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

July 22 - 23 (Virtual on Zoom)
July 18 (Bus Tour in MA)

Call for Proposals

We invite new voices, experiences, and perspectives to shape this year’s Summit

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.

Featuring more than a dozen speakers across two virtual half-days and an in-person bus tour, the 2025 Northeast Miniforest Summit brought together practitioners, researchers, and leaders from diverse fields—including landscape architects, scientists, and community organizers—to unpack the Miyawaki method from root to canopy.

This year, we continue in the same format—two virtual half-days and an in-person bus tour—to accelerate knowledge exchange, highlight on-the-ground implementation, and strengthen a growing network of miniforest practitioners across the region.

2026 Call for Proposals: What We’re 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?

Copy of cambridge-mini-forest-61.jpg_BillyHickey.jpg

Photo Credit: Bill Hickey

Who is the Summit For?

We welcome proposals from people engaging with miniforests in different ways—through practice, research, design, education, community work, policy, funding, implementation, or supporting how plants are grown, sourced, and how soil amendments are selected or prepared.

This includes those actively planting and maintaining sites, those shaping the conditions that make projects possible, and those studying or supporting this work.

We invite you to share your ideas through these formats:

Panel presentation (10-15 min. with slides and Q&A)
Panel discussion (a curated conversation with other panelists selected by the Summit organizers)
Breakout session (30-45-minute interactive discussion you facilitate on a guiding question of your choice)

How will Proposals be Selected?

Proposals will be thoughtfully reviewed and curated to reflect a diversity of perspectives, experiences, and topic areas across the region.

For live sessions during the Summit, we look for proposals that:

Share specific examples, data, or lived experience (e.g., a project, site, dataset, or implementation process)
Are well-defined, with a clear topic, purpose, and takeaway
Are based in the Northeast U.S. ( or clearly transferable to similar contexts)
Engage practical and/or relational dimensions—ecological, social, or both

We’re not able to include all proposals in the Summit’s programming. While some will be selected for live sessions, others may be considered for additional formats. These decisions will be made by the Summit team based on the range and nature of submissions, as well as overall capacity.

Timeline:

Call for Proposals Launch: Thursday, April 23, 2026
Application Deadline: Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET
Notification of Selected Proposals: Thursday, May 21, 2026
Confirmation Deadline of Selected Proposals: Thursday May 28, 2026
Summit Registration Opens: During the week of June 1, 2026

We look forward to learning from and with you!

Apply by May 7

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

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.