2026 Northeast Miniforest Summit
Root To Canopy:
Growing The Miyawaki Method

July 15 – Virtual Documentary Screening
Making a Mini-Forest
July 18 – In-Person Bus Tour
Four diverse Massachusetts miniforests
July 22-23 – Virtual Summit
Presentations, Panels & Networking on Zoom

A multi-day gathering bringing together the people planting, studying, stewarding, teaching, measuring, and documenting miniforests across the Northeast U.S. and beyond.

Keynote Speakers

Ethan Tapper is a forester, ecologist, content creator, and the bestselling author of How to

Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending

a Changing World.

For more than a decade, Ethan has been recognized as a thought-leader in the world of ecosystem stewardship, winning numerous regional and national awards for his work. More recently, he has been recognized as a writer – since its publication in 2024, How to Love a Forest has been named the winner of the 2025 New England Book Award for nonfiction, and received international acclaim. His highly-anticipated second book – The Forest Year: Finding Hope in a World Worth Saving – will be published in October, 2026, and is available for pre-order now.

Ethan’s message of relationship, responsibility and hope reaches millions of people each year through his writing, social media channels with hundreds of thousands of followers, and the hundreds of walks, talks and keynotes that he delivers across North America each year.

Ethan works, writes and runs a small consulting forestry business from his home at Bear Island – his 175-acre working forest, homestead, orchard and sugarbush in Vermont – and plays in his punk band, The Bubs.

This year, the Summit will open and close with keynote presentations from Ethan Tapper and Mio Urata, helping to ground our conversations in forest stewardship, ecology, and the roots of the Miyawaki Method as it originated and continues to be practiced in Japan. We are honored to welcome them and deeply grateful for the opportunity to learn from their experiences, insights, and ongoing work.

Mio Urata is an enthusiastic Miyawaki forester who has devoted herself to restoring forests for more than 20 years.

She has planted trees, prepared making planting sites, organized planting events, instructed volunteers, and maintained forests at more than 150 locations in Japan and abroad, many of them with the late Professor Miyawaki.

She is now in charge of public relations and social media for the organization Creating Native Forests for Life 2020 (in Japanese, “Inochi no Morizukuri 2020”), which is an association of Miyawaki forest-making experts in Japan.

Messenger_creation_B394908B-C246-4474-8A5B-EEE5C52A0055 - mio urata.jpeg

Why A Miniforest Summit, Why Now

Across the Northeast, communities are implementing miniforests using the Miyawaki method—or adapting it—across diverse ecological and social contexts. These projects are taking root not as collections of plants, but as living systems unfolding over time.

Some are newly established, while others—now reaching the three-year mark—are entering new phases of growth and care. As this work expands, there is a growing need to share knowledge, refine practices, and support one another across contexts.

Miniforests are not something we build or install. We create the conditions for relationships to form—among soil, plants, microorganisms, fungi, water, time, and people—through site research, planting design, soil preparation, and stewardship.

In doing so, miniforests support the interdependence of life: across above- and belowground processes, through the cycles of carbon, nutrients, and water, and within the evolving relationship between people and place.

Alongside this ecological understanding, practical questions remain: how to fund and implement projects, how to read and respond to site conditions, how to care for miniforests over time, and how to build the partnerships that make this work possible.

This work is unfolding within a broader context of climate change, creating opportunities to restore ecological function in cities, schoolyards, parks, and other underused, in-between urban spaces.

The 2026 Northeast Miniforest Summit builds on the momentum of the inaugural 2025 Summit. To keep this knowledge accessible as the regional movement grows, recordings from last year’s Summit are available to watch.

This year, more than 20 speakers and panelists will join us for a documentary film screening, two virtual half-days, and an in-person bus tour of Massachusetts miniforests.

Together, these events create space to share lessons learned, explore emerging questions, and strengthen relationships across a growing movement of people working to bring miniforests to life

Who is the Summit For?

