Tiny Forests Spring Up in Sydney to Combat Urban Heat and Restore Green Canopy

Sydney is embracing a novel approach to combatting urban heat and restoring its diminishing tree canopy: the "tiny forest." These miniature ecosystems are being established in small, underutilized plots across the city's suburbs, offering a rapid solution to greening urban landscapes.

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We find that we get really rapid growth of our tiny forests.

Utilizing the Miyawaki method, developed by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, these tiny forests are planted densely with a variety of native species in nutrient-rich soil. This method encourages rapid upward growth, allowing a forest to mature in a 200-square-meter plot within just a few years. An example in West Pymble has seen trees reach heights of 7 meters in two years.

Organizations like Earthwatch and Groundswell Collective are spearheading these projects. Earthwatch has planted a tiny forest in West Pymble, transforming a flat grass reserve, and another in Campbelltown. Shannon Antsee from Earthwatch highlighted the rapid growth, stating, "We find that we get really rapid growth of our tiny forests." Ku-ring-gai Council Mayor Christine Kay noted the initiative's success in forming tree canopy in constrained urban sites, calling it a "scalable blueprint for other councils."

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Sometimes council have underused, underutilised parks and we can use those spaces to turn them back into green sanctuaries.

Groundswell Collective focuses on planting tiny forests in response to land clearing for housing, particularly in regional New South Wales. Founder Anna Noon explained their motivation: "For us, it was really about taking practical community action... Reducing urban heat and kind of counteracting some of those impacts that we saw from development and from climate change."

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Tree plantings on our streets and in our parks are usually very slow to form a canopy.

Studies, such as one by Macquarie University, have shown the effectiveness of these tiny forests. The West Pymble forest's plants were found to be 87% larger than those in a control plot. These initiatives not only aim to mitigate the urban heat island effect but also to create vital green sanctuaries within the city, demonstrating a proactive community response to environmental challenges.

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The initiative provides a scalable blueprint for other councils seeking measurable outcomes from small urban sites.