Volunteers work with UC to reforest parts of downtown

UC’s Center for Field Studies worked with the Tristate environmental group Taking Root to plant a “tiny forest” along I-75 near Hopple Street.

The urban reforestation project is modeled after a demonstration project students planted across from the field center in Crosby Township next to Miami Whitewater Forest.

Center director and UC Professor Kenneth Petren and his students are lending their expertise to the effort to create new wildlife habitat downtown using ecological practices pioneered by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki. Miyawaki or “tiny forests” restore urban spaces with densely planted, very young trees and shrubs, placed in soil augmented with compost, Petren said.

“A tiny forest grows and matures rapidly, creates a variety of microhabitats, serves pollinators, beneficial insects, and in turn, birds, ultimately creating a more mature forest quickly,” he said.

Saturday's reforestation project marked the second UC-inspired tiny forest planted by the group. In April, they planted hundreds of trees at a nearby lot in Camp Washington.

UC biology student Brady Fitzgerald is working in UC’s cooperative education program at the Center for Field Studies, where he contributes to its conservation and research projects.

UC’s co-op program helps students graduate with up to 1.5 years of paid work experience and co‑op earnings that significantly offset the cost of a degree.

“Co-op helps me pay rent where I live down at UC. That’s a great help. And it’s amazing to have a job in something I’m interested in doing,” he said. “I’m meeting a lot of people and learning a lot of skills.”

On Saturday, he helped volunteers plant hundreds of saplings. They erected deer fencing around the perimeter to protect the vulnerable plants.

Fitzgerald said he has contributed to numerous projects at the center during his co-op, from surveying aquatic life in local streams to removing nonnative species at UC’s field center, a mix of meadows, forests and classrooms on a former Shaker farm.

“We took out invasive species like Johnson grass. Now we have a good mix of native plants: oaks, maples, cherry trees,” Fitzgerald said. “The one I’m most excited about are the two disease-resistant American chestnuts. They used to be the dominant tree before chestnut blight killed almost every single one.”

Petren said events like Saturday’s tree-planting have social benefits as well, showing what people can accomplish for their community in just a couple hours.

“Bringing the community together like this is a win, regardless of what happens with the forest,” he said. “But think of the sound noise coming from the highway. You’ll feel much more buffered from that. And there will be cleaner air. And a greater heat-island dissipation here.”

The nonprofit visited UC’s field center’s tiny forest demonstration site and was convinced of its potential.

“It seemed to be gaining traction. The idea that you can plant a forest in small spaces is an incredible concept,” Taking Root President Lauren Enda said.

“These forests grow much faster. The reason is the soil is amended. We did a lot of work excavating the soil and getting out stone and rock. We mixed in good compost. And added layers of woodchips on top. The moisture stays in the soil longer,” she said.

Group Vice President Joe Vogt said the close-growing community of plants also seems to provide unseen mutual benefits among their roots, something ecologist Suzanne Simard coined the “wood wide web.”

“They really strengthen one another. Not every tree will survive, but even those that die will nourish the rest. That’s what happens in a natural forest,” Vogt said.

Featured image at top: UC Center for Field Studies co-op student Brady Fitzgerald takes part in a reforestation project Saturday in Camp Washington. Photo/Michael Miller