OICR TINY FOREST INITIATIVE
Tiny Forests owe their origin to a single act of close observation and spiritual intelligence made by the late Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki (1928-2021), who, as a young man, was perhaps the first to take special note of the groves surrounding the shrines, temples, and cemeteries of his native country from a horticultural perspective. The Chinju-no-mori, or “forests where the gods dwell,” not unlike the Sacred Copses of ancient Europe, were untouchable (the most basic meaning of “sacred”), with divine retribution promised all those who harmed them in any way. As Miyawaki later determined, they were the last relicts of the great ancient forests of Japan, which by the sixties, amounted to less than one percent of the country’s forests, all the rest, over 99%, having been wiped from the face of the Earth. This careful reckoning on the part of Miyawaki resulted in the seed banks he later established to preserve the horticultural-genetic heritage of Japan as well as what are known today as Tiny Forests.
Tiny Forest @ Franciscan Montessori Earth School
A Brief History of the Initiative--Why We Started Planting Tiny Forests
Image credit: https://ideas.ted.com/how-to-grow-your-own-tiny-forest/ (This field went from dirt to dense forest in just two years)
Looking back, the summer of 2021 marked a critical and irreversible turning point when no one could continue to deny that the world was in dire danger. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, 104 fires raged across 2,557,537 acres in 12 states, the fiercest of which occurred in the West, where temperatures in some parts soared to 130 degrees. Even the usually mild and temperate Pacific Northwest was not immune. Hundreds of people died. Roads buckled. Fledglings leapt out of their nests. A billion marine animals, many of them shellfish, boiled alive on the Canadian coast. The fires became so severe that they created their own weather patterns as smoke spread toxic chemicals from computers, carburetors, batteries, and plastics as far as New England. In one widely-reported event, the small town of Lytton, Canada, caught fire, creating a pyro-cumulonimbus cloud that moved at 95 miles per hour, so swift and so hot that within 15 minutes, the village was erased from the face of the earth. In the state of Washington, wildlife managers began trying to capture Sockeye Salmon at a dam in the Lower Granite River, trucking some to hatcheries to be artificially spawned and others to Redfish Lake in central Idaho, where the waters were slightly cooler, if growing ever warmer. Fires smoldered in the Arctic, while in Europe, China, and the U.S., floods swept away houses, cars, and people. In Greenland, glaciers dissipated, producing enough melt to cover the entirety of the state of Florida in five inches of water.
A Miyawaki Forest in Danehy Park, near Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.Credit...Cassandra Klos for The New York Times
The threat of imminent catastrophe was confirmed by the 2021 report of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, receiving further corroboration the following year with the release of the Sixth Assessment Report, based on the work of researchers from 67 countries around the world and approved by 195 member governments of the IPCC, which warned that the window for making the necessary changes for a “liveable future,” in the words of Hans-Otto Pörtner, Co-Chair of the IPCC’s Working Group II, was rapidly closing. The psychological consequences of a situation so dire, especially amongst young people, have increasingly made themselves known in the form of depression and suicide as well as new psychological maladies with names like “climate grief,” “climate anxiety,” and “eco-grief.”
Thus, it is with great and ever-increasing urgency that OICR has added a new dimension to its Living Forest Initiative, inspired by a growing worldwide movement based on an understanding of the forest reminiscent of the ancient concept of the Sacred Copse.
Brainchild of the wise and remarkable Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, who passed away in July 2021, Tiny Forests are small, low-lying, indigenous forests created through a highly specific methodology of soil preparation and extremely dense planting. After long years of helplessly witnessing the degradation of the Amazon and the world’s last great forests, increasingly subjected to massive logging, experimentation, and disastrous management practices entailing the use of herbicides and other poisons, we can now envision a new way forward, right where we happen to be, one tiny forest at a time, one tree at a time. Many Tiny Forests are, notably, no larger than tennis courts. Remarkably, some are smaller still. Most impressive of all, it takes but nine months to begin to turn heat traps like parking lots and abandoned strip malls into living, breathing forests, which can be established throughout towns and cities, thereby reducing not only atmospheric carbon dioxide levels but also the significant possibility of flooding, given the fact that “heat traps” and “heat islands” are characterized primarily by impervious, abiotic surfaces. Notably, Tiny Forests can also be established in rural areas dominated by monoculture systems and factory farming—places where, increasingly, no birds sing; places, indeed, where hardly a single living organism can be found.
