Melissa with Kookai Chaimahawong, Executive Director of the Centre for Climate and Business Solutions at UBC Sauder School of Business, surrounded by totem poles at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC

Coastal Wolf Pack dancers of all ages address the audience at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC

Melissa with Carolynn Beaty, Executive Director of the Sitka Foundation, at a reception at the Finance for Nature – A Night at the Museum event at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC

Wonderful to connect with so many champions for nature at Nature Investment Hub's Finance for Nature event at the Museum of Anthropology.
Nature is the foundation of our economy, sovereignty, health + wellbeing — and it was incredibly heartening to be in a room of people who get it.
#healthybynature

Melissa with her son enjoying the panoramic views from the North Summit atop Mount Gardner, Bowen Island, BC

Melissa's son running along the mossy, sunlit trails on Mount Gardner, Bowen Island, BC

Panoramic views up Howe Sound from the North Summit atop Mount Gardner, Bowen Island, BC

Beautiful, sunlit weekend trekking up Mount Gardner on Bowen Island, walking the Stanley Park and Vancouver Seawall, and enjoying good food and good conversation with family and friends.
Nature and social connection: no better way to recharge for the busy week ahead.
#HappyEaster #healthybynature

Melissa with her son and his friend flying the kite he got for Christmas at Kits Beach in Vancouver, BC in front of blue sky, clouds and mountains

"Mom, I really want to fly my kite today."
"Sorry, buddy, but there's not enough wind."
"Well I'm going to bring it on our walk anyway."
🪁
Oh, the wisdom of children. Glad to be proven wrong.
Hope your spirits were as high as ours this weekend.
#renewableenergy #healthybynature

Panellist flyer featuring Tahltan forester Garry Merkel, Melissa and Nature Conservancy of Canada's West Coast Program Director Steven Godfrey atop a green NCC buff

Melissa standing outside Zambri's restaurant in Victoria with NCC's Steven Godfrey, Lesley Neilson, Nancy Newhouse and Garry Merkel

Snow, sunlit view of islands and ocean from the Harbour Air plane on the way home to Vancouver from Victoria

Auspicious start to #YearoftheFireHorse yesterday in conversation with @ncccnc.bsky.social's Garry Merkel, staff Steven Godfrey + Lesley Neilson and wonderful donors, partners + allies @uvic.ca.
Even made it back on the seaplane to start my clinic on time despite the snow flurries.
#healthybynature

Melissa hiking among snow trees along the Snowshoe Grind on Grouse Mountain

Hiker with snowy trees, a rocky cliff and snow flurries atop Grouse Mountain

Snow-covered evergreen bough

Atmospheric river at sea level, wintry wonderland on the mountaintops. Change your elevation, change your perspective.
Gorgeous day for a snowy first hike of the year atop Grouse Mountain. Hope everyone's making some time for the great outdoors this weekend!
#healthybynature #PaRx

As a Co-Investigator on the #PANDA Trial, I approve this message. Australian friends and colleagues, take note! 👇
www.powerlab.site/research/pan...
#healthybynature

Biolinkup: the novel biotin supplement. ✓ Verified quality ✨ Sustained energy ⚡ Supports hair, skin, nails ✨ Try today! #healthybynature #biotinboost #amazon-supplements 🌟 Suger free drinks: cutt.ly/YrRdIxjb

The Answer to Pain May Lie in Your Brain - Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta - Podcast on CNN Audio For something that’s a universal experience, pain has been pretty hard to measure, treat and even understand. That’s what Dr. Sanjay Gupta decided to write his forthcoming book, “It Doesn’t Have to Hu...

"I love that."
That moment Dr. Sanjay Gupta shouts out you and @bcparksfoundation.ca's #PaRx 2/3 of the way through his latest @cnn.com Chasing Life podcast about chronic pain—and how prescribing park visits + social connection can help manage it.
#healthybynature
www.cnn.com/audio/podcas...

Melissa's family playing on driftwood at the beach at sunset in Vancouver, BC

Blue lupins by the beach at sunset in Vancouver, BC

#HappyFathersDay!
Grateful for a day of good food, good conversations with family + friends, and a more-than-good sunset on the beach to tie it all together.
#healthybynature

Trail time with the lads is a compounding pharmacy of good medicine.

Happy belated BC Trails Day (yesterday), friends.

