EASTON, Pa. — Before there was a lush micro-forest, the space at 1913 Wood Ave. was pretty much a lawn.
“It's a very sterile environment, besides what microbial diversity might be in a lawn — you just have mowed grass all the time. Nothing's maturing,” city Conservation Manager Robert Christopher said.
“You'll have limited birds that are going to come in forage — there's no safety for them. It's all out in the open.”
A lot has changed over the past six years.
"It took all the difficulty out of it, and, through all my learning experience, it’s right here, in this manual.”Easton City Conservation Manager Robert Christopher
The city’s micro-forest has literally grown, filling up and out with lush greenery, made up of native species of shrubs, flowers and trees.
To help other municipalities and organizations create their own micro-forest, Christopher recently published “Creating a Micro-Forest: A Step by Step Guide.”
“I thought this would be great to help people who want to implement something like this in their municipality, organization, school or even building new warehouses,” Christopher said.
“So it took all the difficulty out of it, and, through all my learning experience, it’s right here, in this manual.”
The 23-page guide is available free on the city’s website.
‘Value, meaning, life and purpose’
Created in 2019 through a $35,000 grant from the Arbor Day Foundation, the city’s micro-forest is the only one in the Lehigh Valley.
“We created this to have an outdoor educational classroom for residents in the city, and the public, to come here and visit and learn about all the different aspects and benefits that a micro-forest offers, from carbon-capturing to stormwater runoff to wildlife conservation,” Christopher said.
“And, also just a place to come and relax. There’s guided paths in here and it’s really something to see for all four seasons.”
Also called mini forests or tiny forests, micro-forests are relatively new to the U.S. landscape, but there have been similar efforts in Maryland, New Jersey and Los Angeles.
Many are based on the work of Japanese botanist and ecologist Akira Miyawaki, who pioneered the style of forest creation in Japan known as the “Miyawaki Method.”
It focuses on randomized planting of small saplings of various indigenous shrubs and trees.
Many benefits
There are many benefits to a micro-forest, especially when viewed through the lens of an urban planning tool, city Sustainability Coordinator Brandon Sullivan said.
“With increasing heat and urban heat island effect you can plant these strategically across the city to reduce that,” Sullivan said. “It's significant.
“It's because you have the natural cooling of a tree — a street tree providing shade over a home can reduce temperatures by a few degrees individually, let alone a whole forest.”
While grassy, green spaces have their place — for sports fields, picnics and the like — lawns don’t really have ecological or economic value, he said.
“We should be wanting to have our property to have value, meaning, life and purpose."Brandon Sullivan, city sustainability coordinator
“They have next to no value outside of the perception of the visualization that people associate with that of well kept, groomed homes,” Sullivan said.
“I don't think that's where we should be aiming, though. We should be wanting to have our property to have value, meaning, life and purpose.
"And turning lawns into these green spaces like Miyawaki forest or micro-forest or nano-forest, whatever scale you wish, is the only way to really mesh the urban and wildlife in a way that's healthy for us and our residents.”
‘A whole step-by-step manual’
The guide has been in the works for about two years, with Christopher using the winter months to write before working with other city staff to layout and print the book.
“In the winters I get bored — not bored, but the creative juices start flowing,” Christopher said.
“And I'm like, ‘OK, well, what can I do and implement here that I know can help a lot of other municipalities and organizations that do things similar to me?’”
Since the micro-forest was created, he said, he’s gotten requests from other environmental professionals — one example was a conservation district in Massachusetts — about the process.
“So I'm like, ‘You know what? Why don't I just take my time through the winter and just do a whole step-by-step manual on how to create, build a micro-forest, so that we can offer this to people for free?’” he said. “So that's what really initiated it.”
Starting in the winter of 2023, Christopher wrote out all the considerations and actions needed to turn a blank green space into a thriving micro-forest.
The guide includes an introduction to micro-forests, a description of the city’s project, as well as step-by-step instructions for those looking to build their own.
‘Figure it out on their own’
It all starts with an ecological assessment, looking at the slope of the land, what’s already growing and the makeup of the soil, among other considerations.
From there, officials can plot out a conceptual plan, picking native plants that will thrive.
“I didn't want it to sound all complicated on a professional level, so I tried to do it so that everybody could really figure it out on their own and offer also [that] they could reach out to me if they're doing something and they're confused.”Easton City Conservation Manager Robert Christopher
There are other considerations, as well, including budgeting, installation and ongoing maintenance. The guide includes diagrams and even a sample invoice, illustrating for environmental officials the entire process.
“I tried to really think from the very beginning on each little step and made it as simple and as clear as possible so that the average layperson would understand,” Christopher said.
“I didn't want it to sound all complicated on a professional level, so I tried to do it so that everybody could really figure it out on their own and offer also [that] they could reach out to me if they're doing something and they're confused.”
The act of writing the guide has been a learning experience, too, Christopher said.
“If I followed my own guide before I wrote it, before I did this, I would have done this even more differently,” he said. “This was my first one, but I did the best I could at the time and the time period.”
A micro-forest, but even smaller
While the micro-forest is well-established, Christopher and Sullivan have turned some of their attention towards creating another, even smaller forest in the city.
They’re calling it a nano-forest.
“The nano-forest — a smaller version of the micro-forest — would be a sample of what [residents] could do in their yard,” Christopher said.
“They're customizable to whatever native colors and bloom seasons they want."Easton Sustainability Coordinator Brandon Sullivan
The pair have been working to improve the pocket park at 1030 Bushkill St. It's about the size of a city lot — 25 feet wide by 125 feet long — and plans include adding educational stations, such as a weather station and a sundial, as well as planting trees.
“It's going to start out as something smaller, but something similar to this now,” Christopher said.
“The left side will all be planted like a micro, mini nano-forest. No grass.
“There'll be all different layered plantings, from herbaceous bulbs, shrubs and understory trees. We don't want to put canopy trees in, because we have a huge honey locust there right now.”
Plans also include a sampling of street trees — another educational tool for residents.
“We're going to try to do six samples of a street tree with plantings underneath each street tree so people can see, ‘Hey, I can use this recipe to plant in the tree well under my tree,’” Christopher said.
The footprint of a nano-forest is so small, it could fit in a parking space, Sullivan said.
“When we talk about resident opportunity, so long as they have a yard about the size of a Nissan Leaf or so, they have the opportunity to make their own nano-forest,” he said.
“They're customizable to whatever native colors and bloom seasons they want.
“In theory, you could have a nano-forest with a bloom for each season of the year.”
'It makes you feel better'
Using a space the size of a city lot could work to inspire residents looking to grow on their own properties, he said, especially now, with the cutoff of SNAP and WIC benefits starting in November.
“These urban properties where people can't afford groceries, or their checks are week-to-week — now's the time to start planting your own vegetation to be able to provide your own fruits and vegetables for yourself and allow wildlife to succeed,” he said.
"There's also the mental fortitude that these habitats provide."Easton Sustainability Coordinator Brandon Sullivan
But in addition to the practicality of planting food, just interacting with nature is a benefit for residents, he said.
“At the same time, there's also the mental fortitude that these habitats provide,” Sullivan said.
“There's well-documented research that spending time in these green spaces, or in grass or under trees, and in lively grass, things that are alive with real life, living between the blades.
“There's an increase in mental fortitude and mental capacity. It reduces anxiety; it reduces stress. It makes you feel better about yourself and the connection to the planet."