Whether you are planting and stewarding a site, conducting research, designing projects, educating others, organizing communities, shaping policy, supporting funding efforts, growing native plants, or working in soils and ecological restoration, this Summit is an opportunity to exchange knowledge, build relationships, and explore emerging questions in the field.

The Summit is for anyone interested in the growing practice of miniforests and the Miyawaki Method.

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Photo Credit: Bill Hickey

Speakers and Schedule

This year's Summit brings together an extraordinary group of practitioners whose work is helping shape the future of miniforests across North America and beyond. From municipal implementation and ecological restoration to soil science, stewardship, education, and long-term research, each speaker offers a unique perspective.

We invite you to explore the speaker bios below to learn more about the people and projects that make this year's Summit possible. We are deeply grateful for their generosity in sharing their experience, insights, and ongoing questions with this emerging movement.

Day 1: Wednesday, July 22, 2026

12 - 5 pm ET | Zoom

Opening Keynote by Ethan Tapper

From Root to Canopy: The Miyawaki Method and a Growing Field of Practice -Alexandra Ionescu

Miniforest Stories in the Field: From Concept to Stewardship

Healing Urban Wastelands - Caseylee Basteian, RLA, CPSI
Implementing a Municipal Micro Forest: Princeton's Experience from Planning to Planting - Taylor Sapudar
Designing a Miniforest for the Pollinator Pathway - Marian Glenn, PhD
The People's Forest, Rewilding of Conservation Land, Veasey Memorial Park, Groveland, Massachusetts - Anne Morin

Breakout Rooms: Networking opportunity with themes

Beyond the Planting: Relationships, Education & Stewardship Around Miniforests

A Forest for Future Artists - Jen De Los Reyes
Our Forest Invites Learning - Jessica Smith, PhD
Tending Miniforests: Lessons from the Field - Donna Goggin Patel
Teaching Through the Pocket Forest Network: Carbon Literacy and Community-Based Stewardship - Negin Ficzkowski, PhD

Celebrating Global Mini-Forests through Photodocumentation - Angelina Lee

Day 2: Thursday, July 23, 2026

12 - 6 pm ET | Zoom

Mapping the Miniforest Movement in the U.S.: Introducing the Miniforest Database Initiative - TBD

Understanding Living Soil in Urban Miniforests

Reading the Soil: What the Microbiome Can—and Can't—Tell Us About Urban Forest Success - Jennifer Bhatnagar, PhD
Linking Miyawaki Afforestation to Soil Recovery - Daniela Shebitz, PhD
Reading Living Soil: Connection, Community, and Practice - Rubén Parrilla

Ways of Knowing a Miniforest: Thinking, Measuring & Learning

Growing scientific research alongside LA's micro-forests - Damien Willette, PhD
Simulating Miniforest Growth to Project Long-term Outcomes - Tes Siarnacki
Small Forest, Big Impact! How to restore forests in your neighborhood - Bram Gunther
Applying landscape ecology and socioenvironmental theory analysis to miniforest design - Brad Oberle, PhD

Breakout Rooms: Networking opportunity with themes

Learning Together, Beyond the Hype: Evidence & Open Questions in the Miyawaki Method

Mio Urata
Demien Willette, PhD
Jennifer Bhatangar, PhD
Prassede Calibi, PhD
Hannah Lewis

Closing Keynote: Forest Creation Established Through Trial and Error: The Appeal of the Miyawaki Method, Open to All - Mio Urata

Read Bios

Schedule PDF Coming Soon

Bus Tour

Join us on Saturday, July 18, for a full-day tour from 8:30 to 5 PM ET of four Massachusetts miniforests.

Explore how the Miyawaki Method is being adapted across diverse landscapes—from urban school campuses and community spaces to former agricultural and post-industrial sites—and learn directly from the people who helped bring these miniforests to life.