#PaRx #healthybynature

Photo collage of Melissa with her son at St. Mark's Summit on Cypress Mountain, Melissa's family and friends at snowy Mystery Lake on Mount Seymour, a whiskeyjack bird alighting on Melissa's son's hand atop St. Mark's Summit, Melissa's son bounding down a snowy ridge on Cypress Mountain, Melissa's son looking up at a burl-covered tree trunk on the Baden Powell Trail, and Melissa's son and friend exploring aqua-coloured slush at Mystery Lake

Busy week ahead? Spend more time outside.
Ready and recharged after a glorious weekend hiking and playing in the sunshine and snow on the North Shore Mountains with friends and family.
#healthybynature

Standing ovation at the end of SIX: The Musical at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver

Melissa's son playing with friends at sunlit Acadia Beach

Nature's provisions and Melissa's son's friend perched on driftwood at Acadia Beach

Melissa's son and friend walking on the beach at low tide

In love with long weekends @cityofvancouver.bsky.social.
From a Saturday-night date at the spectacular @sixbroadway.bsky.social to Sunday playdates on the Salish Sea, so grateful to live in this beautiful culture-and-nature-filled city.
#SIXTheMusicalLive #healthybynature

How gardening can help you live better for longer Research shows gardening preserves cognitive function, helping you live well for longer. Now, dementia patients are reaping the benefits with "care farms" prescriptions.

"We all know that more physical activity improves mental and physical health, but gardening supercharges those benefits."
Loved being interviewed for this wonderful BBC feature on how gardening can improve elder health.
#healthybynature #PaRx
@bcparksfoundation.ca @cape-acme.bsky.social

Melissa and her son walking on a trail in Stanley Park on Mother's Day

Donuts, guavas and a handmade Mother's Day card Melissa's son made

A Great Blue Heron wading in the water along the Stanley Park seawall, bathed in sunlight

#HappyMothersDay to all who mother—including Mother Earth herself.
Grateful for all the celebrations and surprises on the tables and trails that marked today.
#healthybynature

Melissa's son and friend boarding the smiling False Creek Ferry

Melissa's son climbing a big tree in Stanley Park with friends

Melissa's son and friends turtle-watching at Jericho Park

When your backyard—False Creek, Stanley Park, Kits Beach, Jericho Park—turns into one big playground.
Such fun playing tour guide this sunshine-filled weekend for out-of-town friends. Vitamin D stores officially replete.
#healthybynature

Place Over Rx: Undeniable Wellness Impacts From Community Design Research is showing and design is proving the impacts it can have on health and wellbeing - these communities are leading the way.

"In Canada, @bcparksfoundation.ca's PaRx program has 17,500 Canadian healthcare providers now registered to prescribe nature to patients. Since its launch in 2020, PaRx has issued an estimated 1.2 million nature prescriptions."
Great to see #PaRx in @forbes.com's latest.
#healthybynature

Go Outside, Doctor's Orders - Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta - Podcast on CNN Audio How does our relationship with nature affect our health, for better and worse? Dr. Sanjay Gupta explores this idea by pulling from personal experience as a physician, a journalist, and a father. First...

One of my favourite interviews of all time. Delighted to appear on @cnn.com's latest Chasing Life podcast with Dr. Sanjay Gupta today, in honour of #EarthDay, to discuss how our relationship with nature affects our health.
@cape-acme.bsky.social @bcparksfdn.bsky.social #healthybynature

© CBC/Radio-Canada 2025. All rights reserved.

“It’s that mindfulness, social connection and stress reduction that happens when you step into a space that inspires awe that improves our health.”
Good to be on CBC’s Early Edition today with @vanartgallery.bsky.social‘s Eva Respini to talk @bcparksfdn.bsky.social’s #PaRx collab.
#healthybynature

Looking for a workday pick-me-up? Spend time in nature – doctor’s orders Engaging with nature can restore attention and reduce fatigue and irritability. Doctors across Canada are even prescribing it to get more people outdoors

“We want to make outdoor time non-negotiable,” Dr. Lem explains. “It should be like brushing your teeth in the morning. You want to make it part of your everyday routine.”
Thanks @theglobeandmail.com for the interview about how @bcparksfdn.bsky.social's #PaRx can boost your workday.
#healthybynature

PaRx named a key partner in new €6.3million international project on nature-based therapies The four-year, EU-funded RESONATE project (Building individual and community RESilience thrOugh NATurE-based therapies) will deepen our knowledge about the connections between nature and health.

