<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/14/tiny-forest-roosevelt-island-new-york>
"A tiny forest filled with more than 1,000 native plants will spring up in New
York City come April on a 2,700 sq ft plot of land on the southern tip of
Manhattan’s Roosevelt Island.
It will be the city’s first pocket forest, and supporters say it will bring
both the beauty of increased biodiversity and tangible benefits to residents
navigating increasingly extreme weather.
Pioneered by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki in the 1970s, the concept of
planting dense, fast-growing trees and shrubs is popular across Asia, Europe,
Africa, South America and the Middle East. In the US, cities like Los Angeles;
Berkeley, California; Portland, Oregon; and Cambridge, Massachusetts, have
created mini forests with native plant species.
“Today our cities are concrete on concrete,” Elise Van Middelem, founder of
SUGi, a non-profit that will plant species like white oak, Virginia strawberry,
New York fern and eastern white pine on Roosevelt Island. “When floods come or
it rains really hard, there’s no more permeable surfaces. So one of the
benefits [of mini forests] is that they act as sponges.”
There is an array of benefits in planting Miyawaki-style forests, including
cooling, shade, water and carbon absorption, as well as the restoration of
ecosystems that can serve as a home to wildlife such as birds and insects.
“Biodiversity is completely linked with the climate crisis,” Van Middelem said.
“The array of beauty that comes back where there was nothing is just
remarkable.”
Planted in soil usually enriched with compost, layers of shrubs and canopy have
been shown to grow at a high rate as they compete for sunlight. Once planted,
these dense patches of greenery can thrive in small urban spaces without much
upkeep.
“I’m thrilled about this kind of green infrastructure that actually cools the
neighborhood at a time of global warming,” said Manhattan’s borough president,
Mark Levine. “We can and should do more of these. I’d like to see the next one
in low-income communities of color that have far fewer street trees than
wealthier parts of the city.”"
Via
Fix the News:
<
https://fixthenews.com/good-news-child-deaths-clean-cooking-conservation-southern-ocean/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
