Tiny forest sprouting big benefits for the environment

Published on 25 May 2023

It’s known as a ‘tiny forest’, but a new green space sprouting in Lake Macquarie is set to reap huge benefits for the local environment.

Dozens of students from Teralba Public School helped plant the forest’s first trees on Wednesday, prior to a larger-scale community planting day on Sunday.

Lake Macquarie City Council Section Manager Community Assets Rob Morris said the tiny forests concept, pioneered in Japan, called for hundreds of native trees of various species to be planted densely in enriched soil.

“Dense planting promotes competitive growth habits in the trees, and experience at other sites shows they can grow up to 10 times faster than trees in a traditional forest,” he said.

“That means this tiny forest will hopefully reach its mature structure in about 10-20 years, rather than 200 years.”

“That density also helps them become far more biodiverse than monoculture forests.”

Mr Morris said hopes were high the 750 plants to be established in the Teralba tiny forest – just 340sqm in size – would one day provide habitat for local threatened species, such as the powerful owl and the squirrel glider.

The Teralba tiny forest will also act as an outdoor classroom, with sandstone blocks installed for people to sit and enjoy the soon-to-be verdant surrounds.

The project is led by ReLeaf Lake Mac and the Lake Macquarie Sustainable Neighbourhoods Alliance, with support from Council, Earthwatch Australia, Hunter Water and Origin.

Community volunteers, called ‘Tree Keepers’, will help maintain the site for the first two years.

ReLeaf Lake Mac spokeswoman Anna Noon said tiny forests provided important stepping stones for wildlife to move through urban areas.

“Urban forests are critical to our future,” she said.

“Trees naturally capture carbon, slow stormwater runoff and reduce surrounding temperatures.”

“What we’re doing in Teralba will play a small but important part in mitigating the impacts of climate change, providing habitat for wildlife and reconnecting people with nature.”

The ReLeaf Lake Mac team will water and weed the site regularly for the first two years.

They will also undertake regular citizen science activities to monitor biodiversity, temperature, growth and biomass as the forest develops.

Lake Macquarie Mayor Kay Fraser said the new tiny forest was ideally located next to Council’s new Landcare and Sustainable Living Centre, umali barai-ku.

Environmental sustainability is one of our key priorities in Lake Mac, and I’m proud we continue to support important projects like this,” she said.