I planted a native forest in my urban yard and alley 7 years ago. 5,000 sq. ft. with over 400 plants and 75 native species. I covered the cut lawn with 4-5" of medium/large bark and removed all non natives. NO soil prep. Dig holes, add a little topsoil and plant natives. I have 24 Alaska cedars, 8 Shore pines, 2 Douglas firs, 2 Red cedars, 8 vine maples, 7 Douglas maples, red flowering currant, serviceberry, evergreen huckleberry, native blackberry, tall, short and creeping Oregon grape and many more shrubs and lower level plants. Tons of habitat and food for songbirds. The forest is thick and tall. Air is cooler (12-15 degrees F.) and moister in summer. Local cats will come to kill native songbirds. I drive cats off with Broox ultrasonic ground level defenders (I am using 4 of them). And Havahart trap and release after a few hours. No hurt cats. I water during hot summer periods as the forest is still young. Shade is finally showing up on this little forest in Mount Vernon, WA USA. You can do this in your yard. Avoid big tree planting over water lines. Thanks.
A very interesting video showing the benefits of this method and it is nice to listen to such well-informed interviewees explaining their underlying goals.
We have mismanaged the Once Beautiful and Bountyful Planet and its Time for All Nations to Restore all Vital Natural Ecosystems. Its so pleasing to see people to be genuinely concerened about restoring Mother Nature.😊
We got a team dedicated for Miyawaki forestation here in India. Key to a successful afforestation is to grow only trees endemic to the respective land. Miyawaki method really really is extremely satisfying with amazing results.
I remember reading about the Miyawaki method as a sidebar about potential reforestation techniques in the 2016 Project Drawdown book, it was such a small passage but really seemed like it had a lot of potential. Amazing to see this continue to be tested and the potential it shows!
Sure, Nick, I also read about Akira Miyawaki and his life story and potential reforestation method and am very happy to find this test sites in England.🎉
I have tried this method for a small shelter belt of trees in NE Scotland. We get hammered by the wind and every tree and shrub has been staked. All 200 of them.
It would be quite interesting to see how some form of checkerboard planting of a Miyawaki Forest would do in a larger area. How would the planted areas spread to the unplanted ones? It is, also, good to see that those doing the planting here have used some of the rarer, less-common and more-historic trees, as well.
Hi Chet, I am planning to establish a larger area of native tree to the high tropical plains and certainly hope to register a great increase in bird populations a diversity. Will do it starting mid 2025,
@@sumik8 I think I've seen a few videos (really on the rural side, not close to the city) where they had to put up fences to fight against deer eating the small plants. After a few years they were able to take back the fence once the trees had grown high enough. Keep in mind those videos were about reforestation on a bigger scale, not small ones like here and not with the Miyawaki method either.
What is the difference in cost to establish a traditional forest and a Miyawaki forest? And the difference in maintenance costs (including replacing vandalised plants)
I abandoned a 17,000 tree project due to vandalism, it was so soul destroying seeing established trees vandalised and cut down, I sold out to developers
Don’t give up. Everything adds experience and skills. Do it again, this time you can predict and avoid more potential downfalls. When you have that game perfect - you will compensate for all previous losses, especially emotional. Everything is a blessing.
I started this year in my local area and every tree has had branches ripped, plucked out of site for no reason, hitting with a ball... I always put another tree and some have been resilient but with all honesty is very tiring and if I don't see anything growing the next spring season I'm abandoning the area, I really get where you come from.
Wish whatever links people together did a better job, I believe I'd have helped you; I'm glad to know you got paid though, but in retrospect I think the trees and the land are something I'd have made you more money from than anyone on this Earth would've offered you.
It's sickening that damage caused by vandals has to be taken into account. Are there any plans on expanding the new growth to the control side? Do you intend on trying to join up Miyawaki plots with nearby existing woodlands?
Not really when you look at it in context. Saplings have always been destroyed by something. Think of those people as analogs for the bison that used to roam the land a million years ago. If you're trying to replicate the natural processes, accounting for damage and death should very much be a part of the experiment.
@@threeriversforge1997 The difference is that bisons would pass few times from the same area, and the forests were huge. Whereas here we have a tiny plot, painstakingly made, and too many horrible humans. It's like comparing wilfires to people who willfully put fires. In my country (Greece) 90% of the fires were initiated by humans.Nature is equipped to cope with the occasional wildfire, but not with systematic distruction, and, as I said, there's not enough of it any longer.
