Ayer Devens | Pocket Forests
What is a Pocket Forest?
A pocket forest is a small planting designed to boost the livability of urban and suburban neighborhoods. These forest patches are hyper-diverse, very dense, and often include design features like snags to mimic some of the characteristics of forests.
By (re)introducing a high diversity of well-adapted species and habitat features,
these clusters of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants:
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provide food and shelter to local wildlife
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sequester and store carbon
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capture stormwater
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filter air pollution
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help cool local surroundings
About Pocket Forests
Pocket Forests are a densely planted area about the size of a tennis court (~2,800 sq.ft.) that provides a biodiverse array of soils and plants that support accelerated forest development to maximize benefits per square foot of land.
Pocket Forest Benefits
Pocket forests are one of many nature-based solutions! Benefits include:
Wildlife: The denseness of growth provides a greater amount of forage for pollinators and refuge for birds. More canopy cover shades out weeds and creates a cool home for insects, plus the increased leaf litter builds fertility and life in the soil.
Health: Pocket forests are a tool to help reconnect people with nature, which has many physical and mental health benefits.
Pocket forests are one of many nature-based solutions identified in the 2021 Apple Country Natural Climate Solutions project.
The “Miyawaki” method is a method of constructing pocket forests. This site provides a great overview of this method and many of the reasons why Devens and Ayer are partnering to building more Pocket Forests in our communities: https://www.sugiproject.com/blog/the-miyawaki-method-for-creating-forests
Our friends in Cambridge are building a pocket forest using the Miyawaki method - check it out: https://bio4climate.org/miyawaki-forest/
Earthwatch Europe shares great info about pocket forests here:
https://earthwatch.org.uk/get-involved/tiny-forest
5 Media Foundation reports on tiny forests in India, Iran, and Singapore
https://fivemedia.com/articles/the-tiny-forests-regreening-our-cities/
Forest Resources
Spotlight: Suzanne Simard
Suzanne Simard is the author of Finding the Mother Tree. Below are resources that introduce and discuss her work. Themes in this book will be present in the Ayer Devens Forest Guides.
More on the Wood Wide Web
Spotlight: Carbon Storage
Online Resources
Articles
Using Our Forests to Fight Climate Change,
Visualizing Carbon Storage in Earth's Ecosystems,
Metrowest Conservation Alliance
Trees? Yes, please. How forest bathing can help you heal,
Boston Globe
Exploring How and Why Trees "Talk" to Each Other,
Yale Environment 360
Why Keeping Mature Forests Intact is Key to the Climate Fight,
Yale Environment 360
The Conversation
Trees: Our Mental, Physical, Climate Change Antidote,
WBUR
Don't Burn Trees to Fight Climate Change - Let Them Grow,
The New Yorker
Biomass is false solution to climate change,
CommonWealth Magazine
Forest-Climate Working Group Policy Platform for 117th Congress,
Forest-Climate Working Group
Northeast Wilderness Trust
UMass Amherst MassWoods
UMass Amherst MassWoods
UMass Amherst MassWoods
Restoring Old Growth Characteristics
UMass Amherst MassWoods
Using Trees and Vegetation to Reduce Heat Islands
US EPA
https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/using-trees-and-vegetation-reduce-heat-islands
Podcasts