2026 Northeast Miniforest Bus Tour

Visit four Massachusetts miniforests and explore how the Miyawaki Method is being adapted across diverse landscapes and communities.
About this Event

Saturday, July 18, 2026 | 8:30 AM–5:00 PM ET

Starting and ending at Somerville High School, Somerville, MA

Join us on Saturday, July 18, for a full-day tour of four Massachusetts miniforests that showcase the diverse ways the Miyawaki Method is being adapted across the region.

From dense urban neighborhoods and school campuses to restored agricultural land and post-industrial landscapes, participants will visit sites at different stages of development and learn directly from the practitioners, researchers, municipal leaders, and community members who helped bring them to life.

Space is limited and advance registration is required.We kindly ask participants to arrive between 8:30 and 8:45 AM so that we can begin the tour promptly. A boxed lunch will be provided.

The bus tour is part of the 2026 Northeast Miniforest Summit. Bringing together practitioners, researchers, educators, landscape architects, municipal leaders, and community organizers, the Summit creates space to share experiences, exchange knowledge, and learn from projects unfolding across diverse ecological and social contexts.

Building on the momentum of the inaugural 2025 Summit, this year's program includes two virtual half-days, an in-person bus tour of Massachusetts miniforests, and a special pre-Summit screening of filmmaker Angelina Lee's documentary Making a Mini-Forest.

Learn more at miniforests.bio4climate.org

Optional Pre-Summit Events (Separate Registration Required)

2026 Northeast Miniforest Summit

July 22–23, 2026 | Virtual

Two half-days of programming (12–5 PM ET and 12–6 PM ET)

Join practitioners, researchers, educators, and community leaders for two half-days of learning, conversation, and connection exploring miniforests and the Miyawaki Method. Featuring keynote presentations by Ethan Tapper and Mio Urata.

Learn More & Purchase Tickets

Making a Mini-Forest Documentary Screening

July 15, 2026 | 7–9 PM ET | Virtual

Join filmmaker Angelina Lee for a special screening of Making a Mini-Forest, followed by a live conversation and audience Q&A.

Learn More & Purchase Tickets

What is the Miyawaki Method?

Developed by Japanese ecologist Dr. Akira Miyawaki, the Miyawaki Method creates dense, diverse miniforests using native trees and shrubs. By preparing the soil and planting at high density, these forests can establish quickly—even in urban environments—supporting biodiversity, improving soil health, retaining water, cooling neighborhoods, and creating opportunities for community stewardship.

Watch this video to learn more:

This urban forest becomes self-sufficient in three years

This event is organized by Biodiversity for a Livable Climate.For more information, visit miniforests.bio4climate.org or email [email protected] with any questions.

About Biodiversity For a Livable Climate

For more than a decade, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate has worked to raise awareness about the vital role of biodiversity and nature-based solutions in regulating the Earth's climate.

A pioneer of the Miyawaki Method in the United States, the organization helped bring this approach to New England, launching the region’s first miniforest in 2021 in collaboration with SUGi and the City of Cambridge. Since then, it has supported the planting of eight miniforests across Massachusetts, demonstrating how this approach can take root across diverse urban sites. In 2025, Bio4Climate convened the inaugural Northeast Miniforest Summit—mobilizing a regional network of practitioners to exchange knowledge, build relationships, and support the continued emergence of miniforests across the region.

Tour Schedule

🕑: 08:30 AM
START & STOP 1: Somerville High School Miniforest — Somerville, MA

Info: Tour led by Alison Maurer, Planner of Ecological Restoration, Public Space and Urban Forestry, City of Somerville

The Somerville Miyawaki forest, created in collaboration with Biodiversity For a Livable Climate and SUGi, tucked away on the new high school campus, reckons with the complexities of planting in a dense urban landscape. In October 2023, over 80 volunteers planted 400+ trees on an unused patch of land. The forest, made up primarily of species found in an oak-hickory forest, is sandwiched between complex infrastructure and high-traffic areas—an experiment to see how a dense forest planting fares in novel and challenging urban conditions. Now in its third summer, the forest is adding an ecological and educational resource to the very heart of Somerville.

Stop 2: Gateway Park — Everett, MA

Info: Tour led by Casey-Lee Bastien, Landscape Architect/ Ecologist, Senior Associate, BSC Group Inc & Riley Noble, Landscape Designer & Tom Philbin, Conservation Agent.

The reforest project is 5 acres of reforestation including trails and various ecotones, soils, and hydrology. The forest planting replacing fields of phragmites and occurs over a brown field part of former Monsanto chemical plant where deed restrictions limit what sort of restoration and analysis can be done.

Lunch

Info: A boxed lunch will be provided.

STOP 3: Wright-Locke Farm Conservancy Miniforest — Winchester, MA

Info: Tour led by Prassede Calabi, Founder and Project Director, WIN Fast Forest, and Walter Kittredge, Ecology Advisor and Founder of Oakhaven Sanctuary Nursery

We restored 6,000 square feet of abandoned agricultural land to a red swamp maple wetland. Nearly 1,100 plants of 40 species were planted, 17 species are trees. At one year, mortality was minimal, trees and tall shrubs are taller than 5 feet and the canopy is dense. Community involvement is high—we say “a fast forest is 51% plants, 49% community”—and includes Eagle and Silver Award Scout projects, a curriculum unit in Winchester High School AP science classes, faith communities, Rotary, 35 planners, 155 donors/honorees, and 200 planters. Ongoing research includes tree survivorship, invertebrate census, and drone imagery.

STOP 4: Belmont High School — Belmont, MA

Info: Tour led by Jean Devine (MFAB Steward), Anne-Marie Lambert (MFAB Community Development), Jessica B. Smith (MFAB Education Committee), Sarah Wang (MFAB Chair)

The Belmont Mini-Forest, planted on Oct. 25, 2025, is a densely planted (~1140 trees in ~280 m2), diverse (32 species) forest on the Belmont High School campus. Site evaluation led to the selection of a High-terrace Floodplain Forest as a natural model. The effort was initiated and led by Miyawaki Forest Action Belmont (MFAB), an intergenerational group of residents, with technical and ecological guidance from Biodiversity for a Livable Climate and botanist and ecological advisor Walter Kittredge. The Mini-Forest provides Belmont students, teachers, and community members with a “living laboratory” to learn about strategies for climate change mitigation, ecosystem restoration, biodiversity, resiliency, and environmental stewardship. The forest also fosters reflection, creative inspiration, and wonder.

🕑: 05:00 PM
END: Somerville High School — Somerville, MA