@@irmar What you do is scale things down to fit the size of what you have. We do this every day here in the States with building Beaver Dam Analogs, and the transformation is amazing. You might not be able to impact a huge range of territory, but you can make immediate improvements to the small area you have to work with. I get that it can be a little depressing because you want to change the world, but focusing on what you can do with what you have, where you are, adds up very quickly. You can learn from the Beavers, too, and make tiny little dams across the smallest dry crease in the ground. You know that little crease is going to be a channel to help the rainfall leave the area, so putting some small blockades across it will slow the water and give it time to sink down into the soil. Just one season will show incredible benefits, and it only gets better as time goes on. Look at what Brad Lancaster did in Phoenix Arizona, transforming his entire city block into a lush desert oasis using nothing more than a shovel and some thinking. He channeled the rain, used native plants, and now because of what he demonstrated, the legislature of the state has mandated all new government buildings projects are to incorporate his ideas. He wasn't planning on that when he started a decade ago. He was just changing the front curb on his own home. Then he changed the neighbor's. Every day he worked to change a little more, to improve where he could with what he had. And that change rippled out in a very big way. You can do the same. Small bricks build big walls.... but they need somebody to do the stacking.
Would be interested in seeing a proper scientific trial with a third control plot combining the Miyawaki prep with traditional planting density and probably even a 4th plot combining Miyawaki density with traditional (i.e. no/very little) prep.
Miyawaki experimented on this for decades and in different countries, too. You can find plenty of published papers about this not only by him but also other researchers on Google Scholar
Their individual tree survival rate stats are misleading: once the trees mature competition makes lots of the trees die off to 70% survival, thus balancing with the control (Hanna Lewis author of Mini Forest Revolution).
Excellent demonstration but I don't think this method is applicable for a large area of land as it would not affordable with the soil preparation in large scale. Very good for urban small scaled forestry garden anyway. Thanks for sharing! 🌿
Miyawaki specifically designed his method for small scale urban "groves" or mini-forests, it was never intended for large scale reforesting. It works perfectly for what it was designed for. In most urban settings you never have more than 1/4 acre to maybe a couple acres of area to work with if you are lucky.
Great learning from you, Ilenuk, I am a Colombian citizen starting a 3.125 acre experimental Miyawaki Forest in the Bogotá’s river plains with native trees and tropical fruit, so hope to keep in touch as it develops.😢
The soil preparation in this case was crucial as it used to be a construction site with a lot of useless materials in it. Maybe if it's something that used to be a forest but has been burned or cut down and you want to replant it, it wouldn't be needed.
Brilliant! - but I wish more attention had been paid to the detail of the recipe, with a condensed summary of the key elements rather than dribbling this info out interspersed by other material. One thing not elaborated was the size of the trees when planted - bare-root whips I assume, for economy: the commentary seemed to say they were 'larger' - but without any comparator. Also how many tree species in total? It's not enough just to say 'more than usual'. I'd also like to know more about the subsoil - if digging a metre down in Bristol, 90% of the depth will be in alluvial ooze, and once mixed for aeration, the topsoil will be lost among the yellow clay subsoil. Is this REALLY desirable? And when mycorrhiza was talked of, woodchip was shown. Detail please!
Fairfield, thank you for your remarks, the data you request is very important to people like me who are starting a foresting project of at least of 2 acres in Bogotá’s river plain tropical high plains. I suscribed to your channel, hope to learn from you too.😮
@@RamonLozano-Echandia Thank you for your interest - however I do not produce any videos. My comments came from a scientific and analytical background and were addressed at the makers of this particular video. No-one would DREAM of publishing a recipe for (say) a chicken pie without giving a full list of ingredients and the method...ie how to control all the variables in order to reproduce the result. Yet too many YT videos - this one even has 'method' in the title so there's no excuse - omit key information. Good luck with your project - and I'd say if you can't find the data just go ahead and get started using your best guesses where needed...the world's needs are SO great that a suboptimal result is better than inaction.
@@falfield There's extensive research about this. Visit Google Scholar and search for Miyawaki forests and you'll find plenty of published data. This video isn't a comprehensive guide for sure but often there are local communities giving aid for growing these forests. Also, apart from the "basics", it really depends on where you live. You'll have to find enough different species that are native to your specific area for this to be sustainable. Nuseries will help, too, I can imagine
Maybe this was intended for a more general public and that's why they didn't make it more technical. Maybe they have this info on their website? (They mentioned 40 species of trees if I remember.) I found this: treecouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/SOF-TOW_Miyawaki-Method-Handbook-KCC-Aug-23.pdf and this: treecouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Tree-Council-Trees-and-Woodland-Strategy-Toolkit-2022.pdf
Throw some edibles in there and you'll have a perfect situation. Growing mini forests in the urban areas is a great idea I think. There's got to be some native edibles that can go in these. On my land I have wild muscadine, paw paws which love to grow by hickory, mayhaws, and native pecan in addition to other varieties of trees and native flowers. I let sunchokes grow because they've been here for decades before I bought the land. Mini forests can grow wild berries, lot of different herbs for both culinary and for medical purposes. Throw a couple squash plants and other annual vegetables around the edges to feed wildlife and people. I think every public place should become a mini forest or orchard, or community garden. Lawns are a waste of space but their clippings make the best natural nitrogen fertilizer.
