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The Miyawaki Method , a unique plan of attack to reforestation devised by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki , is recently seeing a worldwide surge in popularity . Miyawaki - style mini - timber are very biodiverse and make out with a ten thousand of environmental benefits . These midget forests have the potential to cool urban heat islands , establish wildlife corridors , construct soil wellness , sequester carbon , create pollinator habitats , and much more .
In Mini - Forest Revolution , authorHannah Lewisexplores this method acting and apportion the stories of mini - forests that have take shape up across the Earth . Today , she is have intercourse as forest maker turning mineral pitch into ecosystem to save the planet ; and she wants everyone to know they can do it , too .
The following interview with Hannah Lewis , generator ofMini - Forest Revolution , has been adjust for the web .

Author Hannah Lewis. Photo Credit: Studio KP
Featured image courtesy of Dan Grady .
Hannah Lewis : My motivating to write the book and to lead a mini - woodland planting myself were inseparable from each other , and pretty closely to what motivate the others featured in the book to embrace the Miyawaki Method . For me , it has been a positive way to transform heartbreak and concern over our languishing planet , over all the specie being lost , and over all the individuals ache – into action that can slow up those cognitive process down , at least topically . plant a miniskirt - timber is a fashion to express love for this world , and writing the Quran seemed like a good manner to explain how and why . And both projects were a lot of sport !
My end for the Good Book is to advance readers to reconsider our relationship to wildlife by more clearly seeing our interdependence with other species . Did you know that phytoplankton and seaweed in the ocean make most of the oxygen we breathe?And those plankton reckon on sperm heavyweight for their nourishment , which means we calculate whale . So rather than endure matter like noise pollution , plastic contamination , increasing watercraft traffic , and overfishing of the oceans that harm whales and other sea spirit , we should be doing everything potential to make those metal money flourish .
The whales - plankton connection is just one of gazillion of species interactions come about outside the human realm that sustain us . The stage is that while we can probably survive without our cell earphone , cars , or icebox , we can not live too long without the web of relationships that ensue in O production , clean body of water , healthful food , and milder weather patterns . Planting mini - woodland is a path to nurture a incision of the greater web of life story , which in turning support our lives in more way that we can imagine through interdependency to which we are generally blind . I desire the book motivate readers to originate removing our blinker .
HL : A mini - forest is an ecologically robust native forest grove that can be planted by kids and families in schoolyards , churchyards , road verges , commons , and other little place around where we live and put to work . It ’s a landscaping approach whose finish is not only beautification , but also ecosystem regeneration , soften against extreme weather , and reconnecting people to nature , and it ’s catch on across the world .
Torkaman ’s farm mini - forest in 2021 , after nearly five years of growth . Courtesy of Bahram Torkaman .
It ’s a way to get rude , matured forest in a twosome of decennium rather than a couple of centuries . You do this by observing what encounter in nature . When bare ground is left undisturbed for many decade or centuries , plants grow into the space in successive undulation of more and more large , longer - living , and more shade - kind vegetation , each grouping replacing the previous chemical group . This physical process finally result in a static , mature forest in places where the climate is suitable for such . The Miyawaki Method anticipates what would grow in that ultimate woods community and plants those species directly .
In addition to guiding the selection of species – which will include not only large canopy tree but also smaller trees and shrubs , the Miyawaki Method also holler for intensively prepare the soil , planting dumbly , heavily mulching , and actively exert the site for the first 3 years as the wood becomes lay down . By the ending of 3 age , the young trees will have mould a thick enough canopy to shade out weeds and create a micro - climate that protect the Interior Department from atmospheric condition extremes . So , by this time a wood planted this way is self - sufficient , need no sustenance ever again .
hectolitre : The motivations do change according to the local setting . metropolis across the Netherlands are motivated to colligate children to nature . In the Yakama Nation in Washington State , the miniskirt - forest is part of a rehabilitation programme for correctional installation residents , while the Miyawaki Method plant along the Sendai coast in Japan is design as a forest seawall to hold communities against future tsunamis . But if you dig just a trivial deeper , I think the motive is the same everywhere . mass are increasingly dismay by global biodiversity loss and mood breakdown , and the Miyawaki Method offers a valid and accessible way to support nature and wildlife as a polisher against both crises .
The Bulu water catchment area after nineteen month of growth . Courtesy of Agborkang Godfred .
HL : There are two meanings for the word “ gyration ” in this context . The first look up to the fast spread and adoption of the Miyawaki Method over the retiring 5 - 10 years . It ’s appealing to people everywhere as we come to suitcase with the severity of the clime and biodiversity crises , and can see how they are intertwine . The Miyawaki Method strikes many is a meaningful and approachable way to respond locally to both of these global problems .
The other significance of “ revolution ” in reference to the Miyawaki Method is that it offers a all new approach to urban landscaping . rather of planting Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and bush in isolation from one another , often with esthetics as a main retainer , the Miyawaki Method plants Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in intercourse to other metal money and in a way that foster the developing of a native forest community of interests . This creates mutually good fundamental interaction among organisms , submit them more fertile and resistant to stress than they would be alone and fending for themselves . The expressed goal of the Miyawaki Method is ecosystem regeneration , not ornamentation , although an of import outcome is also beautification of an orbit .
HL : The method is applicable anywhere where the principal botany is timberland . The Miyawaki Method was designed in the temperate climate of Japan , and that is where it has the longest track record of success . However , Miyawaki also implant forests in tropical regions , and the method has been successfully tested in Mediterranean climates as well . The key is to reckon out what would be growing on a land site if it had not been cleared for development , and to renovate that . So , for illustration in the Great Plains , where the historical flora is prairie , wooded areas are mainly found along stream and rivers , which is where the Miyawaki Method would be a good fit rather than replacing prairie .
HL : The Miyawaki Method specifically advises us to constitute the climax vegetation for a give site under current mood conditions ( not retiring or future mood ) . We utilise the historical botany as a starting point because the specie that were here a few hundred days ago are still for the most part the in effect convulsion . The end is to grow a running tidy ecosystem now . We need those spaces to provide wildlife refuge now , draw down carbon now , clean the melody now . Furthermore , when we plant aboriginal timberland , we promote the seed ancestry and connectivity , and thus the potential drop for these species to migrate northward on their own .
Miyawaki ’s Yokohama National University forest was at least forty eld old when this picture was take in 2019 . Courtesy of Kazue Fujiwara .
HL : Yes , biotic community engagement is perfectly a core chemical element of the Miyawaki Method . The method lends itself to intergenerational public participation because the plants are little , lightweight , and easy to plant even for a small child . Also , because there are so many plant , it takes a lot of people to get the caper done !
Miyawaki himself organize “ planting fete ” for forest making that very deliberately put community at the center of the unconscious process . These festivals got start up with a call - and - reaction “ naming ceremony ” in which everyone gathered would call out and repeat the names of the master tree coinage they were about to plant – to learn the name and be able to recognise the species . In his fecund writing and speaking , Miyawaki made it exculpated that people are part of nature , that our well-being depends on the wellbeing of ecosystem , and that we have a obligation toward one another to take care of nature . So , naturally , mass should be involved in woods - making .
The fresh group around the world have been drawn to the Miyawaki Method in large part because of its participatory nature . In general , these group have n’t missed a beat in term of integrating the residential area scene into their process .
hectolitre : A wise individual once said : A belittled act is not so small if gazillion of people are doing it !
Recommended Reads
The Magic of Mini - woodland
The Miyawaki Method : Imagining a Mini - Forest ’s Potential
Mini-Forest Revolution
Using the Miyawaki Method to speedily Rewild the World
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