START & Stop 1: Somerville High School: Somerville, MA
- Tour led by Alison Maurer, Planner of Ecological Restoration, Public Space and Urban Forestry, City of Somerville

The Somerville Miyawaki forest, created in collaboration with Biodiversity For a Livable Climate and SUGi, tucked away on the new high school campus, reckons with the complexities of planting in a dense urban landscape. In October 2023, over 80 volunteers planted 400+ trees on an unused patch of land. The forest, made up primarily of species found in an oak-hickory forest, is sandwiched between complex infrastructure and high-traffic areas—an experiment to see how a dense forest planting fares in novel and challenging urban conditions. Now in its third summer, the forest is adding an ecological and educational resource to the very heart of Somerville.

Stop 2: Belmont High School: Belmont, MA
- Tour led by Jean Devine (MFAB Steward), Anne-Marie Lambert (MFAB Community Development), Jessica B. Smith (MFAB Education Committee), Sarah Wang (MFAB Chair)

The Belmont Mini-Forest, planted on Oct. 25, 2025, is a densely planted (~1140 trees in ~280 m2), diverse (32 species) forest on the Belmont High School campus. Site evaluation led to the selection of a High-terrace Floodplain Forest as a natural model. The effort was initiated and led by Miyawaki Forest Action Belmont (MFAB), an intergenerational group of residents, with technical and ecological guidance from Biodiversity for a Livable Climate and botanist and ecological advisor Walter Kittredge. The Mini-Forest provides Belmont students, teachers, and community members with a “living laboratory” to learn about strategies for climate change mitigation, ecosystem restoration, biodiversity, resiliency, and environmental stewardship. The forest also fosters reflection, creative inspiration, and wonder.

LUNCH: In process to be finalized.
- A boxed lunch will be provided for each guest.

Stop 3: Wright-Locke Farm Conservancy Miniforest: Winchester, MA
- Tour led by Prassede Calabi, Founder and Project Director, WIN Fast Forest & Walter Kittredge, Ecology Advisor and Founder of Oakhaven Sanctuary Nursery

We restored 6,000 square feet of abandoned agricultural land to a red swamp maple wetland. Nearly 1,100 plants of 40 species were planted, 17 species are trees. At one year, mortality was minimal, trees and tall shrubs are taller than 5 feet and the canopy is dense. Community involvement is high –we say “a fast forest is 51% plants, 49% community” - and includes Eagle and Silver Award Scout projects, a curriculum unit in Winchester HS AP science class, Faith Communities, Rotary, 35 planners, 155 donors/ honorees, 200 planters. Ongoing research includes tree survivorship, invertebrate census and drone imagery.

Stop 5: Gateway Park: Everett, MA
- Tour led by Casey-Lee Bastien, Landscape Architect/ Ecologist, Senior Associate, BSC Group Inc & Riley Noble, Landscape Designer & Tom Philbin, Conservation Agent.

The reforest project is 5 acres of reforestation including trails and various ecotones, soils, and hydrology. The forest planting replacing fields of phragmites and occurs over a brown field part of former Monsanto chemical plant where deed restrictions limit what sort of restoration and analysis can be done.

Please note: If time permits, we may also visit the adjacent site at Rivergreen Park.

END: Somerville High School: Somerville, MA

Documentary Screening

Join us on Wednesday, July 15 from 7 to 9 pm ET for a special screening of Angelina Lee’s documentary Making a Mini-Forest, narrated by Hannah Lewis, author of Mini-Forest Revolution, followed by a live conversation and audience Q&A.

The film follows organizations in France, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands as they plan, plant, and care for mini-forests—while tracing the Miyawaki Method’s roots in Japan and the growing civic movement to regreen cities. You can watch the trailer here.

