The Complex Nature of Mini-Forests: Promises and Perils of Urban Restorative Forest-Making - 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Recorded On: 10/06/2024

Mini-forests have made their way to America with the promise of a natural succession shortcut to mature forests within urban environs. Mini-forests are celebrated for biodiversity, carbon sequestration benefits, and accessibility for grassroots rewilding, but what opportunities and precautions should be considered as timeless approaches to forest-making are remixed and popularized?

Learning objectives:

Understand myths and facts about mini-forests, the principles behind the Miyawaki method, and its affinities with traditional approaches to landscape restoration.
Consider impacts and opportunities for landscape architects and nursery practitioners to dive into complex issues such as genetic sourcing and assisted migration.
Explore contract innovations to integrate growers at the design stage, outside the typical fast-track timelines of standard construction.
Probe the social impacts of mini-forests as opportunities for grassroots empowerment to transform yards, plots, and parking lots into agents of nature within disturbed environments.

Heather Schibli, International ASLA

Collaborations Lead, Landscape Architect, Ecologist

Dougan Ecology

Heather draws upon her deep affinity for the natural world to guide her design practice and consulting work for Dougan Ecology, an Ontario-based ecologically-focused consultancy and design firm. Since 2019, she has been an ecology lead for the Network of Nature, which is a collaboration between Canadian Geographic, Dougan Ecology, Green Communities Canada, Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, and Wilder Climate Solutions. The Network of Nature is dedicated to supporting and restoring Canada’s unique biodiversity against the stresses of development, extraction, and climate change through empowering Canadians to restore native ecology where they live.

Hannah Lewis, MS

Grants and project manager

Renewing the Countryside

Hannah Lewis is the author of Mini-Forest Revolution: Using the Miyawaki Method to Rapidly Rewild the World, published in June 2022 by Chelsea Green, and winner of a 2023 Nautilus Book Award. French and Italian translations of the book were published by Editions Eyrolles and Terra Nuova. Hannah has an MS in Sustainable Agriculture and Sociology from Iowa State University and a BA in Environmental Studies from Middlebury College. She lives in Minneapolis, where she is a grants and projects manager for non-profit Renewing the Countryside.

Marc Hallé, ASLA

Landscape Architect, FCSLA

CCxA Architectes paysagistes inc

Marc Hallé (FCSLA) is co-president of CCxA (formerly Claude Cormier et Associés), a landscape architecture and urban design firm based in Montreal. With a degree in Civil Engineering and a Master of Landscape Architecture, Marc’s technical and creative backgrounds combine to direct projects from concept to built form. Working back and forth between large-scales and minute detail, Marc maintains continuity and coherence between the elements of a project and their conceptual origins.