Can a stroll in the forest ward off cancer?  Trees in Olympic
National Park, Washington. Photo by Jeff Fox.  You’ll be
surprised by the answer. Find out more in this essay from
Wilderness Magazine. To receive the annual magazine and
quarterly newsletters from The Wilderness Society, become a
member today!  Breathing Trees  By Jennifer Ackerman  There is a
particular forest odor that haunts me. In it I smell home, as if
my Russian and German ancestors had passed along in my olfactory
genes their roots in dark woods. A whiff of this volatile
cocktail travels directly to that corner in my brain that
regulates my sense of well-being. I find it calming, comforting,
even — I would venture — healing. When I catch hint of it, I
inhale deeply, drawing in what I guess is a mix of red cedar and
pine mingled with the musty litter of maple and oak leaves. But
I suspect this is a crude gleaning on the surface of a deeper
olfactory mystery, a rich and subtle chemical text I can discern
but can’t fully describe. When it come