21/08/2020
Because buildings are responsible for 30% of the U.S. total of carbon emissions, our Urban Alternatives House project was a renovation designed to reduce these emissions and make a positive impact on larger climate change problems.
With climate change still relentlessly impacting our world I believe we should now develop a new project in Flint that works on the other side of the ledger—one that captures carbon directly from the atmosphere.
By creating a tiny forest on vacant land in a Flint neighborhood, that matures in just 10 years, is a way to effectively demonstrate how this works.
It would:
• Rapidly capture carbon because the trees grow rapidly
• Create a biodiverse environment with plants, insects and birds
• Be an outdoor science and math learning opportunity
• Improve storm water management, reduce air pollution and
limit mowing
• Be a positive community project bringing people together to
understand natural systems, their link to climate change and
what they can do about it
In addition, if we execute the project correctly, we also might be able to certify it and qualify for carbon offset credits which could generate a small revenue stream for the communities that are involved.
So, does growing a mature, multi-canopied forest in 10 years sound too good to be true?
It isn’t.
In the 1970’s Akira Miyawaki developed a method of rapidly growing small urban forests and recently Shubhendu Sharma with his company, Afforestt, have been putting these ideas into action in many parts of the world.
Please watch this video and see how it worked in a small European city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDSlft037gk&t=22s
And If you are interested in more of the background and science, read the article in the link below:
https://daily.jstor.org/the-miyawaki-method-a-better-way-to-build-forests/
Can you give some feedback about whether developing a tiny forest in a Flint neighborhood based on these principles sounds like a good idea?
And if it does maybe you have suggestions of communities and locations where we could start. Perhaps associated with an elementary school? Afforestt would contract to create a forest for us, but they also provide some do-it-yourself guidelines on their web site, and I think we have access to resources in the community so that we can do it ourselves.
Let’s start a conversation about how we might make this happen!
India’s forest production company is following the tenets of the master Japanese botanist, restoring biodiversity in resource-depleted communities.
