www.montereycountynow.com SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 11 Right now, it looks like a patch of woodchips. But in five to 10 years, this 2,000-squarefoot plot adjacent to the play yard and portables at Del Rey Woods Elementary school in Seaside will be a dense, tiny forest teeming with life. The forest is called a Miyawaki Forest—a biodiverse, fast-growing ecosystem developed by a Japanese botanist named Akira Miyawaki. Using the Miyawaki method, a variety of native plants and tree species are planted in close proximity, usually 3 to 4 plants per square meter. Through competition, a multi-layered, mature forest forms, growing 10 times faster than a conventional forest, with potential for offering big environmental benefits. While there are Miyawaki Forests all over the world, this will be the first of its kind on California’s Central Coast. “I thought it was a bit of an exaggeration, like when people say, ‘100 times more biodiversity,’” says Janette Leonidou, president of Communities for Sustainable Monterey County. “But when I went to Japan and saw all these presentations, [scientists had] measured the biodiversity before and after, and it was like 500 times, 1,000 times. They showed the species before—and the butterflies, the spiders, the birds— after. It was just like, ‘Oh my gosh.’” After raising money for the project, CSMC began pitching the idea at school board meetings to find a site in October 2024. They quickly gained support from Monterey Peninsula Unified School District Superintendent PK Diffenbaugh, who chose the school as a great opportunity to integrate environmental stewardship in the Del Rey Woods curriculum—part of a broader effort to bring native ecosystems into urban and school environments. While this will be the region’s first forest built using strict Miyawaki principles, Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado has created a food forest inspired by the method, using similar close-planting techniques. In April, a smaller test plot was created to experiment with different soil types, plants and compost materials to gather data about plant survival before their main planting takes place Oct. 20. As Leonidou walks alongside community schools coordinator Gwynn Cropsey and CSMC’s vice president Laurie Eavey, they point out the trials and errors that come with developing a blueprint for something new. The pH of the soil was a bit off. Cypress trees, they learned, will take over when planted closely with other plants. They’ve worked with local horticulturists and soil scientists, State Parks personnel and local stables and nurseries (for wood chips and manure). Additionally, they brought in a consultant from Berkeley, who has worked on Miyawaki Forests there. In the last few months they have been working to turn the patch of dead dirt into nutritious soil to get ready to plant. Students at the elementary school have helped apply cardboard to the manure, then mulch, then weave in the wood chips. “All of the younger grades will see it in their time here at school,” Cropsey says. “Even the older kids, if they come back, they’ll be like, ‘Whoa.’” Big Little Forest A microforest is underway at Seaside’s Del Rey Woods Elementary School. By Katie Rodriguez Using the Miyawaki method, a variety of native plants and tree species are planted in close proximity, usually 3 to 4 plants per square meter, to encourage competition. NEWS “All of the younger grades will see it in their time here.” KATIE RODRIGUEZ
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