Fanshawe College will now have a new ‘mini forest’ across from Parking Lot 5. The college partnered with Reforest London, a local environmental organization, who provided all the supplies for the Sept. 23 event.. Both students and London locals were invited to volunteer to help with the planting.
After a rainy Monday morning, volunteers were set up on a large plot of wet mulch and soil across from
Parking Lot 5 on the main campus. They each worked within their own marked square, planting
a variety of native plants and trees of different sizes, close together.
“We’re looking at putting in three plants per square meter,” said Cindy Buelow, Fanshawe’s
Garden Manager. “So, it’s a very dense planting, and that’s to encourage very fast upward
growth of these trees.”
This is what horticulturalists call the Miyawaki method– an afforestation technique developed in
the 1970s by Japanese botanist, Akira Miyawaki. The dense planting of different native species helps create the natural layers of a forest right from the start, and can help the forest grow up to ten times faster than traditional planting methods allow.
Organizers from Reforest London said that the turn-out for the event was great.
“We’ve got almost 100 volunteers registered for each section that we have,” said Devon Way,
their Environmental Programs Assistant. “It’s really awesome to get the community involved,
and that they understand a bit more why it’s important to have these plantings, and people are
able to come back and see the trees they’ve planted and the impact that they’ve made.”
With the fast growth rate of this type of forest, students will soon be able to see that
impact–Buelow says that in about five years there should be a decently vegetated space.
Volunteers at the event were enjoying themselves, chatting and laughing with one another as
they dug and planted. One volunteer said that gardening is something she often
does back home.
“For me, I just recently came back from Africa,” said Alphonsina, one of the planters. “So, it’s
something I am used to doing, this kind of work.”
Still, she said digging the first hole was a bit tough.
“That one I took so long to dig,” she said, pointing to a small freshly planted tree. “But this one
didn’t take that much, now that I’m getting used to what I’m doing…Yeah, so it’s not hard. It’s
very nice, I’m enjoying it.”
