A book club that reads about sustainability, climate change and environmental justice got tired of feeling helpless and decided to organize the planting of Iowa’s first claimed “mini-forest” with the help of the city of West Des Moines and a Waukee elementary school.

“It can get pretty depressing and you feel like you can’t address issues,” reading about the topics the club does,” said Diane Ford, a Des Moines member of the book club. “We often feel overwhelmed by moving forward.”

But after reading Hannah Lewis’ book, “Mini-Forest Revolution: Using the Miyawaki Method to Rapidly Rewild the World,” and seeing the author speak at Iowa State University, the club moved forward by quite literally digging in and organizing the planting of a mini-forest at Brookview Park in West Des Moines, near Brookview Elementary School.

A mini-forest should reach maturity in about 15 years, compared to a century or more with a larger forest, Ford said.

That means the community will get the benefits to air, water, soil and education much faster from the stand of 1,200 plantings of Iowa native species in an area about the size of a tennis court, or one-tenth of an acre.

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The mini-forest’s started on Friday and was celebrated on site by city and school officials and community members, including Brookview elementary students who helped plant throughout the day.

“This felt like something we could do,” book club member and volunteer Walter Pearson said.

Pearson said the city paid for the seedlings, donated the park land and had staff donate their time, including to auger the holes for the trees and shrubs. Other supporters included the First Unitarian Church of Des Moines, the Waukee school district’s Aspiring Professional Experience high school program, Des Moines Valley Friends Meeting and more than a dozen private individuals.

What trees are in the mini-forest?

West Des Moines City Forester Paul Tauke said the trees in the mini-forest include varieties of oak, pecan, sycamore, hazelnut, birch, elderberry, ninebark, paw paw, maple and black cherry.

The city will water the stand as needed, and volunteers will weed it as needed, Tauke said.

More: New plans for West Des Moines arboretum include 300 trees, museum with crafts, playground

Part of the stand will be fenced in, while a portion will not. Tauke said that’s an experiment to see how necessary it is to have protection from deer and rabbits in order for the mini-forest to be successful.

That matters because he said he hopes the project will inspire private property owners and other schools to do their own planting.

Ann Y. Robinson, a Des Moines member of the book club, said there’s been interest in Ames and Urbandale for mini-forests. Michael Andreski, a member of the West Des Moines Community School District’s Board of Education in attendance at Friday’s event, said his district also is thinking about creating a mini-forest but has not yet picked a location.

What is a mini-forest?

The “Miyawaki Method” of densely planting a small area with native species was developed in the 1970s by the late Japanese botanist and plant ecologist Akira Miyawaki.

The New York Times reported in August 2023 that Miyawaki’s legacy is “transforming dusty highway shoulders, parking lots, schoolyards and junkyards worldwide. Tiny forests have been planted across Europe, in Africa, throughout Asia and in South America, Russia and the Middle East. India has hundreds, and Japan, where it all began, has thousands.”

According to the Times, Miyawaki got the idea from observing how clusters of indigenous trees around Japan’s temples and shrines were healthier than those in plantations or forests grown after logging.

Tauke said the secret to a mini-forest’s quick growth is the competition between the closely planted trees — they can only grow up to find sunlight, not out.

“Whatever grows best will take over the forest,” he said.

People interested in financially supporting or volunteering to take care of the mini-forest in West Des Moines can visit the city’s website at wdm.iowa.gov and search for “Brookview Park,” according to a news release from the city.

Phillip Sitter covers the western suburbs for the Des Moines Register. Phillip can be reached via email at psitter@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @pslifeisabeauty.