Description:

People around the world are embracing the Miyawaki Method to plant “mini-forests.” Narrated by Hannah Lewis, award-winning author of Mini-Forest Revolution, the film zigzags across land and sea to meet ten different organizations in four languages in France, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

The film observes in real time the brainstorming, planning, planting, and establishment care that goes into making a mini-forest, as well as the Miyawaki Method’s 50 year history in Japan. Each story contributes to a bigger picture, that of passionate individuals taking civic action to regreen their cities. One person sparks the imagination of another, and another, and a robust network of foresters emerges.

What is the Miyawaki Method?
What is a Miniforest?

The Miyawaki method of afforestation, pioneered by Japanese ecologist Dr. Akira Miyawaki, creates dense, diverse, and multilayered miniforests composed of native trees and shrubs. They can be planted in areas as small as 1,000 square feet, supporting and jump-starting natural water, nutrient, and carbon cycles.

Through intentional soil preparation and expedited ecological succession, they create the conditions for life to establish—even in highly urbanized environments. Although context-dependent, miniforests typically require a minimum of three years of maintenance—watering, mulching, and weeding—before moving toward largely self-sustaining conditions.

While not intended to recreate full forest ecosystems, their structure and density allow plants to function collectively—both above and below ground—in ways that differ from traditional monocultures or individual tree plantings, increasing what plants can do together and helping to cool neighborhoods, retain water in the soil, improve soil biology and air quality, and support insects, birds, and the broader food web.

Most importantly, they create opportunities for communities to become stewards of living systems in their own neighborhoods—deepening ecological literacy and relationships with the ecology of place.

Watch these video to learn more:

Slideshow Photo Credits: Alexandra Ionescu

Themes & Questions We Are Exploring

PLANNING → Making It Possible

Partnerships and Implementation: How do we build relationships, secure funding, and bring miniforests to life within communities and municipalities?
Policy, Governance and Land Access: How do policies, zoning, and local decision-making shape access to land for miniforests?
Funding Models: What funding approaches can support the implementation and long-term care of miniforests?

SHAPING THE CONDITIONS → Site Reading, Design, and Sourcing

Reading the Landscape: How do we understand a site before planting?
Designing Miniforests: How do decisions around soil preparation, species selection, density, and structure shape outcomes? Which aspects of the Miyawaki Method are non-negotiable or adaptable?
Native Plant & Amendments Sourcing: What are some best practices for sourcing native plants and soil amendments? What challenges are there around seed sourcing, growing timelines, and regional availability?

TENDING → Growing, Engaging & Learning

Education and Community Engagement: How can we create opportunities for learning, participation, and stewardship among communities and schools?
Stewardship: What does it mean to care for a miniforest over time—from watering, fencing and weeding to volunteer engagement and ongoing maintenance?
Research, Monitoring, and Mapping: How does life organize itself within and around a miniforest and how do we learn to recognize, support, observe, and measure that process over time?

REFLECTION → What Is Emerging

Stories from the Field: What have you tried? What worked, what didn’t, and what are you learning in practice? What do we know so far, and where are there still gaps? What questions should we be asking next?

Sponsorships & Promotional Partnerships

We’re seeking sponsors and promotional partners to support the Summit and help extend its reach. This may include financial contributions, sharing the event with your community, or collaborating on outreach. If this feels like a fit for your organization, we’d love to connect—please contact us at miniforests@bio4climate.org

About Biodiversity For a Livable Climate

For more than a decade, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate (Bio4Climate) has worked to raise awareness of the vital role biodiversity and nature-based solutions play in regulating the Earth’s climate—through research, education, collaboration, and on-the-ground action. A pioneer of the Miyawaki Method in the United States, the organization helped bring this approach to New England, launching the region’s first miniforest in 2021 in collaboration with SUGi and the City of Cambridge. Since then, it has supported the planting of eight miniforests across Massachusetts, demonstrating how this approach can take root across diverse urban sites. In 2025, Bio4Climate convened the inaugural Northeast Miniforest Summit—mobilizing a regional network of practitioners to exchange knowledge, build relationships, and support the continued emergence of miniforests across the region.