I sent this documentary to my English friends and told them I am SO shocked ... 😲 "The ground was cleared after the Second World War for setting up the housing estate " ... that is 80 years ago, by MY counting ... ! What other re-forestation was done in the meantime ... ? Obviously this project lacks common sense: where is hedgerow, juneberry and mountain ash which provide precious seeds for birds ?
Christa, reading your comment is the best experience I had after this video. I am a Colombian citizen, planning to develop a 3.125 acre area into an ECOHOSTEL surrounded by Miyawaki Forests of native trees with native GOLDENBERRIES, PASSIONFRUIT, and other native edible native species grown organic for export.😮 I suscribe to your channel hoping we could keep in touch😮
One meter deep digging is quite a lot of work and expensive. Wouldn't it be enough to plough the area and grow some nitrogen fixing plants like mustard and plough it under?
Actually Mirawaki did experiments and founf that the loosening of the soil down to 1 meter is important to the rapid growth of the trees root systems. The control was planted without the deep dig, and they only had 75% survival of tree seedlings compared to 99% in the meter deep and densely planted area.
Yes, digging up the soil to that kind of depth is expensive, but they are trying to fast-track the natural process and nature wouldn't have had compacted soil. Trees would have a very hard time burrowing through the hard-packed ground, slowing down the growth of the tree because they're having to expend a ton of energy below ground. While the trees will break up the dead soil in time, it's the time that's their main concern. They could have easily just piled on leaves and chipped up trees from the local arborists. A foot or more of mulch left over a year's time would have broken up the soil amazingly well. However, the time that takes is time they didn't want to spend. On GrowItBuildIt's youtube channel, he has documented just how big a change a foot of leaves can make to clay soil just by letting the natural process happen. However, it takes months and months for those leaves to be broken down by the worms and incorporated into the ground strata. There's no doubt that the leaves work wonders, but those wonders take a year to really materialize. So what they've done by excavating the ground a yard deep and adding amendments is simply to replicate what would have always been there if no development would have happened over the last century. It's more expensive and all that, but it's also faster and allows them to see how the plants react when the soil is soft and airy, allowing the trees to root through the ground with minimal effort. Were it me, I'd have opted to plant native wild flowers and grasses, turning the patch into more of a natural field like nature puts everywhere. That would allow the herbaceous plants to root down, break up the soil, create a lively biome, and eventually create habitat for trees. Of course, while easier and cheaper..... it would have taken a lot more time.
Saplings of many of those trees costs tens or hundreds of dollars. If normal planting leads to vandalism everytime, it's more cost effective to use the Miyawaki method and avoid wasting years and thousands of dollars in planting saplings doomed to be destroyed anyway.
Jeremy, it looks to me you have some experience in forestation, I think the clearing of a meter deep is just a very save depth for a successful Miyawaki forest, but love to hear more about your experiences.🎉
Disapointing that the actual soil conditions, plant density, and species selection in the “standard method” are not mentioned. What kind of “control" is left undefined in an experiment? Was it deliberately designed to fail? Looks like it. I have seen thousands of acres of newly planted forest in Oregon, USA 3 to 5 years after the forest was clear cut that are lush and green with huge diversity of plants, nothing like the baren wasteland of your “standard” method of forest regeneration planting.
Wonderful!!! This would be so much more impactful if you included footage, plant lists, steps of soil preparation so this could be replicated easily by others. It is clear it works, the video frustrates me because for it to be replicated by other councils other people, they need specifics. I particularly want to understand the soil prep method. I can research the local plants I need to do this, but what did they do to the soil in each zone?
Hello to whom it may concern, I am a biologist by training with a masters degree in genetics from University of California at Davis and at this time of my life am developing an afforestation system that could provide produce for local families taking care of the area in Bogotá Capital District, Colombia. As you may be aware of Bogotá’s Sabana is high valley of the Bogotá river that Spanish conquistadores developed into a “traditional” agricultural land and lately has been overpopulated with dairy production. I have the possibility of acquiring a couple of hectares about 3.125 acres in an protected area and hope to develop a Hostel surrounded by productive forest and I am willing to contract consulting in the process.
The miyawaki is permaculture.. plants love living together. There is no such thing as planting a tree or two in a field and walking away, it doesnt work.
Excellent présentation. Much appreciated. Background muzak is superfluous, distracting, unnecessary, wasteful of resources. It is contradicting the good sense of your excellent message. Less REALLY is more. Fewer words and NO MUZAK = better 😊.
