You can make a difference to the hurt being caused by climate chaos and the great extinction event in your town or your city! How? Reuse, repurpose, and recycle this information. You can push your local politicians to act. It will make a difference!
This is the letter for week 142 of a weekly climate strike that went on for 4 years in front of San Francisco City Hall, beginning early March 2019. For more context, see this story. For an annotated table of contents of the topics for all the strike letters, see this story. Meanwhile…
STRIKE FOR THE PLANET
Wanna make significant progress on 6 problems in 1 action?
Try this week’s topic: Tiny Forests
What problems are we talking about?
- water
- carbon sequestration
- the urban heat island effect
- social justice and equity
- habitat loss
- and air, light, and noise pollution
In one action? One? So it’s expensive, right.
Nope. It’s dirt cheap. It’s tiny forests.
Uh, what are “tiny forests”?
They are not bonsai. They are not monocrop tree plantations. They are not difficult or expensive, and require far less effort and time than building a road.
Tiny forests, developed by Akira Miyawaki and being spread all over the planet by Shubhendu Sharma, are tennis-court sized, native, quick growing forest habitats. How quick? In 10 years, you can grow a forest that has 600 trees in a self-sustaining ecosystem, evolved for the region, and with the benefits of a 100-year old forest. These benefits include significant water absorption and groundwater replenishment, sizable carbon sequestration, substantial reduction in the urban heat island effect in the surrounding area, measurable health benefits especially for neighborhoods low in tree cover, critical habitat for endangered species, reduction of light pollution, muffling of urban noise, and scrubbing of fine particulates from the air in exactly the places where this is most needed.
How do tiny forests work?
Native tree species are identified and seeds or seedlings are obtained. The site for the forest is prepared by loosening compacted soil and enriching it with organic matter (straw, peanut shells, coir, etc.) to allow better water retention, ease root penetration, and provide nutrition. Native tree seedlings are then densely planted with 4 layers of final height being the goal: shrub, sub-tree, tree, and canopy. Add a thick mulch layer. Water and weed until the trees are tall enough to block light from getting to the forest floor, when there’s humus forming. This will happen within 3 years.
How much does all of this cost? Roughly $3500 per forest. More importantly, these forests encourage community involvement and ownership and help build community resiliency.
This is Week 141 of my strike
In the last 2+ years, a lot has changed. The weather has veered sharply toward endless heat and drought, I’ve gone from in person to virtual to in person to currently virtual again (I’m not sure you can appreciate how bad the omicron surge is unless you’re working in a hospital or a school), and in that time every single environmental indicator has gotten much much worse. What hasn’t changed nearly enough is SF’s response to the crisis. Isn’t it time you start changing, too, while you still can? Plant some forests in SF.
Dear Editor
What single cheap, fast, and easy action can SF do to conserve water, sequester carbon, lower the urban heat island effect, enhance social justice and equity, reverse habitat losses, and reduce air, light, and noise pollution? We can stud the city with tiny forests! Tiny forests are native, quick-growing woods — 600 seedlings planted on land the size of a tennis court. Working with nature, not against it, means these forests mature quickly. Tiny forests can now be found in cities all over the world: next to high rises, in backyards, by train tracks, in former parking lots. They are planted by school children and communities and cared for by neighbors. Because of redlining, SF suffers from massive inequalities in our urban forest. Tiny forests can eliminate this tree gap while doing so much more besides. Look up Miyawaki and Sharma for more details and plant your own forest.
FOOTNOTES
1. Afforest. Accessed 11 January 2022. https://www.afforestt.com.
2. Elizabeth Hewitt. “Why ‘tiny forests’ are popping up in big cities”. National Geographic. 22 June 2021. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/why-tiny-forests-are-popping-up-in-big-cities.