What if there’s more to it than the treasure?
Thousands of people are now out there, following clues across landscapes, returning to the same places, learning to slow down and pay attention in ways they normally wouldn’t. What starts as a search for something hidden often turns into something else entirely — a different way of seeing a place, of moving through it, of becoming attached to it.
This project starts from a simple idea: that treasure hunts might be doing more than we think.
The project
I’m currently leading a research study to better understand how treasure hunts shape our relationship with the land and the natural world. These experiences draw thousands of people outdoors, often into wild places, putting them boots on the ground, returning to the same sites, learning to read the landscape in ways that go far beyond a typical outing. Yet they remain almost entirely absent from scientific research. In other words, we talk about them a lot… but we’ve never really measured what they do.
The goal is to move beyond assumptions and document, in a rigorous way, what’s actually happening. Do these experiences change how people observe a place, return to it, and build a connection with it — perhaps moving toward what Aldo Leopold once described as a more “intimate” relationship with the land, even a growing sense of responsibility toward it? Or is their impact more limited than we think?
This project is grounded in a rigorous scientific framework, reviewed by a university ethics board, and conducted independently of any specific treasure hunts or their creators. It is designed to document real experiences in a way that is methodologically sound, transparent, and free from external influence.
Participation is entirely voluntary and open to individuals involved in treasure hunts, both seekers and creators. The study does not collect any information that could compromise active hunts or reveal sensitive details. No clues, locations, or identifying elements are requested, and all responses are handled confidentially, with data analyzed in aggregate form only.
The focus is on experience — what happens over time, on the ground, as people return to places, pay closer attention, and build a relationship with them.
In conservation, we’ve long tried to understand what creates a meaningful connection between people and nature. Treasure hunts may offer an unexpected pathway — one grounded in attention, persistence, and repeated encounters with place — but one that has remained largely unexplored.
This project aims to change that, with solid data — and with the help of the people who have lived it.
Want to be part of it?
Leave your contact details and I’ll let you know
when the study opens this spring.
This research project is registered on the Open Science Framework (OSF), and the full protocol will be made publicly available once ethical approval has been granted.