The Garden City Conservation Society has officially created a Miyawaki subcommittee and put me in charge
As you probably now know, Sabine's article on Miyawaki appeared in the Richmond News this weekend and garnered a surprisingly enthusiastic response from the Nanaimo mayor and some of his councillors
The two of you are the pioneers in Richmond who have shown interest in Miyawaki, so I would like you to be the first ones to be informally part of this subcommittee (no time nor money commitment involved, see below)
What I would like to do is send you regular reports every fortnight in order to motivate me to move forward (instead of being a perfectionist procrastinator). You do not need to commit to anything and there are no expectations...
all I ask is that you read and occasionally comment when you feel inspired.
I welcome and collect ideas , suggestions, etc .... and here is my current agenda:
establish an authoritative list of 100 native plant species spread out evenly among trees, shrubs, ground cover/vines, perennials/annuals that are appropriate for increasing biodiversity in Richmond; From that list, pick the first 30 easiest to propagate and/or cheapest to acquire from nurseries and get volunteers to donate space for growing seedlings while we wait for the first Miyawaki pocket forest to be officially designated (all data posted on https://airtable.com/tblRjh66o6wAhclte/viwRtH9YUnIzCVfsB
establish an authoritative list of sources of inexpensive or free organic material incl transportation so that we not fumble on the first step of preparing the ground for the first Miyawaki Pocket Forest
collect potential Pocket Forest sites (publicly owned, privately owned, school yards etc) in Richmond, ranked by likelihood of follow-through which includes establishing who is taking ownership of "follow-through" all the way to 3 years of watering
choose statistical indicators to measure regularly (for example: change in IBP (Index of Biodiversity Potential) of each site (before and regularly thereafter)
it seems to me that the order of the agenda matters: what is the point of acquiring land if we have no or insufficient number and variety of seedlings, and not enough organic matter).
Thank you
bottom line: if you enjoyed this first report, and dont mind getting these every fortnight, please let me know...otherwise I will assume you are too busy to get yet another newsletter
Bruno
I live on the ancestral, traditional, and unceded territory of the people belonging to the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ ) language group