Have You Heard of Micro Forests?
Saving Urban Landscapes
I recently listened to this podcast episode on how micro forests will be a key component in saving the urban landscape. This is Akira Miyawaki’s afforestation method, reintroducing and integrating forests in our daily lives as they should be. I think we’d all breath better. Regulate better. Beautify the towns we call home.
A micro forest is a tiny forest planted with the goal of improving biodiversity and fighting climate change, especially amid expanding urban areas and industrial hubs. - Today Show
There is a world of squirrels, acacias, ants, mushrooms, deer that need more spaciousness as we’ve forced them to be refugees of a land they once thrived in. With no where to go, they try to reimagine way of life, a new home in our walled houses and manicured gardens. It’s a tough life. One I cannot imagine does any of us any good.
As capitalism still conquers our streets with corporate parks and lavish neighborhoods, the roots of the sycamore tests the pavement and the crows reign the traffic lights.
At my friend’s home, there’s an open atrium for a rubber tree expanding towards the ceiling. In the middle of a home near the sea, is an open quarter for weeds and flowers to grow untamed.
Will there be a happy medium? A co-existence available? Can we claim the open meadows and woods as our community gardens?
Extend our vegetation for the rabbits as much as our hands. Run through a field of desert dandelions with the horses. Fall asleep to nocturnal vibrations when the air is clear.
These little diverse forests are a start to something I’ve been longing forever.
Photo by Pascal Bullan on Unsplash
Urban Nature
In Los Angeles, they experiment with a pocket of native tree species in hopes to bring a richer existence of wildlife, reconnecting animals and plants that are dying out to re-emerge.
There is a popular micro forest in Ascot Hills, Los Angeles where researchers enjoy making observations with the intention of learning ways to balance the climate. Griffith Park is also home to the Bette Davis micro forest maintaining it’s bushy-tailed and pawed residents with the working hands of LMU students and faculty. If you live in LA county, it is a wonderful place to volunteer.
Benefits
Grow 10 times faster and 30 times denser than traditional afforestation methods
Enhance biodiversity 20 times the levels of traditional forests
Improve air quality
Lower temperature in urban areas naturally
Reduce stormwater runoff and decrease of natural disaster
Increase carbon sequestration
Provide opportunities for youth in an urban setting to learn about forests
Photo by Divya Shankar on Unsplash
In Orange County, a place I would sometimes picnic at with my coworkers was Redwood Grove inside Carbon Canyon Regional Park. These beautiful baby sequoias are well-kept in the serene haven of this park.
Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park is a woodland I often come to with my hiking squad to marvel in the lush greenery and running streams that surround this hidden gem in Laguna Niguel. It is home to many, many mule deer that I have had the pleasure of observe. The birds are alive and brushing their tails in the bushes. I often look up to the sky and witness great California condors.
If you want to travel more inland, there is the Santiago Oaks Regional Park (Orange) where I’ve hiked at night to hear a family of coyotes howl and whine away as Mars twinkled bright that night. And there are sooooo many woodpeckers doing there thing.
I also love the many other nature preserves and wetlands along our California coastline, neighborhood habitats like Buck Gully hosting many fungal species and bobcats.
Positioned by my old stomping grounds at CalState Fullerton, is the Arboretum I used to work with in graduate school where they have kept a fully biomes of desert, mediterranean, rainforest, woody coniferous and deciduous leaves flourishing. This land is sanctuary to pond turtles and frogs, dragonflies and monarchs, fishy tails, chipmunks and beavers. I love LOVE this place. Every time I visit it’s got this whimsy that will never escape me. It feels endless.
The word is out!
It is my goal that at least one of you reading this will be uplifted to volunteer, escape to the urban woods or tell someone you know of these treasures slowly appearing in our cities. Maybe you want to start your own micro forest. In that case may some of these links below guide you in sustaining the wildlife that has always been our friend. They’ve always been in dialogue with us. Now we can answer their call and regrow our home together.
Resources
https://www.lamicroforests.com/
https://www.theunderline.org/the-underline-microforests/
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/07/nx-s1-5625056/forest-nature-climate-change-los-angeles
https://earth.org/microforests/