So, this is nice, just be aware it is a pseudo-scientific methodology. There is one experiment, as the video refers to it, comparing two different methods, Miyawaki vs standard contol, but I gathered at least 5 different variables between the methods. The discussion focuses on diversity and density of planting, 2 variables combined as one method. Other variables are mentioned in passing but not emphasized in reasoning, though they might actually be more important: soil prep (dug soil to 1 meter depth and turned over), organic mulch layer, and addition of fungi). Searching the net, there are many variations on what is called Miyawaki Method, it is not well defined. A thorough study would involve combinations of the variables to compare them all, requiring I think 5*4*3*2*1=5! (5 factorial) = 120 separate plots (to compare the many possible combinations of the variables) for each experimental site, and then be replicated at multiple sites. So what can really be learned from this? If you plant trees more densely then 3 years later you end up with a denser thicket. Well, that's not very remarkable. Similarly, if you start with a greater diversity of trees, you end up with a greater diversity 3 years later. Again, what else would one expect? Perhaps turning the soil over was more important than the other factors. Perhaps that raised up old organic matter on the experimental plot (which had been buried by construction material), and/or loosened the soil so roots could grow better. Perhaps the fungal seeding of the experimental side was more important. Certainly adding a layer of organic mulch was important. Given all the prep work on the experimental side, I question if it was truly cheaper than the contol side. How was that derived? Certainly, the combination of these 5 factors in one method does demonstrate more growth than the control side. Still, not everyone using a Miyakai Method uses all 5 factors. Given that so many factors were given short shrift in the presentation, perhaps there were other factors altogether which were not even mentioned? Things to study.
@@glennmartin6492 The cost of the "miyawaki" method is 3000$ per 1000 sq ft, that's 30,000$ per quarter acre. That's 120,000$ per acre. Traditionnal method of tree planting is 100 to 400$ per acre. That means for the same cost a 1000 sq ft patch you could already reforest 10 to 30 acres of land. At the 100k$/acre price range you might as well plant full sized trees with a built in irrigation system, natural ponds and all manners of top notch biodiversity installations. Beats the very purpose of this "alternative" method. Business speaking this is just a way to sell lots and lots of mini digger hours, manual labor, maintenance plan and play on 'green' sentiment, while doing huge margins doing extremely little meaningful work in reality.
I especially love the fear-mongering. Good that they are putting in native trees, but you have to wonder what this fascination with woodlands is about. After all, nature in England made lots and lots of open fields, glades, savannah, and such. For every tree planted, you shade out a native wildflower that needs the open sunlight. In short, replacing the turf lawn with native wild flowers and forbs would be an excellent plan to "increase diversity". Of course, all the plans in the world won't matter if folks aren't working to stop the flow of people into the country. After all, you can't complain about losing land and natural resources to development and then not work to stop the very thing that drives that development. The UK is an island. That means there's only so much room and so many resources. The idea that they could just take in millions of people from around the world every year is ludicrous. Of course, you can bet that folks will fight that idea even though it's obvious on its face.
I planted a native forest in my urban yard and alley 7 years ago. 5,000 sq. ft. with over 400 plants and 75 native species. I covered the cut lawn with 4-5" of medium/large bark and removed all non natives. NO soil prep. Dig holes, add a little topsoil and plant natives. I have 24 Alaska cedars, 8 Shore pines, 2 Douglas firs, 2 Red cedars, 8 vine maples, 7 Douglas maples, red flowering currant, serviceberry, evergreen huckleberry, native blackberry, tall, short and creeping Oregon grape and many more shrubs and lower level plants. Tons of habitat and food for songbirds. The forest is thick and tall. Air is cooler (12-15 degrees F.) and moister in summer. Local cats will come to kill native songbirds. I drive cats off with Broox ultrasonic ground level defenders (I am using 4 of them). And Havahart trap and release after a few hours. No hurt cats. I water during hot summer periods as the forest is still young. Shade is finally showing up on this little forest in Mount Vernon, WA USA. You can do this in your yard. Avoid big tree planting over water lines. Thanks.
I bet it looks absolutely gorgeous too.
Please share pictures and videos. 🙏🙏
Please share a video, sounds really impressive!
Wow! That is so cool! Where did you get the trees and how are they arranged?
Gran lavoro, complimenti
I would like to see more videos on what we all can do in our gardens, no matter how small the garden. Its a great video, well done everyone
Great positive video. Let’s all get shrub and plant and tree planting, miyawaki method and random. And get those wetlands in too please everybody
A very interesting video showing the benefits of this method and it is nice to listen to such well-informed interviewees explaining their underlying goals.
