The 3rd International Electronic Conference on Environmental Research and Public Health Proceedings ‘Looking for flowering trees to walk past’: A qualitative analy- sis of US older adults’ therapeutic landscapes during the COVID-19 pandemic † Viveka Guzmán* 1 , Gabriela Bustamante 2 , Lindsay Kobayashi 3 and Jessica Finlay 4 1 Division of Population Health, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Ireland; vivekaguzman@rcsi.ie 2 Program in Health Disparities Research, University of Minnesota, United States of America; busta027@umn.edu 3 Centre for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, University of Michigan, United States of America; lkob@umich.edu 4 Social Environment and Health, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, United States of Amer- ica; jmfinlay@umich.edu * Correspondence: vivekaguzman@rcsi.ie Abstract: Therapeutic engagement with nature can support health and wellbeing among older adults. This may be particularly important to cope with adversities of the COVID-19 pandemic when public health measures have been particularly stringent for individuals in this age group. Utilizing therapeutic landscapes as a conceptual framework, we conducted a secondary thematic analysis of qualitative data to explore older adults’ everyday experiences (N=769) with parks and nature during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. The data analyzed is part of the COVID-19 Coping Study baseline survey collected online between April to May 2020. Prelimi- nary findings indicate that participants purposefully engaged with nature and outdoor spaces in diverse ways. This engagement provided opportunities for exercising and maintaining a routine at a safe physical distance from others, which promoted phys- ical and mental health and well-being. Keywords: therapeutic landscapes; physical well-being; mental well-being; social well-being; older adults; COVID-19 1. Introduction Exposure to nature and residential green and blue spaces have been associated with better physical and mental well-being in later life (1,2). However, there is limited evidence of the role of such settings during the COVID-19 pandemic when public health efforts to contain the virus have included shelter-in-place orders and restrictions of movement. Alt- hough evidence is emerging about the relevance of contact with nature during the COVID-19 pandemic (3), to our knowledge no previous study has conducted an in-depth qualitative analysis to understand how older adults interpret and use nature during this time of collective trauma. The aim of this study is to explore the experiences and percep- tions of older adults regarding the role of nature and the outdoors to support health and well-being during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. We utilize the therapeutic landscapes as a conceptual framework to examine how physical and social characteristics of natural spaces contribute to health and well-being (4,5). 2. Methods Data for analysis was collected as part of the COVID-19 Coping Study, a longitudinal mixed-methods study of US adults aged over 55. Participants were recruited between April and May 2020 using online multi-frame non-probability sampling (n= 6938). A list Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neu- tral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and insti- tutional affiliations. Copyright: © 2020 by the authors. Submitted for possible open access publication under the terms and con- ditions of the Creative Commons At- tribution (CC BY) license (http://crea- tivecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).