April 2023 event: Planting a Tiny Forests
Pocket Forests
In April, we held a talk by award-winning writer Catherine Cleary, about her company Pocket Forests. Co-founded with event planner and Australian tree nut Ashe Conrad-Jones, the company plants small native forests in urban areas.
Pocket Forests began as a social enterprise in 2020. Catherine is a journalist by training and was a restaurant reviewer for The Irish Times, while Ashe worked in the events business. Both of these industries came to a halt during the pandemic. Around the same time, the climate and biodiversity crises came into sharp focus.
“Suddenly, parks and the sea became the places everyone wanted to be. When our cultural and busy lives stopped or changed, many of us found ourselves going to nature,” Catherine said.
Catherine and Ashe lived a few streets away from each other, in an area of Dublin with very little green space – about one metre per person. The WHO recommends 9 square metres per person in urban areas.
Ashe came across the idea of tiny forests, a concept originated by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki 30 years ago to create dense forests with native plants. The concept has been adapted over time to suit smaller and smaller urban spaces.
Three-step process
Catherine and Ashe use a three-step process to create pocket forests. First, they bring residents of a local community together to plan the forest. Next, they aerate and feed the soil using repurposed materials. Last, they plant native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers, and they help communities learn to care for them.
Their next project will be developing tools that allow groups of people to replicate the process in different parts of the country.