We have mismanaged the Once Beautiful and Bountyful Planet and its Time for All Nations to Restore all Vital Natural Ecosystems. Its so pleasing to see people to be genuinely concerened about restoring Mother Nature.😊
We got a team dedicated for Miyawaki forestation here in India. Key to a successful afforestation is to grow only trees endemic to the respective land. Miyawaki method really really is extremely satisfying with amazing results.
Hi 👋🏼
Do you mean the team of Afforestt?
India is doing so many things for nature as well as protective measures for what it has got. Such a good example to the rest of us.
Peepal Baba ❤❤
Merkabah, great knowing you have a afforestation project in India, hope I coulld learn more about your experience as well.
Shared on Landscape Architecture TV. Thanks.
Wow, this is such an interesting comparison between the two methods. Thank you for doing this trial, has definitely opened my eyes.
I remember reading about the Miyawaki method as a sidebar about potential reforestation techniques in the 2016 Project Drawdown book, it was such a small passage but really seemed like it had a lot of potential. Amazing to see this continue to be tested and the potential it shows!
Sure, Nick, I also read about Akira Miyawaki and his life story and potential reforestation method and am very happy to find this test sites in England.🎉
Excellent experiment. Thank you for sharing. Subscribed.
Very inspiring. I've a small one in Ireland about 4x4m. Doing very well.
Great work - well done to all those putting in the patient hours doing the reasearch.
I have tried this method for a small shelter belt of trees in NE Scotland.
We get hammered by the wind and every tree and shrub has been staked.
All 200 of them.
It would be quite interesting to see how some form of checkerboard planting of a Miyawaki Forest would do in a larger area. How would the planted areas spread to the unplanted ones? It is, also, good to see that those doing the planting here have used some of the rarer, less-common and more-historic trees, as well.
This is a phenomenal side-by-side trial and gives yet more evidence of the power of the Miyawaki method.
Just saw a landscape plan for a park in Cambridge Massachusetts that had 3 Miyawaki forests along about a half-mile of pathway.
They did mention insects, but no mention of birds. The dense planting is an obvious ATTRACTANT for many bird species.
Hi Chet, I am planning to establish a larger area of native tree to the high tropical plains and certainly hope to register a great increase in bird populations a diversity. Will do it starting mid 2025,
How does it work with deer predation?
@@sumik8 I think I've seen a few videos (really on the rural side, not close to the city) where they had to put up fences to fight against deer eating the small plants. After a few years they were able to take back the fence once the trees had grown high enough.
Keep in mind those videos were about reforestation on a bigger scale, not small ones like here and not with the Miyawaki method either.
What is the difference in cost to establish a traditional forest and a Miyawaki forest? And the difference in maintenance costs (including replacing vandalised plants)
This where effort and energy should be put in, not blocking roads and streets✌🏾
I abandoned a 17,000 tree project due to vandalism, it was so soul destroying seeing established trees vandalised and cut down, I sold out to developers
Oh no, how tragic. I've done restorations so I know how much work it is. So sorry this happened to you and to the planet. What a waste.
Sorry to hear.
Don’t give up. Everything adds experience and skills. Do it again, this time you can predict and avoid more potential downfalls. When you have that game perfect - you will compensate for all previous losses, especially emotional. Everything is a blessing.
I started this year in my local area and every tree has had branches ripped, plucked out of site for no reason, hitting with a ball... I always put another tree and some have been resilient but with all honesty is very tiring and if I don't see anything growing the next spring season I'm abandoning the area, I really get where you come from.
Wish whatever links people together did a better job, I believe I'd have helped you; I'm glad to know you got paid though, but in retrospect I think the trees and the land are something I'd have made you more money from than anyone on this Earth would've offered you.
It's sickening that damage caused by vandals has to be taken into account. Are there any plans on expanding the new growth to the control side? Do you intend on trying to join up Miyawaki plots with nearby existing woodlands?
Not really when you look at it in context. Saplings have always been destroyed by something. Think of those people as analogs for the bison that used to roam the land a million years ago. If you're trying to replicate the natural processes, accounting for damage and death should very much be a part of the experiment.
@@threeriversforge1997 The difference is that bisons would pass few times from the same area, and the forests were huge. Whereas here we have a tiny plot, painstakingly made, and too many horrible humans. It's like comparing wilfires to people who willfully put fires. In my country (Greece) 90% of the fires were initiated by humans.Nature is equipped to cope with the occasional wildfire, but not with systematic distruction, and, as I said, there's not enough of it any longer.
@@irmar What you do is scale things down to fit the size of what you have. We do this every day here in the States with building Beaver Dam Analogs, and the transformation is amazing. You might not be able to impact a huge range of territory, but you can make immediate improvements to the small area you have to work with.
I get that it can be a little depressing because you want to change the world, but focusing on what you can do with what you have, where you are, adds up very quickly.
