Vision

More than 2 decades ago, Ferris Elementary students were quite resistant to go outside during recess or lunch during spring and early summer because they “overheated” (many of our students have black hair). We developed a shade strategy to overcome this challenge. Since 2008 we have planted over 70 trees (dogwood, maples, crab apples, tulip, pin oak, ginko and apples) which transformed the school grounds. In addition to creating shade areas, we also worked to create places inviting places for people to play, perform and sit which really encouraged the students and the wider community to use.

During Covid we received a $3500 grant from the Tree Canada which allowed us to buy 10 non-native trees which our District Grounds team planted. These Tulip trees matched the same trees we had successfully planted 5 years earlier on another pathway that led into the school.

A CTV Morning News video crew came to interview us about the work we were doing. The students mentioned how they wanted to leave a legacy for future students.
{The City of Richmond is a low-lying island city formed in the delta of the Fraser River that empties into the Gulf of Georgia (Pacific Ocean). High tides can also further raise the water table temporarily}. Three recent climate change events: atmospheric rivers and related flooding, wildfires and their smoke and a heat dome in 2021, all lead to the premature death of the 8 tulip trees that we had planted. This was a net loss of over $3500, time and effort. Leaving a legacy of dead trees was not an option. ;-(

We actively sought cheaper and more sustainable methods of tree planting.

Action

The Richmond School District has been encouraging cross pollination of ideas between schools to foster Environmental Stewardship for the past 2 decades. Part of the way they have done this is using Environmental Stewardship Grants, which are given to action research projects that the schools apply for and conduct. These grants typically are $1000 each and come from a rolling green fund which is obtained through energy savings from energy refits and behaviour change campaigns. The district also funds a teacher consultant who reaches into the schools to teachers, students, administration and other staff to try coordinate with the Operations departments to try coordinate programs. Some of these have included: establishing an Organics program, Bundle up Richmond (BurRrr Day) , Lights out Lunches, establishing Outdoor Learning Spaces and now Miyawaki Pocket Forests. Students and Staff are also invited to after school events called Eco-Wise Cafes to share their projects with other green- minded schools.
The district has used this model to also provide inquiry grants to promote cross pollination in areas such as Outdoor Learning. This has provided additional funds to release teachers to connect with other teachers. A year end celebration of these projects occurs in June. These 2 different grants encourage the co-mingling of Elementary and Secondary Schools.

In 2022, Ferris Elementary was invited to support our local high school, Richmond Secondary learn about, prepare and build the first Miyawaki Pocket Forest in Western Canada. Richmond Secondary’s Miyawaki Pocket Forest was planted in November of 2022.
It is a 100 square metre forest and has 39 plant species native to Portland, Oregon. The rational is that with climate change, we can expect the lower mainland (Southwest BC) to warm up and be like Portland’s current climate in the next 20 years. Thus, we were trying to plant trees and shrubs that would be resilient to these changes.
(see https://rhs.sd38.bc.ca/outdoor-learning-environment/miyawaki-pocket-forest and
https://www.scienceworld.ca/stories/finding-hope-in-bcs-first-miyawaki-pocket-forest/).

{A Miyawaki Pocket Forest method was designed by a Japanese Botanist Akira Miyawaki – to create a rapidly growing urban forest with a minimum size of 100 square metres. Planting more than 30 different indigenous species significantly increases the biodiversity. Prior to planting the forest, the soil is dug 1 metre down and has a 1/10 of its soil amended with organic matter. This allows the root systems to grow more rapidly in less compacted soil. Trees, shrubs and ground cover are densely planted (up to 4 plants per square metre) encouraging interspecies competition where they grow rapidly. 1 metre young trees would expect to grow to 10 metres in less than 10 years. These urban forests are known to grow 30 times faster than a traditional forest.}
See Photo #17 Richmond Secondary MPF comparison 3 years later . This picture shows the difference over 2 ½ years from when it was planted.

Ferris Elementary students have worked at Richmond Secondary on a monthly or b-monthly basis over 2 school years (2022-23 & 2023-24) to prepare the site, plant, maintain measure and study the forest. We also work a semi-retired teacher who is our Miyawaki Pocket Forest Expert. We quickly saw the benefit of having such a forest. We saw new species birds, mammals, insects and other plant species (stinging nettle) and fungi over time. We also realized how it was an important space to learn in.

Through this LSF grant we were able to expand our existing 2 square metre mini Miyawaki Pocket Forest test plot, we planted in April of 2023, to 45 square metres by February 025.

The intent of this project was to plant trees more sustainably and more economically. We wanted to replace a “dead tree” legacy with one that shows students that creating a forest in an urban setting was possible. We would also improve the tree canopy, provide a “wild” place for students to observe, learn and engage with, provide more oxygen, absorb more carbon dioxide, create habitats for other organisms and eventually provide another shaded space.

It was also an opportunity to have Richmond Secondary come to us to help us create our own Miyawaki Pocket Forest at an elementary school. These secondary students (some of whom were Ferris students) come from Studio 111, a special class with diverse learners who come with their Educational Assistants and Resource Teacher along with non-academic Science 11 students and their teachers. It is a unique partnership that all learners really cherish. We also go on at least 2 joint field trips each year and celebrate our journey at a year-end joint school concert / picnic.

What we did:
We needed to meet with district staff to seek permission to create a Miyawaki Pocket Forest on an Elementary school property. We convinced the grounds manager that students should be digging and have a hand in all aspects of the planning, preparing, planting and maintaining of the Miyawaki Pocket Forest. (MPF)

We had students dig and prepare a 45 square metre forest. Because of the high water table we ended up digging and turning over sod and soil to a depth of 30 cm to create paths. We filled in the holes we had dug by moving 45 cubic yards of soil and then began planting 400 donated indigenous saplings of different species on raised mounds. These included Shore Pine, Douglas Fir, Big Leaf Maple along with Raspberry, Salmon berry and other bushes along with Salal, Kinnikinnick, Oregon Grape, Yarrow and other ground cover.

