Thank you Savannah Sellers for reporting on the first Miyawaki Method pocket forest in NYC. iDig2Learn is so grateful for lead partner and global forest builder SUGi who funded the 1,500 trees and shrubs creating the forest at Southpoint Park on Roosevelt Island. Locally, RIOC navigated the space and maintains the forest with us. Local partners GRIN, Big Reuse, RI Garden Club and Greenwood Cemetery helped us amend the soil reusing nutrient-rich compost and creating a protective covering of wood chips. Forest Makers Ethan Bryson and Travis Andy joined us to prep the land and teamed up with experts Marylee Smunitee Jones of the Yakama peoples from the NW coast. Curtis Zunigha of the Lenape Center of the Lenape peoples here in NYC alongside the Yakama held a naming ceremony and blessed the land, planting the first tree and helped guide historically significant native plant selection during the creation of this forest.