You can learn from the Beavers, too, and make tiny little dams across the smallest dry crease in the ground. You know that little crease is going to be a channel to help the rainfall leave the area, so putting some small blockades across it will slow the water and give it time to sink down into the soil. Just one season will show incredible benefits, and it only gets better as time goes on.
Look at what Brad Lancaster did in Phoenix Arizona, transforming his entire city block into a lush desert oasis using nothing more than a shovel and some thinking. He channeled the rain, used native plants, and now because of what he demonstrated, the legislature of the state has mandated all new government buildings projects are to incorporate his ideas. He wasn't planning on that when he started a decade ago. He was just changing the front curb on his own home. Then he changed the neighbor's. Every day he worked to change a little more, to improve where he could with what he had. And that change rippled out in a very big way.
You can do the same. Small bricks build big walls.... but they need somebody to do the stacking.
Interesting!
Would be interested in seeing a proper scientific trial with a third control plot combining the Miyawaki prep with traditional planting density and probably even a 4th plot combining Miyawaki density with traditional (i.e. no/very little) prep.
Miyawaki himself already did a lot of texperimentation, as far as I gather from other commenters.
Miyawaki experimented on this for decades and in different countries, too. You can find plenty of published papers about this not only by him but also other researchers on Google Scholar
Their individual tree survival rate stats are misleading: once the trees mature competition makes lots of the trees die off to 70% survival, thus balancing with the control (Hanna Lewis author of Mini Forest Revolution).
I don’t get why would someone vandalise the trees. It’s not that I just disapprove it, but I sincerely don’t get their reasons behind it.
Boredom is a powerful motivator to destructive human behaviour, both internal and external
Excellent demonstration but I don't think this method is applicable for a large area of land as it would not affordable with the soil preparation in large scale. Very good for urban small scaled forestry garden anyway. Thanks for sharing! 🌿
Miyawaki specifically designed his method for small scale urban "groves" or mini-forests, it was never intended for large scale reforesting.
It works perfectly for what it was designed for. In most urban settings you never have more than 1/4 acre to maybe a couple acres of area to work with if you are lucky.
Great learning from you, Ilenuk, I am a Colombian citizen starting a 3.125 acre experimental Miyawaki Forest in the Bogotá’s river plains with native trees and tropical fruit, so hope to keep in touch as it develops.😢
The soil preparation in this case was crucial as it used to be a construction site with a lot of useless materials in it. Maybe if it's something that used to be a forest but has been burned or cut down and you want to replant it, it wouldn't be needed.
Brilliant! - but I wish more attention had been paid to the detail of the recipe, with a condensed summary of the key elements rather than dribbling this info out interspersed by other material. One thing not elaborated was the size of the trees when planted - bare-root whips I assume, for economy: the commentary seemed to say they were 'larger' - but without any comparator. Also how many tree species in total? It's not enough just to say 'more than usual'. I'd also like to know more about the subsoil - if digging a metre down in Bristol, 90% of the depth will be in alluvial ooze, and once mixed for aeration, the topsoil will be lost among the yellow clay subsoil. Is this REALLY desirable? And when mycorrhiza was talked of, woodchip was shown. Detail please!
Fairfield, thank you for your remarks, the data you request is very important to people like me who are starting a foresting project of at least of 2 acres in Bogotá’s river plain tropical high plains. I suscribed to your channel, hope to learn from you too.😮
@@RamonLozano-Echandia Thank you for your interest - however I do not produce any videos. My comments came from a scientific and analytical background and were addressed at the makers of this particular video. No-one would DREAM of publishing a recipe for (say) a chicken pie without giving a full list of ingredients and the method...ie how to control all the variables in order to reproduce the result. Yet too many YT videos - this one even has 'method' in the title so there's no excuse - omit key information. Good luck with your project - and I'd say if you can't find the data just go ahead and get started using your best guesses where needed...the world's needs are SO great that a suboptimal result is better than inaction.
@@falfield There's extensive research about this. Visit Google Scholar and search for Miyawaki forests and you'll find plenty of published data.
This video isn't a comprehensive guide for sure but often there are local communities giving aid for growing these forests. Also, apart from the "basics", it really depends on where you live. You'll have to find enough different species that are native to your specific area for this to be sustainable. Nuseries will help, too, I can imagine
Maybe this was intended for a more general public and that's why they didn't make it more technical. Maybe they have this info on their website? (They mentioned 40 species of trees if I remember.) I found this: treecouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/SOF-TOW_Miyawaki-Method-Handbook-KCC-Aug-23.pdf
and this: treecouncil.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Tree-Council-Trees-and-Woodland-Strategy-Toolkit-2022.pdf
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I’d call my backyard semi-Miyawaki. Its very densely planted, but I haven’t made any effort to make it native.
