Miyawaki Forest Expansion

Green Space, Park Access, and Trees

City of Los Angeles

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

Los Angeles has 450 parks and recreation facilities that feed the soul, health and community pride of its residents. In the face of climate change, LAPF is creatively implementing new landscape practices to preserve public parks and greenspace. Current park landscaping relies on non-native species that grow quickly but won't survive water rationing, higher temperatures, infestations and fires. It's time to start designing our parks for the future. Trees and plants combat urban heat island effect, remove particulates from the air, sequester carbon, and retain rainwater. They also yield social benefits such as improved park utilization, mental and physical health, and community beautification. Our work aims to rectify early city development that created inequitable park, tree and shade distribution in low-income communities and communities of color. Together, we can create beautiful, climate adapted, drought-resistant parks using native species that foster biodiversity and save water.

LAPF is seeking funding to create three new Miyawaki Forests. This method uses dense, multi-layered, intensely diverse but hyper-local plantings that grow ten times faster than traditional forests. They have small square footage requirements, low-water requirements, a central walking path and become fully established in just three years. LAPF planted its demonstration Miyawaki Forest at the Bette Davis Picnic Area in Griffith Park in June, 2021. Today the forest is fully grown and is one of the few Mediterranean Miyawaki gardens in existence. Its 146 native plants were installed in one day and today the tallest of the Toyon trees is 17 feet tall! Since the plants create a self-contained micro-system, it requires very little maintenance and water. As a pilot, we codified learnings and best practices that will inform replication and scale of Miyawakis throughout the city. We're now identifying park-poor areas with low tree canopy that will benefit from this accelerated greening effect, along with increased biodiversity, heat mitigation and forest bathing. We're also looking to experiment with different models, such as installing a Miyawaki in a highly urbanized Pocket Park, creating a highly curated forest with signage for native species for educational purposes, and experimenting with a habitat-based riparian garden along a body of water. Most plants will be grown from seed at LAPF's nursery in Griffith Park.

If funded, the Miyawaki Expansion Project will launch a new era in Los Angeles' community park experience that centers the human experience of being in nature even in the most concrete-dense areas of the city. These three forests are just the beginning, with a total of 100 Park Forests planned by 2030. Our goal is to scale the Miyawaki model throughout the five regions of the Department of Recreation and Parks, creating systems-change in how we re-forest and re-habitat Los Angeles with native plants, animals, birds, insects and reptiles. Alongside this project, LAPF will build the capacity of its Commonwealth Nursery in Griffith Park which will cultivate native plants in a hyper-local two-mile radius, creating a seed to plant pipeline that will provide native species to the city's parks at no cost. These gardens will become centers of education for residents of the city, as well as Parks staff who will learn about native plants, water conservation and new models of landscaping.

The pilot Miyawaki Forest in Griffith Park is a 1,000 square foot circle composed of 145+ native plant and tree species. It was designed to test the model in Los Angeles, providing insights into species selection, planting design, water use, maintenance and replicability. Over the past two years, LAPF's Nursery Director carefully monitored plant survival rates, the introduction of non-planted species, water use, plant height, width and health, plant growth patterns, and tree and plant placement. At 6-month intervals, we conducted plant census and growth events and captured data in a spreadsheet. We also observed the presence of birds, bees, ladybugs, lizards and western toads in the forest. The new forests will be monitored and evaluated in the same way. It has been stunning to see what can happen in just 24 months using this densely planted method that forces plants to compete with each other for sun, while creating inter-dependent root systems that use water extremely efficiently.