Green Pocket Forests presents webinar series for U.S. Forest Service

IAHV’s Green Pocket Forests along with Green Schoolyards America ’s presented for the U.S. Forest Service Urban Forest Connections webinar series.The webinar series creates a stage for experts to share the latest science, practice, and policy on urban and community forestry. Topics include issues affecting the health of people and the health of the trees and forests that communities depend on to moderate local climate extremes, and provide food, shelter, water, wildlife habitat, environmental justice, artistic expression and spiritual healing.

The Green Pockets Forest seminar explored the opportunities and best practices in greening schoolyards with an intention to inspire other schools and communities around the country to bring Miyawaki Forests to children across America. In many communities across the country, school grounds are the best opportunity for greening up and cooling down nature-deprived neighborhoods. When the school community is involved in planning, planting, and caring for climate-adapted trees we also have an opportunity to foster climate literacy along with native biodiversity, resilience, and heat mitigation. A new, global movement of “forest-makers” is growing out of the successes in establishing micro-forests using the Miyawaki method. The webinar explored the opportunities and barriers, processes and best practices in establishing trees at schools and creating mini forests where they are needed most.