Throw some edibles in there and you'll have a perfect situation. Growing mini forests in the urban areas is a great idea I think. There's got to be some native edibles that can go in these. On my land I have wild muscadine, paw paws which love to grow by hickory, mayhaws, and native pecan in addition to other varieties of trees and native flowers. I let sunchokes grow because they've been here for decades before I bought the land.
Mini forests can grow wild berries, lot of different herbs for both culinary and for medical purposes. Throw a couple squash plants and other annual vegetables around the edges to feed wildlife and people. I think every public place should become a mini forest or orchard, or community garden. Lawns are a waste of space but their clippings make the best natural nitrogen fertilizer.
I sent this documentary to my English friends and told them I am SO shocked ... 😲
"The ground was cleared after the Second World War for setting up the housing estate " ... that is 80 years ago, by MY counting ... !
What other re-forestation was done in the meantime ... ?
Obviously this project lacks common sense: where is hedgerow, juneberry and mountain ash which provide precious seeds for birds ?
Christa, reading your comment is the best experience I had after this video. I am a Colombian citizen, planning to develop a 3.125 acre area into an ECOHOSTEL surrounded by Miyawaki Forests of native trees with native GOLDENBERRIES, PASSIONFRUIT, and other native edible native species grown organic for export.😮 I suscribe to your channel hoping we could keep in touch😮
If you put edibles, people will try to get inside to grab them, and they might trample or destroy the low growth.
One meter deep digging is quite a lot of work and expensive. Wouldn't it be enough to plough the area and grow some nitrogen fixing plants like mustard and plough it under?
Actually Mirawaki did experiments and founf that the loosening of the soil down to 1 meter is important to the rapid growth of the trees root systems.
The control was planted without the deep dig, and they only had 75% survival of tree seedlings compared to 99% in the meter deep and densely planted area.
Yes, digging up the soil to that kind of depth is expensive, but they are trying to fast-track the natural process and nature wouldn't have had compacted soil. Trees would have a very hard time burrowing through the hard-packed ground, slowing down the growth of the tree because they're having to expend a ton of energy below ground.
While the trees will break up the dead soil in time, it's the time that's their main concern.
They could have easily just piled on leaves and chipped up trees from the local arborists. A foot or more of mulch left over a year's time would have broken up the soil amazingly well. However, the time that takes is time they didn't want to spend. On GrowItBuildIt's youtube channel, he has documented just how big a change a foot of leaves can make to clay soil just by letting the natural process happen. However, it takes months and months for those leaves to be broken down by the worms and incorporated into the ground strata.
There's no doubt that the leaves work wonders, but those wonders take a year to really materialize.
So what they've done by excavating the ground a yard deep and adding amendments is simply to replicate what would have always been there if no development would have happened over the last century. It's more expensive and all that, but it's also faster and allows them to see how the plants react when the soil is soft and airy, allowing the trees to root through the ground with minimal effort.
Were it me, I'd have opted to plant native wild flowers and grasses, turning the patch into more of a natural field like nature puts everywhere. That would allow the herbaceous plants to root down, break up the soil, create a lively biome, and eventually create habitat for trees. Of course, while easier and cheaper..... it would have taken a lot more time.
Saplings of many of those trees costs tens or hundreds of dollars. If normal planting leads to vandalism everytime, it's more cost effective to use the Miyawaki method and avoid wasting years and thousands of dollars in planting saplings doomed to be destroyed anyway.
Jeremy, it looks to me you have some experience in forestation, I think the clearing of a meter deep is just a very save depth for a successful Miyawaki forest, but love to hear more about your experiences.🎉
LOVE
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This movie is about how people don’t know how young forest looks like, and they need scientists from japan to show them.
Disapointing that the actual soil conditions, plant density, and species selection in the “standard method” are not mentioned. What kind of “control" is left undefined in an experiment? Was it deliberately designed to fail? Looks like it. I have seen thousands of acres of newly planted forest in Oregon, USA 3 to 5 years after the forest was clear cut that are lush and green with huge diversity of plants, nothing like the baren wasteland of your “standard” method of forest regeneration planting.
Wonderful!!! This would be so much more impactful if you included footage, plant lists, steps of soil preparation so this could be replicated easily by others. It is clear it works, the video frustrates me because for it to be replicated by other councils other people, they need specifics. I particularly want to understand the soil prep method. I can research the local plants I need to do this, but what did they do to the soil in each zone?
Yikes Karen, this is one 13-minute intro video. They have dozens more on the channel.
