Many studies have assessed the impact of broad-leaved trees in the vegetative season on humans’ restoration. But it still remains unknown if this positive effect will also be observable in broad-leaved forest during winter, when trees maintain no leaves. To test the hypothesis that broad-leaved trees also produce psychological restoration during winter (in comparison to spring), we designed an experiment, in which the same participants viewed the forest environment during these two seasons, while urban setting was used as a control environment. The participants filled in four psychological questionnaires, which measured different psychological conditions. The results confirmed the hypothesis that broad-leaved trees had the restorative effect in winter, and it was even greater than in spring time. These results suggest that the living woody plants in their natural environment produce a positive, psychological effect on humans, hence visiting broad-leaved forest also during winter can be recommended as a method for stress reduction.

Keywords: environment, forest bathing, seasons, stress reduction, woodland