Image credit: IVN NATUUREDUCATIE/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
In research carried out by Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, one of the countries where the Tiny Forest movement is strongest, researchers observed 934 plant and animal species in ten of the country's Tiny Forests. All of the forests are a mere 200-250 square meters in size yet enable the collection of roughly 6 million liters of rainwater annually while also capturing an average of 281 pounds of CO2 per year, a number expected to increase for 50 years after planting. One of the most remarkable aspects of Tiny Forests is the fact that they point to, and, indeed, embody, the spirit of a true movement in which anyone and everyone can take part, a movement expected to grow exponentially around the globe, given that its means, methods, and goals are practical, concrete, and 100% positive, with results visible at a single glance.
Tiny Forests thus offer a powerful, tangible antidote to the intense dread, despair, and sense of impending doom felt strongly, and with special intensity, by children and youth across the world who understand fully the dangerous and highly uncertain environmental future they have inherited. Accordingly, the Institute is establishing its first Tiny Forests on school grounds, with the forests serving as outdoor classrooms. Under the care and direction of OICR’s Youth Forest Coordinator, young people will help create the forests as well as maintain them for the first couple of years until they are fully established.
In tandem with this work, OICR will continue to carry out research and produce documentation on our last living (primary) forests, including the Elliott, actively participate in governmental and other meetings concerning forests on a regular basis, advance an array of Public Awareness Campaigns, and develop liaisons with a wide variety of organizations, national and international, that devote themselves to the Earth and its restoration. Together, we will work to establish some of the first Tiny Forests on the West Coast and, indeed, in the Americas as models for more to come and as testaments to rethinking possibilities for swift, long-lasting transformation, thereby helping to reverse the conclusion of the UN-backed IPCC Report that we have but twenty years before it is too late to head off a possibly irreversible environmental catastrophe.
Notes
* Svetlana Vujovic, Bechara Haddad, Hamzé Karaky, Nassim Sebaibi, and Mohamed Boutouil, “Urban Heat Island: Causes, Consequences, and Mitigation Measures with Emphasis on Reflective and Permeable Pavements,” CivilEng, Volume 2, Issue 2 (2021). See also Kerrin Jeromin, “These cities have the most stifling heat islands in the United States,” Washington Post, July 15, 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/07/15/heat-island-rankings-climate-central/.
** According to a study carried out by the journal Science in 2019, the first comprehensive assessment of net population changes in avifauna, nearly 3 billion birds have disappeared from North America since 1970. Forests alone have lost 1 billion birds.
Research / Resources
OICR RESEARCH ON TINY FORESTS
OTHER Resources
Videos
REFERENCES
Elizabeth Hewitt, “Why ‘Tiny Forests’ Are Popping up in Big Cities” (Community forests the size of a basketball court can make an outsized difference, providing shade, attracting plants and animals, and even storing a bit of carbon), National Geographic, June 22, 2021, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/why-tiny-forests-are-popping-up-in-big-cities
Clara Manuel (for Urban Forests), “The Miyawaki Method—Data & Concepts,” Urban Forests, 2020, http://urban-forests.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Urban-Forests-report-The-Miyawaki-method-%E2%80%93-Data-concepts.pdf
The Urban Forests’ website contains a trove of information
Wageningen University and Research, “Tiny forest Zaanstad: Citizen scientist and determining biodiversity in tiny forest zaanstad,” https://edepot.wur.nl/446911
IVN Natuureducatie. Maarten Bruns, Daan Bleichrodt, Essi Laine, Karin van Toor, Wim Dieho, Louwra Postma, and Marten de Groot (PEFC), “Handbook, Tiny Forest Planting Method,” https://www.ivn.nl/tinyforest/tiny-forest-worldwide/resources-and-downloads
IVN Natuureducatie, “A Little Bit of Nature, a Big Influence,” https://www.ivn.nl/tinyforest/tiny-forest-worldwide/resources-and-downloads
Design-Essentialz, “Miyawaki Method of Plantation I Afforestation I Akira Miyawaki I Man Made Forest I urban forest,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5jtg2q1gnU&t=1s
