News Release – Novemeber 6, 2009
Contact: Dr. Myron Floyd 919.513.8026 myron_floyd@ncsu.edu
On October 28, 2009, Agriculture Secretary Thom Vilsack announced the selection of a team of researchers from the College of Natural Resources at North Carolina State University as recipients of a USDA Federal Urban and Community Forestry Grant to examine the potential for urban and community forests to promote physical activity and health. The group was one of only 10 projects to receive the competitive cost-share grants.
According to project principal investigator Dr. Myron Floyd, "Two of the ten leading public health challenges in the U.S. are physical inactivity and obesity. Studies of the built environment show that community design and urban form shape opportunities for physical activity, but few studies have examined the specific contributions that urban and community forests make to public health through physical activity. That's what we intended to do with this project."
A multi-disciplinary team of researchers will compile and integrate national epidemiologic and health surveillance data with data from urban forest inventory databases to examine relationships among urban forest characteristics and physical activity and health. One level of analyses will examine these relationships between cities, exploring national trends. A second level of analysis will employ higher resolution data to focus on three metropolitan areas to determine the relative influence of urban forest characteristics, community design, and population characteristics on physical activity and obesity.
Results of the study will be of great interest to policy makers and professionals working in the natural resources and public health arenas.
Researchers on the project include: from the Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism Management – Dr Myron Floyd (PI), Dr. Dorothy Anderson, Dr. Perver Baran, Dr. Hugh Devine, Dr. Karla Henderson, Dr. Yu-Fai Leung; and from the Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources – Dr. Melissa McHale.