportunities for newcomers, increases accessibility for individuals with mobility issues, provide better awareness and opportunities for those different ethnic backgrounds or social economic status.

Even though you may see fewer DNR staff in person at your favorite state park, know that they are still working around the clock to ensure you have a positive and safe experience. 

KATIE: [00:02:42] We wanted to hear how you spent your summer finding adventure in Wisconsin. Our guests today share their stories of how they took advantage of Wisconsin's vast array of parks and recreation areas this summer. Some experienced things for the first time. Others continued old traditions. So sit back and listen in to hear their stories. 

ERIN: [00:03:05] Hi, my name is Erin and I am from New Berlin, Wisconsin, my boyfriend, Brandon, and our two dogs, Mac and Cam are on a journey to camp in fall at as many beautiful Wisconsin state parks as we possibly can. And this unprecedented summer really gave us an opportunity to take our first ever summer camping trip. So we ended up packing up our pop-up camper and headed an hour west of New Berlin to Lake Kegonsa in Stoughton, Wisconsin. And we had a truly unforgettable four day weekend. While at Lake Kegonsa we honestly explored every single dog-friendly hiking trail. And we even did some geocaching in the woods.

And for those of you who have done geocaching before, there are a ton of these in Lake Kegonsa so I highly recommend trying it. But after a trip to the lake, we had hours of campfires. We saw a giant Osprey nest and honestly encountered more ticks and mosquitoes than I'd probably like to admit. We ended up making a memory we will never forget. And got to cross another state park off our list. So thank you so much, Wisconsin state parks and park staff for allowing us to keep our lives super adventurous during such an interesting time in our world history and letting us explore the hidden beauty that is Lake Kegonsa State Park. Next up, we have Mirror Lake State Park scheduled for this October and we can not wait.

JOHN: [00:04:33] My name is John Stellflue. The COVID-19 virus has affected each and every one of us in some way, shape or form. You know, this spring, it caused two of my turkey hunts to be canceled. I had two tags, one for season three in zone one and one for season four in zone four. But with everything going on with Covid we all agreed we probably shouldn't get together as a group and hunt. I was very disappointed. I looked forward to these turkey hunts like many of you guys look forward to gun deer season. But as I drove to work the next morning, I realized that the border of zone one is just west of my home in Sun Prairie. My wheels started to spin.

I knew it was some public land that could work just fine for us. I called my friend. He had the same tag and same season and told him, Hey, let's do this. And he said he was in. I had less than a week to scout, found us a few spots and the plan quickly started to come together for a last minute public land hunt.

Hey, worst case scenario is we spend a few days social distancing in the turkey woods and perhaps find some morels and ramps. Nothing wrong with that. This was going to be my first public land hunt. We... I've always hunted private in the past. My biggest concern was that we were going to be dealing with a lot of hunting pressure.

I couldn't have been more wrong. With all the people not working, Gym still being closed, the only thing many people could do for exercise was to walk the public land. We saw and heard a lot of them. After two and a half days of dodging people, I made the call to head to Governor Dodge State Park. My thought was, this is a very large park and we could escape the people.

We went to the backside of Twin Valley Lake figuring we could get away from the crowds that were enjoying the park on the first day that the parks were open. Cause prior to this, they had been closed because of Covid. We were wrong. It seemed no matter what we did we couldn't escape the people who were enjoying the parks.

As we ate a sandwich on the tailgate of my truck, desperately searching for answers, a friendly DNR park employee stopped and asked if we were seeing any turkeys. I said, all we're seeing is people. He gave us a tip and suggested an area of the park that wasn't frequented by a lot of people. We headed there to check it out.

We really liked what we saw and both of us had spots picked out for the following morning. As the sun came up, I heard gobbling off to my left. I smiled... really big smile. Didn't take long before a group of Jakes showed themselves in front of me. I yelped at them and they started coming to my way. They stopped.