50 states, 50 corrections
The air is filled with bird, the soil of soft greenery and delicate light. This is Ho’oul ‘āin, a 100 -acre reserve with an unusual turn. Related to the community health center, it is a place where patients come to treat the country and themselves.
As climate change is accelerated and Trump’s administration is leaving the fight, Ho’oul ‘āina is one example of how people in all 50 countries, red and blue, work to renew the soil, clean the waterways, reduce pollution and protection of wild animals.
50 states, 50 corrections is a series of local solutions to environmental problems. More comes this year.
Twenty years ago, Ho’oul ‘āina was neglected, overwhelmed with garbage and invasive plants. But today it works.
And volunteers and patients who spend long hours there, removing unintentional plants and growing vegetables, fruits and plants, have experienced the renewal of body and soul.
There is Growing research This shows how to spend time in nature can improve mental, physical and cognitive health, something that the managers of Ho’ulu ‘saw first -hand.
Older people who are once dependent on sticks and walkers have returned some mobility. Diabetics saw that their glucose levels drop. Depressed teenagers are adults bright eyes. In the Hawaiian name Ho’oul ‘āina means “growing because of the earth” and they have.
“Many people from the Health Center considered the country as a means of improving the health of people, a type of tools,” said full Jackson, a program director in Ho’ulu ‘āina. But for domestic Hawaiians and Pacific islanders, who make up most of the patients in the clinic, the connection with nature is family and deep, said Mrs. Jackson. “It’s a holy relationship,” she said.
Ho’oul ‘āina is a 10 -minute drive from the clinic, from the fat road, across the wooden bridge and towards the steep driveway for dirt that leads to grassy fields trimmed with forest. The earth has bread trees, cos and bananas, medicinal plants and taro, organic gardens, a low -share building and a tiny pharmacy where Mrs. Jackson, who is also the original Hawaiian medicine doctor, sees patients.
