Volunteers use Miyawaki Method to plant pocket forest in Shoreline

More than 300 people turned out in the rain and the cold Saturday to plant a tiny forest in Shoreline with a big vision.

The pocket forest at the Shoreline Historical Museum, planted by the volunteers, is intended to provide an oasis of green amid a highly developed urban heat island while supporting native plants and wildlife.

With 1,200 trees, the forest is bursting with 40 native species, in just 3,000 square feet, an approach modeled on the Miyawaki Method — named for the master Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki who developed it. Miyawaki forests are intended to bring life to bare spots, creating richly biodiverse pocket forests in urban settings without using any pesticides. Requiring watering, weeding and tending at first, they are meant to be self-sustaining in three years.

The forest, is the first phase of the museum’s vision for the property. Also planned is an outdoor history museum with pathways and a gathering area that will serve as exhibit space and classroom.

The project is the result of more than two years of planning to use what was a bald field next to the museum buildings to create, with the help of Ethan Bryson of Natural Urban Forests, a little forest that could eventually incorporate local history, environmental benefits and educational programming.