Hello to whom it may concern, I am a biologist by training with a masters degree in genetics from University of California at Davis and at this time of my life am developing an afforestation system that could provide produce for local families taking care of the area in Bogotá Capital District, Colombia. As you may be aware of Bogotá’s Sabana is high valley of the Bogotá river that Spanish conquistadores developed into a “traditional” agricultural land and lately has been overpopulated with dairy production. I have the possibility of acquiring a couple of hectares about 3.125 acres in an protected area and hope to develop a Hostel surrounded by productive forest and I am willing to contract consulting in the process.
Anyone heard of “Syntropic agroforestry”?
Anyone heard of warm socks?
No, but I have cold hands!@@oldbatwit5102
I wish I had known this before I wasted my entire forest budget on a failed aforestation project
This mob have the right idea, try everything and see what works empirically
UK land is super fertile with loat of water, easy to plant any number of plants.
3:47 challenges to growth ? there would NEVER be challenge in growing plants
The miyawaki is permaculture.. plants love living together. There is no such thing as planting a tree or two in a field and walking away, it doesnt work.
Excellent présentation. Much appreciated. Background muzak is superfluous, distracting, unnecessary, wasteful of resources. It is contradicting the good sense of your excellent message. Less REALLY is more. Fewer words and NO MUZAK = better 😊.
plant wild rose with each tree and no more moron problems
So, this is nice, just be aware it is a pseudo-scientific methodology. There is one experiment, as the video refers to it, comparing two different methods, Miyawaki vs standard contol, but I gathered at least 5 different variables between the methods. The discussion focuses on diversity and density of planting, 2 variables combined as one method. Other variables are mentioned in passing but not emphasized in reasoning, though they might actually be more important: soil prep (dug soil to 1 meter depth and turned over), organic mulch layer, and addition of fungi). Searching the net, there are many variations on what is called Miyawaki Method, it is not well defined. A thorough study would involve combinations of the variables to compare them all, requiring I think 5*4*3*2*1=5! (5 factorial) = 120 separate plots (to compare the many possible combinations of the variables) for each experimental site, and then be replicated at multiple sites. So what can really be learned from this? If you plant trees more densely then 3 years later you end up with a denser thicket. Well, that's not very remarkable. Similarly, if you start with a greater diversity of trees, you end up with a greater diversity 3 years later. Again, what else would one expect? Perhaps turning the soil over was more important than the other factors. Perhaps that raised up old organic matter on the experimental plot (which had been buried by construction material), and/or loosened the soil so roots could grow better. Perhaps the fungal seeding of the experimental side was more important. Certainly adding a layer of organic mulch was important. Given all the prep work on the experimental side, I question if it was truly cheaper than the contol side. How was that derived? Certainly, the combination of these 5 factors in one method does demonstrate more growth than the control side. Still, not everyone using a Miyakai Method uses all 5 factors. Given that so many factors were given short shrift in the presentation, perhaps there were other factors altogether which were not even mentioned? Things to study.
Nature 1 Monsanto 0 :-)))))))
How lost some humans must ne to vandalise small trees just for fun. 😢
What kind of scumbag kills people's trees like that?
Get rid of the music.
interesting topic but I got tired of the loud repetitive piano music after 2 min and clicked away
What kind of jerk destroys a tree.
you payed for at 13 minute movie, so you get a 13 minute movie!
Pretty sure that should you throw as much money and effort to plant with the traditionnal method, you'd get good results anyway.
How would the traditional method plot do better with 30% LESS money being spent on it?
@@glennmartin6492 The cost of the "miyawaki" method is 3000$ per 1000 sq ft, that's 30,000$ per quarter acre. That's 120,000$ per acre. Traditionnal method of tree planting is 100 to 400$ per acre. That means for the same cost a 1000 sq ft patch you could already reforest 10 to 30 acres of land. At the 100k$/acre price range you might as well plant full sized trees with a built in irrigation system, natural ponds and all manners of top notch biodiversity installations. Beats the very purpose of this "alternative" method. Business speaking this is just a way to sell lots and lots of mini digger hours, manual labor, maintenance plan and play on 'green' sentiment, while doing huge margins doing extremely little meaningful work in reality.
Clearly people are the problem here
This system frankly is bollocks.
I especially love the fear-mongering. Good that they are putting in native trees, but you have to wonder what this fascination with woodlands is about. After all, nature in England made lots and lots of open fields, glades, savannah, and such. For every tree planted, you shade out a native wildflower that needs the open sunlight. In short, replacing the turf lawn with native wild flowers and forbs would be an excellent plan to "increase diversity". Of course, all the plans in the world won't matter if folks aren't working to stop the flow of people into the country. After all, you can't complain about losing land and natural resources to development and then not work to stop the very thing that drives that development. The UK is an island. That means there's only so much room and so many resources. The idea that they could just take in millions of people from around the world every year is ludicrous. Of course, you can bet that folks will fight that idea even though it's obvious on its face.