Timeline:
1) 7 January 2025 Meeting to seek approval Grounds Team of the School District
2) 7 Jan. Saplings donation requested from local Secondary School
3) 15 Jan. Map created with all phases and approved
4) 17 Jan. Commenced digging
5) 24 Jan. Phase 1 completed
6) 30 Jan. Phase 2 completed
7) April 8 Fruit Trees, 4 additional trees: hemlock and Sitka Spruce added

Future Plans:
• Create a summer plan of families and staff to water the current 45 square metres
• Have students babysit the 160 extra potted saplings over the summer so can transplant them in the fall
• Continue to expand the MPF to the full 100 square metres
• Work on plant identification cards for each plant
• Create booklets of plant identification for each of the species of trees we planted
o See photo #18 How we are planning to study and use the forest -mpf plant examples
• Create signage for the trees, shrubs and ground cover
• Keep documenting our journey with the MPF over the years
• Photographing, Measuring and documenting plants
• Try to identify the new species of birds, insects, plants and other organisms that frequent
• Teach other schools how to create their own Miyawaki Pocket Forest 😉

Reflection & Celebration

Sharing our Ferris success stories widely over the years has consistently borne fruit. Fostering relationships with other staff in other schools along with our grounds department and parent community and the wider community has been invaluable. This has led to numerous donations which allowed us to stretch our budget to do more things. Saplings, 6 year old hemlocks, Sitka spruce, fruit trees were donated along with tools to prepare and maintain the garden.
Unbelievable dry weather in January for the We(s)t Coast encouraged us to use our trained teams of “people power”, to finish not only the Phase 1 -20 square metres but to finish Phase 2 by completing planting an additional 25 square metres. We are now almost halfway to the completion of a full scale 100 square metre Miyawaki Pocket Forest!

Sometimes we end up running projects faster than our community can accommodate. We did not have the time to explain why we were doing what we did: how 3 Climate Change events and created a dead tree legacy which became our motivator to start the Miyawaki Pocket Forest.

When you take on major projects it is important to give staff and students a better understanding of how they may be impacted and share the back story (dead tree legacy) of why we did the project. It turns out the soil was smelly and working in the fields brought some mud into the school despite our best effort to try to mitigate these problems.

While no staff or parents complained directly about the project, we heard rumblings indirectly. Once the staff / parents saw the students’ efforts, what they accomplished and what the students learned through the student created videos, the parents were most impressed and proud of the work their children and the classes contribution.

Having second hand rubber boots for some of students was very helpful for those who did not have them.

When ordering such volumes of compost/soil it is important that it be tested before it is delivered. It turns out that the soil we received had a higher ammonia content than expected. That is the compost decomposition was not complete. This has caused several of the conifers we planted to die prematurely as they needed more neutral / acidic soil. Fortunately, we have extra potted saplings that we can use to replace those that have died. The district has subsequently changed their local compost/soil supplier. ;-(

The Miyawaki Pocket Forest has been a large-scale experiment which we continue to learn resilience from. When we started to dig up the sod we encountered an old walkway / roadway causing us to change the location of part of the forest. When we unearthed a very old rusty horseshoe, led us to learn about what the history of the school property (former orchard). This also became a chemistry project to learn how to remove the rust. Once the metal was exposed, we came to appreciate how many layers of metal was used to create the horseshoe. Having several conifer saplings die prematurely led us to explore the soil composition and then explore the pH. We have attempted to use compost tea to provide beneficial bacteria and fungi to help the plants. We are planting a cover crop of rye, buckwheat, and legumes which we will dig in the fall to see if we can moderate the pH. We are also hoping the winter rains will help dilute the ammonia and further neutralize the soil. We also know that this is the first Miyawaki Pocket Forest we are aware of that has been done using a mound method and can share our experiences with other schools. As teachers/adults, we are modeling for our students to take educated risks while not knowing the outcome. Truly the Miyawaki Pocket Forest has been a great project for all “learners” to learn from! Thanks to LSF and our many supporters for the grants / donations that help make this project a reality! 😉

Celebrations:

10 Events connected to our Miyawaki Pocket Forest – MPF
1) Early January: we presented to our school at an assembly about what a Miyawaki Pocket Forest was and what we were planning to do
2) Late January: students created a video documenting the creation of the MPF
3) Early February: we presented our MPF videos to the staff to help explain what we did and why we created the forest and provide them the back story of the “dead legacy trees”
4) Late February: at a district Eco-Wise Café we presented our MPF videos and brought extra saplings for other schools to try to create their own Miyawaki Pocket Forest. 2 schools received saplings from us
5) Late February: students presented their MPF videos to their parents at their Student-Led Parent conferences
6) Late March: we were asked to present between sets at the Jellyfish Project – Eco-Musical at the Gateway Theatre. Over 600 students from 10 Elementary and Secondary schools from around Richmond were in attendance
7) June 4: Richmond School District Inquiry Grant Celebration, we will be presenting about the Elementary – Secondary Partnership and sharing with the other 45 schools about the Miyawaki Pocket Forest
8) June 18: Richmond Secondary / Ferris joint musical celebration @ Richmond Secondary’s @ their MPF
9) June 20: Ferris / Richmond Secondary students will be going to University of British Columbia’s Botanical Gardens and will be experiencing a Canopy walk in their old Growth Forests (an elevated platform to see the forest from a new perspective).
10) Future Planting in the fall of 2025

Links