"And we just dunk it all the way in.
And see it's bubbling up right now?" "Like really gross coffee." "Like really gross coffee, exactly.
Full of plant material." This is Maya Dutta. And she's introducing a new kind of forest to Massachusetts. "Beautiful." It's called a Miyawaki forest. A dense, biodiverse plantation
with only native tree species. "Welcome home." The Miyawaki forest aims to recreate
the natural forest of a given area, prior to massive deforestation and development. Miyawaki forests were first introduced in Japan
in the 1970s by ecologist Akira Miyawaki. And they aim to benefit not just humans,
but the entire local ecosystem. What's more, they're designed to become
self-sufficient 2 to 3 years after planting. The first Miyawaki forest Maya helped plant in Cambridge now looks like this, two years after planting. The forest is designed to rapidly become a climax forest, an ecosystem that, in nature, could
take hundreds of years to form. In the past 5, 10 years, there have been hundreds
planted in different regions around the world. It's also great to have started the
branch of it here in the northeast. Maya's second Miyawaki forest project packs
900 plants into 1400 square feet of land. The forest has some 50 native plant species, such as swamp white oak,
groundsel tree and quaking aspen. "I'll submerge them until all the air bubbles are gone." The species are identified with the help of
specialists and indigenous groups. "Tamp it down lightly." And these plants do much more than absorb carbon. The idea is to create a high functioning ecosystem of plants that are adapted to each other
and to the local species nearby. Insects have evolved with certain plants over time. So once you lose that plant, then you lose that insect, and then you lose whatever eats that insect. So it's kind of a ripple effect in the ecosystem. Biodiversity is a principle of how you create and
sustain a healthy and flourishing planet, making water available, clean air, habitable temperatures, the things that we all need to survive. The saplings of a Miyawaki forest need to be
planted in rich soil like that of a mature forest. And that's hard to come by in urban lands. In this case, the soil underneath
a public lawn was first loosened, then mixed with compost, biochar and other materials, which jumpstarts the underground microbial life
that provides nutrients to the plants. "Good stuff." We plant those species that we've selected very densely, to facilitate both the cooperative,
dense, beautiful root network underground, and also to foster some competition for upward growth. This is Maya's first Miyawaki forest, a year after planting. Once planted, the forest needs weeding
and watering for 2 to 3 years. Then, as a dense canopy forms, nature takes over. That canopy then shades out the weeds,
and holds the humidity in the system, so that it doesn't need to be watered, and it doesn't need to be maintained any way whatsoever. At that point, they're doing that same process
that we see in natural forests: produce new growth, have that leaf drop down into the soil, have fungi decompose that. They can kind of stand on their own, so to speak. "We're making great progress.
We've got a section done and mulched. And I get to just keep talking about Miyawaki
forests and what we're doing here." I had grown up in a time of knowing about global warming, hearing all of these dire predictions, but not seeing any kind of large actions being taken on it. And certainly through college, my M.O. was like: "I can't handle it. I will try not to think about it." After graduating college, I worked in the
tech industry for a couple of years. It was a very comfortable life. But I kept getting more and more agitated by
my understanding of climate change. I was really sad. I was really angry. I was really, I think, predominantly scared. Eventually, Maya changed her career. She joined Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, a Cambridge-based group that educates people
on the importance of ecological restoration. "They're all native trees, so they all belong in this area." As a project manager, she worked with the local government, professional forest planters, and residents
to create the two Miyawaki forests. Today, she's working on three more in Massachusetts. "That's beautiful! I love this one." I think another hallmark of these forests is that
they are community-based and community-led. It's changed my relationship to people, to view people as collaborators or
potential collaborators and allies. "I'm here for helping the city. Growing, you know?" "Yeah. Great!" "As a parent, I'm always trying to
think about how we involve our kids in taking steps towards a better climate. So that it doesn't just become this big thing of
anxiety, but we feel engaged in solutions." "A little bit in disbelief. It happened. We got it done." As you do restoration on a landscape, you can start to see those effects
take place in a matter of years. And so if that's something that we can
work on at a large enough scale, we can see tremendous changes for health
and for resilience in a generation. And so, knowing that that is possible, seeing with my eyes the examples of that happening, that's grounded hope to me.
