Miyawaki Forest

The method of creating a fast-growing biodiverse forest of densely-planted native trees and shrubs was pioneered by a Japanese botany professor, Akira Miyawaki in the 1970s. He developed it to heal degraded land around factories, to connect the workers and their bosses to the beauty of nature. Planting day was a festival when everyone in the corporation dug holes and put the trees they’d grown from seeds into the ground.

Many of these companies were multinational. Dr. Miyawaki organized a planting day at a Toyota factory in Bangalore, India. Subhendu Sharma was an engineer there, and was so taken with the idea that he left the factory and became a forest engineer. His company, called Afforestt, spread the Miyawaki method around India and all the way to Europe.

A few years ago, the ecologist, Dr. Hannah Lewis, wrote Mini-Forest Revolution and these tiny forests began to pop up across the USA. The Soil Factory forest is a demo of the technique. A pocket-forest can do the most good in an urban setting by creating an island of cooling, a connection to nature, and providing native habitat. What if every elementary school had a mini-forest! To learn more contact, Marian Glenn.

Trees Up Tompkins took the lead in the design and planting of the Miyawaki Forest in a recently abandoned corn field. They decided to try out 4 different soil treatments. Daniel Meyer designed the placement of trees and shrubs so that each of the 4 sections had a matched set of the 22 native species. Dimensions are shown in meters.

Measuring and Marking the Site
Volunteers use measuring tape to mark the dimensions of the future mini forest. The area was then covered with a black plastic tarp through the winter and spring.

In the fall, the tarp was rolled back and a protractor was placed in the center of the circle so the placement of the gate and 12 fence posts could be marked along the circumference.

The gate and fence posts were installed proir to the planting date, to make it easier for the crowd of volunteers to walk in and out of the future forest to fetch and plant the saplings on planting day.

Planning the Layout
With the fence posts installed, and the outline of the fence marked with cardboard, flags labelled with the 22 species to be planted, were placed according to the planting design.

Guiding the Volunteers
The planting area is divided into 4 sectors marked with blue tape.
Volunteers chose a sector and coaches explained the planting method for that team.

A Family Affair
Children join the effort, lending a hand to plant sapling trees.

Hands in the Soil
Coaches guided volunteers on the planting method. Each team applies a different soil amendment in their section of the circle: compost from the town of Ithaca, compost+biochar, shown here, compost+biochar+living inoculum, and one sector with no amendment.

Coordinated Planting and Watering
Volunteers work together, planting the designated species and carefully watering them with untreated well water.

With 288 trees and shrubs snugly planted, the 8 foot deer fence was rolled out around the posts, and a roll of 4 foot chicken wire was unrolled and folded in half and fitted around the bottom to prevent underground entry. The fence was stabilized with 2 wires drawn through T-post insulators. One wire was attached near the top of each post and the other near the bottom. We found that 16 gauge aluminum electric fence wire worked well to be tighteneed with a line tightener.

To prepare for its first winter, the entire site was mulched with cardboard and wood chips.

The Soil Factory

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