The Miyawaki Urban Forest History Project at the Shoreline Historical Museum

A Miyawaki forest being planted on the outskirts of Paris, France. Photo courtesy Boomforest

By Sally Yamasaki

For the last two years, community volunteers have been meeting at the Shoreline Historical Museum to come up with a plan to utilize the field next to the museum buildings. The museum, located at 185th and Linden in Shoreline, services the communities of Lake Forest Park, Shoreline and North Seattle.

Aerial view of the Museum with the adjacent empty field

What is visioned by the museum volunteers is to develop an incremental plan for the adjacent empty field that would incorporate local history, the environment, and educational programming with the intent to build community.

Recognizing the climate issues we all are facing and the U.S. aim to cut emissions 50-52% below 2005 levels by 2030, the museum community volunteers researched the Miyawaki method of afforestation.

Volunteers at the Shoreline Historical Museum
Photo by Sally Yamasaki

A Miyawaki forest is a type of urban forest that utilizes a technique that creates dense, diverse, and sustainable forests. This method involves planting a number of diverse native species in a small area and allowing them to grow naturally without any pesticides such that after three years, the forest becomes self-sustaining.

Community members Sally Yamasaki and Sarah Phillips recently made a presentation on how a Miyawaki Urban Forests could become the walls of their future history project, a concept being explored at the Shoreline Historical Museum.