Miyawaki mini-forests enable residents of heat vulnerable neighborhoods to build heat resiliency and create healthier, more livable environments.
Our project reinforces tree canopy expansion by Chicago's Department of Environment, the Morton Arboretum, Openlands, and Treekeepers.

Elementary school students, faculty, staff, and parents experiment with the Miyawaki technique and gain mastery. They will then be able to use this technique to expand greenspace in other areas of their neighborhood that are deficit in tree canopy cover.

Our project expands the skills and knowledge base that support residents in their efforts to improve their environment by direct action.

Miyawaki mini-forests mature ten times as fast as natural forests. Students will graduate from eighth grade with the experience of having achieved meaningful and visually dramatic change. This, as much as any material benefits, is central to our project: We are building a cohort of local, environmental activists starting with students young enough to be optimistic about the dealing with climate change.

The project is an outgrowth of ongoing environmental justice efforts at the Jordan School location. The initial component was the Network 49 Vine Trellis Project, in which students quantify the reduction of heat load on buildings by shading the walls. The second component was stormwater retention by adding contours to perennial beds. Both techniques are inexpensive, easy to implement, and flexible. They can be adapted to diverse locations and needs.

We are collaborating with Chicago City Park District staff to expand both the heat reduction and the stormwater retention components into the adjacent city park in the spring of 2026.

The three components (Miyawaki mini-forest, Vine Trellis Project, and stormwater retention contouring) all reduce the high average summer temperatures and the high incidence of flooding that occur, as is typical of under-served urban areas, in the school's vicinity,