Miyawaki Forest/Bush Classroom project

 
Pocket forests are popping up around the country in spaces as small as a car parking spot, a tennis court or a street verge. Ecologist Dr Grey Coupland from the Harry Perkins Institute at Murdoch University sees huge potential in the rise of 'tiny forests' and is championing their development in Perth. The pocket forests are grown using the Miyawaki method, created by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki in the 1970s.
 
The Miyawaki Method is an approach for creating hyper-dense patches of native vegetation on small plots of land. The method uses a four-step technique of botanical research, soil enhancement via added nutrients, planting of dense clusters of seeds, and maintenance. Proponents of the method claim that it grows up to 10 times faster than traditional plant growth and that planted areas are self-sustaining after 2-3 years. 
On Thursday 2 October, members of various Rotary clubs interested in establishing Miyawaki Forests/Bush classrooms around the state, met with Dr Coupland, representatives from Town of Vincent and Statewide Services at the bush classroom planted in Padbury in 2022. It was amazing to see the difference in growth in the area planted using the Miyawaki method and the control group.
 
Here's the notes compiled after the meeting by our joint community group leader, Cat Ferrie.
 
"Fabulous meeting with Gray, Ian and the people from Statewide Services in Padbury. We had a round circle learning how the preparation, planting and caring can be so beneficial for children. There is curriculum already developed which can be duplicated in any school environment. Grey's comment was it is easier and quicker for a school principal to approve a mini forest than a city council. We shared how Rotary across the state could be a way to accelerate this program and Rotarians are people of action. We walked through the mini forest with over 15 varieties of plants. In 3 years, the forest is tall and dense and when compared to the control plants which were planted nearby the growth is impressive.
 
Next steps 
1. Send out Ian's dates for meetings everyone can attend which will be held at Floreat Athena. These meetings are informative and run by the community group Transition Town of Vincent. 
2. Arrange a date for the viewing of the film Grey as the rights to show - Making a Mini Forest - I can highly recommend this film as it captured my imagination and sparked this action group. Grey has asked for a Monday evening viewing and Ian has said we can use the Floreat Athena facilities which would be ideal. We would open this to all clubs in S2S and the community. Date to be advised - possibly November. 
3. John will continue to speak with SCGH and see if we can use the grounds near the cocky troughs already installed. Thank you, John.
4. Set up a nucleus committee group and arrange a workshop/ discussion/planning meeting with agenda including short term and long term objectives. It seems Thursday evenings are good at the moment so I will propose we meet on 16th October at 4pm. Venue TBA. Thumbs up please for date. 
5. Once we have a nucleus, we will either start another WhatsApp group or add to this group. 
6. I would like to encourage everyone to enthuse other members and clubs and let's bring as many people on at ground level literally in a respect of this project. I am so excited at all the possibilities of where this will take us in building strong links to community, schools, our environment and this can mean whatever and wherever we want to take and shape this. 
Thank you everyone. I can't wait to see our first forest in reality and eventually lots of Rotary signs everywhere as well as satellite clubs developing with passionate community members we engage along the way."
🌲🌳🍃🌿🌱🪳🕷🦟🐛🦋🐝
 
This sounds like a life-changing project for our club to be involved in and we'll be talking more to club members to encourage our on-going commitment.
 
Read more about the Miyawaki method by clicking here