Miyawaki Report - Mar 2022

''Trees are the answer. I don’t care what the question is.''

Dear Miyawaki Cheerleaders,

It has been 2 months since the last newsletter. So much has happened. Here are some of the highlights, with apologies for what i missed and with huge gratitude to all of you who helped in so many ways:

• Earth Literacies joined the growing RSS Miyawaki Working Group and donated 1,000 CAD to get things going . Huge thanks for this huge jump in momentum of fresh energy: Elaine, Liz, Parker and Gertie.

• Tree Canada later granted us 10,000 CAD. Thanks to them and all who helped make this happen, centering on Eugene’s grant negotiating wizardry and the worthiness of the project.

• Earth Day 2022 (April 22) at RSS is being intensely prepared by a lot of fellow cheerleaders and allies. Already 3 full meetings were held at RSS. Watch for a formal announcement coming out soon from the RSS Green Team. Please come

• The (Canadian) Little Forests Community of Practice group has now met twice I already wrote up about the first meeting in the last newsletter. Here is the summary for the second one (see recording here):

  • SRW (Sustainable Waterloo Region) presented: they have already planted 2 Miyawaki-style forests and plan on 20 more in the next 5 years. Each forest has a 5000 CAD budget (lower than ours because they don’t dig 1 meter down). This is broken down to: $2700 for trees $1500 for staff and overhead, $400 for signage, and $400 for supplies, snacks etc. Contact microforestproject@ustainablewaterlooregion.ca

  • Fellow Cheerleaders Sharon and Elaine also spoke brilliantly (long term protection via land covenants and spiritual dimension of these forests)

• GCCS is now putting on monthly workshops on various relevant skills: Winter Cuttings, Transplanting and converting a lawn into a pollinator meadow. A winter cuttings workshop as well as a digging lab (to locate possible obstacles to digging 1 meter deep) was held at RSS with their dynamic Green Team.

• On Earth Day at RSS we’ll be demonstrating how to create the tiny version of the Miyawaki Forest, for which J Peachy and I picked up and delivered 2 loads of river logs and some compost.

• The School Board also setup some large logs and rocks and laid the foundation for the tool shed.

• Donations of seeds, seedlings and saplings continue. Thanks Sabine, Sharon, Nica’s Mom and Yvonne. We are planning a proper nursery at the Birdhouse so we can house 1000’s of plants to be ready for Miyawaki plantings.

• Archives of these Miyawaki Cheerleaders newsletters are now available here. If you are receiving this, it means you are already subscribed. If you wish to unsubscribe, it is now easy to do so (and to re-subscribe later as you wish)

• Sabine (the one who discovered the Miyawaki Method for us in the first place) has recently discovered this very clever method of tracking and loving city trees:

and for those who need a quick summary of the Miyawaki Method, see the graphic below and also this 3 min video

SuGi just put out this excellent graphical summary of Miyawaki Forests