Shubhendu Sharma, “How to Plant a Tiny Forest near You” https://www.ted.com/talks/shubhendu_sharma_how_to_plant_a_tiny_forest_near_you?language=en
Shubhendu Sharma, “An Engineer’s Vision for Tiny Forests Everywhere” https://www.ted.com/talks/shubhendu_sharma_an_engineer_s_vision_for_tiny_forests_everywhere?language=en
IVN Natuureducatie, “Tiny Forest Documentary about the Effects of the Miyawaki Method in the Netherlands,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyHVQtDtlMk
Dialynn Dwyer, “The first Miyawaki forest in the Northeast was planted in Cambridge. Organizers hope it’s just the start,” https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/10/20/miyawaki-forest-danehy-park-cambridge/
USA TODAY, “First Miyawaki Forest planted in the Northeast in Massachusetts” https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/weather/2021/11/02/first-miyawaki-forest-planted-northeast-massachusetts/6242473001/
Mirrornownews, “Forests grow 10x faster and 30x denser: What is the "Miyawaki method" that is restoring native forests and greening urban Mumbai?,” https://www.timesnownews.com/mirror-now/in-focus/article/forests-grow-10x-faster-and-30x-denser-what-is-the-miyawaki-method-that-is-restoring-native-forests-and-greening-urban-mumbai/830228
Azeem Samar, “Karachi municipality to grow 300 Miyawaki forests” https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/karachi-municipality-to-grow-300-miyawaki-forests-1.83524816
DeccanChronicle, “TUDA plans more Miyawaki forests in Tirupati rural” https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/131021/tuda-plans-more-miyawaki-forests-in-tirupati-rural.html
Wire, “Miyawaki-style mini forest to be planted in Nottingham city park” https://westbridgfordwire.com/miyawaki-style-mini-forest-to-be-planted-in-nottingham-city-park/
Manisha Lal Arora and Ramesh Sable, “Mumbai suburbs get ‘urban forest’ with Miyawaki method,” https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/toi-original/mumbai-suburbs-get-urban-forest-with-miyawaki-method/videoshow/87568047.cms
Himanshu Nitnaware, “26-YO Creates 8 Miyawaki Forests on Dry Land, Helps 1200 Farmers Boost Their Income,” https://www.thebetterindia.com/263797/rajasthan-miyawaki-forest-how-to-grow-dry-land-farmer-increase-income/
To Save the World, “80 Miyawaki Forest,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfPw5VTNZr4
Frome Town Council, “Tiny Forests—Presentation and Q&A,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVWUBCRYad0
Aldo Leopold, “Thinking Like a Mountain” (A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There), https://www.ecotoneinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/aldo-leopold-tlam.pdf
Craig Holdrege, “Where Does an Animal End? The American Bison,” Seeing the Animal Whole—And Why It Matters, https://www.natureinstitute.org/in-context-45/craig-holdrege/american-bison
Earthwatch, “Tiny Forest,” https://earthwatch.org.uk/program/tiny-forest/
Earthwatch, “Tiny Forest,” https://youtu.be/lqnhcBTdjRQ?si=3I96MpEiLybkL9LO
World Economic Forum, “These Tiny Urban Forests Could Be A Secret Weapon Against Climate Change,” https://www.weforum.org/videos/these-tiny-urban-forests-could-be-a-secret-weapon-against-climate-change/
UK Wildcrafts, “Tiny Forests - Nature in Urban Spaces,” https://youtu.be/53Uo4IE-VBI?si=pmL2c1cmVYKg5pf4
BBC World Service, “The Tiny Urban Forests Bringing Nature to the Heart of the City,” https://youtu.be/y9c_Zlmqcgw?si=Gd1yvdHfh_bLPdXK
Earthwatch Education, “Tiny Forest,” https://edu.earthwatch.org.uk/tinyforest
Earthwatch Europe, “MINI Tiny Forest,” https://youtu.be/kofKhS4UI2M?si=ON64E8Ecxlikmq0F
Inverse, “Planting trees isn’t enough. Here’s why we need tiny man-made forests,” https://www.inverse.com/science/mini-forests
IVN Natuureducatie, “Tiny Forest documentary about the effects of the Miyawaki method in the Netherlands,” https://youtu.be/LyHVQtDtlMk?si=0q8ER4A6ZNatUBLZ
Crowdforesting, https://www.crowdforesting.org/miyawaki-model
Akira Miyawaki and Elgene O. Box, The Healing Power of Forests: The Philosophy behind Restoring Earth's Balance with Native Trees (out of print). Tokyo: Kosei Publishing Company, September 15, 2007
For further readings on trees and forests, see OICR “Readings for Now” Seminar [#7]: “What Would a Bird Be without a Tree, a Tree without a Bird? & the Involuntary Whispering of the Trees” and “Readings for Now” Seminar [#8]: “Why a Forest Should Never Be a Laboratory (With a special note to Colleges of Forestry: Please stop trying to turn forests into laboratories)”