Nature is helping to offer respite to a nation in trauma

Train with a tortoise [Missing Credit]

Being in nature has a proven positive impact on mental health and Train and her team have developed a range of programmes to support those displaced within Israel. Activities such as star gazing and rock climbing offer an opportunity for people to disconnect from the digital world and work together.

One initiative there was specifically designed for third-grade pupils from Kibbutz Be’eri to help them foster connection with the natural world in the wake of trauma.

“These are young people, but they’re also the future adults of Israel who are going to need to work together.”

Train’s team also organises activities for IDF reservists and their families. “We wanted them to know that there were all these free sites available,” Train says.

So far, they’ve hosted more than 30 activities to help soldiers and their loved ones find moments of peace.

Since November 2023, more than 105,000 Israelis have taken part in SPNI programmes, Train reports, and 97 per cent of participating teens said they felt less stressed afterwards.

The park’s work with children is important, Train says, because “they can change their parents’ opinion. When they learn about nature at school, we know they bring these lessons back home.”

SPNI’s work is done in Arabic, as well as Hebrew and English, and the parks are free so they are a space where all communities come together.

The Gazelle Valley has seen more Arab school trips from East Jerusalem than ever before, with one group visiting for a weekly wildlife photography class. Meanwhile, Charedi families came in their droves during the summer holidays.

Train planting water mint at the Gazelle Valley[Missing Credit]

In various other locations run by SPNI, Train reports that “people are coming to meditate, to read books in nature, and it’s giving them a sense of calm, it’s bringing tourism back, these are sights that are healing the birds and healing the people that visit”.

In addition to new programmes to support the mental wellbeing of the nation, we are living in “generation restoration” and SPNI’s rewilding has rebuilt several endangered ecosystems. Israel is the last place where many migrating birds refuel before making their winter trips around the world, but the country has lost about 90 per cent of its historic wetlands. Train says: “The Hula Valley was drained to get rid of malaria and create agricultural space, but we ended up losing a lot of important habits for the birds.

“If we don’t have enough water for them, that’s a million birds that are in trouble.”

SPNI’s goal is to restore 25 per cent of what was lost, and two former agricultural fishponds have already been rewilded.

“Kibbutzim and local communities aren’t fishing anymore so let’s use that land for something good,” Train says, explaining the natural plant systems that were installed during the reflooding process.

The birds are already starting to flock back, she says. “Within the first few weeks, 85 species of birds that hadn’t been seen in Israel for a while returned.” They included various hens, eagles and ducks.

“Nature knows no boundaries,” Train continues, explaining how SPNI’s work involves collaboration with different countries.

Referring to a successful barn owl rescue programme run by a biologist called Professor Yossi Leshem in northern and central Israel, Train says: “He was able to connect with Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians, going into their communities asking them, culturally why do they kill owls?

“The Israeli farmers said they were eating our crops... and a lot of the Palestinian and Jordanian farmers said they were ghosts.”

Working with the different cultures, environment and financial considerations, the project started to save the barn owl, “which has since blossomed. Everybody can connect with nature. It should be one of those issues that is non-political. Everyone can look at an owl and say: ‘Wow that’s pretty cool.’”

Train with a long-eared owl[Missing Credit]

But the war has put a pause on some similar programmes. “Unfortunately, the expansion of one of our projects into Jordan, which had the approval of the Jordanian water commissions, is now on hold because of the war,” she says. “It is just another reason we hope for things to be a little bit better so we can keep doing the important work we do with partners from all different sides.”

The need to work together will only become more acute as climate change continues to alter Israel’s natural environment. Rising temperatures are affecting animals and visitors alike, with evidence of heat stress in some species. Increasingly scorching summers have reduced visitor numbers on the hottest days when it’s nearly impossible for Train’s team to work outside.

The heat also takes a toll on the park’s trees, some of which have withered and died.

“The gazelles so far seem to cope fine with the heat, but we are concerned,” Trian adds, pointing out that the Middle East is heating up faster than much of the world. “We are, every summer, getting hotter than the one before.”

Despite these challenges, Train remains hopeful: “We’ve got to prevent climate anxiety. To quote Jurassic Park, ‘Life finds a way.’”

It is the power of nature to endure in the face of human abuse, conflict and change that Train holds onto.

“Nature heals” and the reserve continues to bring people together to the heart of a city wrought with division.

Just like the gazelles, which have swelled in number since SPNI’s work, the park and the natural world are resilient and can be renewed.