Mini Forests are a Great Habitat Refuge
Mini Forests have been gaining traction around the world and now Eastside Audubon is working to embrace this idea. Mini Forests have it roots in Japan by a botanist and plant ecologist Akira Miyawaki. The idea is to create an urban area as small as a basketball court or a parking lot with densely enriched soil, adding native trees and supplemental plantings. With enriched soil, plantings grow at a rapid rate and can quickly create a canopy teeming with life. Birds need ecosystems to thrive, and these small urban forests offer a quick (relatively speaking) forest. It’s like the saying, if you build it, they will come…these Mini Forests attract insects, critters, birds and additionally offer a heat mitigator to concrete surfaces.
EAS is partnering with Bellevue’s 300Trees organization at Sammamish High School in a quasi-Mini Forest. 300Trees has been engaged with the high school’s Green Team and instructors to plant numerous native trees on unused school property. It’s a three-year commitment that requires ongoing maintenance like summer watering and composting. We are working on the next phase of adding plants and bushes to support a healthy ecosystem. Now EAS wants to replicate this program with 300Trees (and potentially other organizations) at other sites/school and or cities and work to take unused pockets of land and create a woodland. EAS will likely take on one project in the coming year as we are super excited to support this small revolution. To see the planted areas at Sammamish High School, please check out this link.
To learn more about Mini Forests please go online as there are a multitude of articles under Mini Forest and Mini Forest Revolution. If you want to help either by volunteering or donating, please reach out to Jeremy Lucas at president@eastsideaudubon.org.