Learn more about our project here:
www.parkprescriptions.ca/blogposts/pa...
#healthybynature
/2.

Photo collage of Melissa's son holding out a shell on Long Beach, and running towards driftwood and walking by the waves on Halfmoon Bay and Florencia Bay, a close-up of a green anemone and barnacles at the Ucluelet Aquarium, and Melissa under an umbrella on Long Beach in Nuu-chah-nulth territory at Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, near Ucluelet, BC

Sometimes the best adventures happen in your own backyard. Grateful for a week of #springbreak spent exploring the beaches and forests of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on Vancouver Island.
Plan your next Parks-Canada-inspired trip here:
parks.canada.ca/voyage-travel
#healthybynature

Photo collage of Melissa's son and friend skiing at Whistler Blackcomb, snowy trees and a sea-level hike with an ice-cream reward in Whistler Village

One snowy Sunday in Whistler with friends: the perfect antidote to too many weekdays in a suit.
Great start to Spring Break.
#healthybynature

Melissa hiking on Thunderbird Trail past a heart traced in the snow on Grouse Mountain in a blizzard

A snow-and-ice-bound branch on Grouse Mountain

Close-up of a fellow hiker wearing a red maple-leaf toque sprinkled with snow on Grouse Mountain

Peak Canadian: hiking up a snowy mountain in a blizzard sporting a red coat, red backpack or maple leaf hat on National Flag of Canada Day while your kid takes ski lessons.
Happy #FlagDay, Canada.
#healthybynature

Melissa checking out the snowy view atop Grouse Mountain on Thunderbird Trail

Snowy Pacific Spirit Regional Park

From sky to sea, weekends are always better outside.
Beautiful, snowy hikes on Grouse Mountain and in Pacific Spirit Regional Park today.
#healthybynature

Melissa, Sirish Rao, Senior Director of Public Engagement & Learning, and Paula Toledo, Well-being consultant in the Emily Carr Room at the Vancouver Art Gallery

Melissa laughing during an interview in the Emily Carr Room at the Vancouver Art Gallery

Close-up of some of Emily Carr's paintings in the Vancouver Art Gallery

Exterior view of the Vancouver Art Gallery

Stepped into the new forest in @vanartgallery.bsky.social's Emily Carr Room with wonderful colleagues for the first time last week to work on a groundbreaking nature and art initiative.
Can't wait to share what we've been up to!
#healthybynature

So excited to see this Playbook launched, and honoured to be on the advisory committee.
Congrats @cisp-icps.bsky.social!
Check it out here: cascadescanada.ca/resources/so...
#healthybynature
@cape-acme.bsky.social

Melissa hiking past swooping snow formations on Thunderbird Ridge in North Vancouver

Snow crystals, evergreens and mountains on the Snowshoe Grind, Grouse Mountain

Icicles and cliffs overhead on Grouse Mountain

Snow and tilting evergreens in the distance on Thunderbird Ridge

Fascinated by so many different kinds of snow and ice on Grouse Mountain today: crystalline, packed, swooping, serrated, smooth.
Grateful for this beautiful, blue-sky day outside.
#healthybynature

Collage of photos from a hike on the BCMC Trail with sunlit cedar, hemlock, Douglas fir and Melissa hiking in the snow

POV: You decide to climb the BCMC Trail after dropping your kid off for ski lessons at 8 am, and hear you need to wait until 8:45 am for the gondola to open to the general public.
Beautiful morning for a sea-to-sky hike on Grouse Mountain.
#healthybynature

Melissa snowshoeing past snow-covered cliffs and trees on Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver, BC

Two hikers walking past snow-covered forest on Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver, BC

Snow-covered evergreen boughs on Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver, BC

Beautiful first snowshoe of the season today on Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver.
So grateful to live in a place where getting to connect with the snow and elements is a choice—and always working to try to make sure it stays that way for all.
#healthybynature

Melissa smiling amid mosses atop Green Mountain on Cortes Island, BC

Melissa and her son hiking atop Green Mountain on Cortes Island, BC with a view of Gorge Harbour below

A view of the snowy Coast Mountains and Desolation Sound atop Green Mountain on Cortes Island, BC

Beautiful day for a #FirstDayHike on #CortesIsland.
Loved kicking off 2025 with this healthy tradition—7 years and counting!
Felt so much calmer, energized + more resilient after spending time in the forest.
Where did you get outside today?
#HappyNewYear #PaRx #HealthyByNature
@cape-acme.bsky.social