Miyawaki Forest

Miyawaki Timeline

Akira Miyawaki 1928 – 2021 (afforestt.com)

In June 2020, Sabine Eiche, one of our Garden City Conservation Society directors, read an article in The Guardian by Hannah Lewis – “Fast growing mini-forests spring up in Europe to aid climate.”

Intrigued and impressed, she shared this discussion of the Miyawaki method with the other members of the Society’s board. Their enthusiasm was immediate. In February 2021, Sabine wrote one of her own columns for the Richmond News on the subject – “The Miyawaki Miracle.” Not long after that Sharon MacGougan, our Society’s president, had a chance encounter with artist Jay Peachy, which led to a conversation about the Society’s interest in the Miyawaki forest as a way to restore biodiversity to Richmond. Jay was working with Richmond Senior Secondary at the time and shared our Miyawaki concept with the school’s staff, who embraced the idea. Meetings ensued, and in April 2022, Bruno Vernier, another of our Society’s directors, turned the first spadeful of earth in the school yard of Richmond Senior Secondary (RSS).

GCCS Director Nica Derakhshannia shovelling at RSS Miyawaki Forest excavation.

MIYAWAKI MINI FOREST IN RICHMOND TIMELINE

 

2014 – Shubendu Sharma, TED talk, Vancouver, The Miyawaki method

2023 – The Miyawaki Method – Trees Outside Woodland