“It keeps me afloat”: a teacher and mother finds hope in BC’s first Miyawaki Pocket Forest

With the support of our partner BC Hydro, Science World spotlights teachers leading their communities with clean energy mindsets and power smart practices for a brighter future. 

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In the 1970s, Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki developed a method for creating a small and thriving ecosystem that could grow to the height of a mature forest in as little as ten years.

The benefits of such growth are as dense as the forests themselves: the adaptations of native plants require no watering or maintenance; soil structure is secured in the face of earthquakes and tsunamis; an exponential increase of biodiversity allows creatures above and belowground to flourish; foliage provides shade and cools temperatures in hot urban centres; and more.

Today, thanks to the expertise of permaculturist Bruno Vernier; the support of Garden City Conservation Society and Earth Literacies Society; the work of Creative & Community Engagement Artist J Peachy; the RHS Green Team; and dozens of volunteer community members, BC’s first and only official Miyawaki Pocket Forest exists on the grounds of Richmond Secondary School.  

Initially, the Green Team—a group of high school students dedicated to fighting climate change—intended to plant its seedlings in the spring, until Bruno Vernier advised they wait until fall.

“When the roots are dormant,” explains the Green Team’s teacher-sponsor Eugene Harrison, “they can settle into their environment. So that, come springtime, all they have to do is grow.”

The Forest for the Trees

It took dozens of volunteers from several community groups to excavate the land and get the hundreds of native-to-BC seedlings—shore pines, vine maples, salmonberry, and thirty more species—into the ground last November.

In addition to this strenuous physical labour, Eugene says, learning the protocols for Indigenous involvement from the local First Nations was complex. She acknowledges the limited perspective of her immigrant mindset.

“Even as an environmentalist, I didn’t understand the importance of Indigenous knowledge to this work,” Eugene admits. “This process has shown how it’s inextricably connected.”

Richmond Secondary is near the Fraser River estuary, the unceded land of the Musqueam peoples for thousands of years.

The name Musqueam comes from the river grass, məθkʷəy̓, that grows in tidal mouth of the Fraser River.

Eugene sought the support of Alec Dan, a cultural representative from Musqueam Nation, who approved the Green Team’s Miyawaki Pocket Forest and agreed with the engagement of several more Coast Salish artists to bring the ecosystem to life.

Smooth Sailing

In 1995, Jean-Michele Cousteau helmed the first LIFEboat Flotilla—a fleet of small ships carrying 200 teenagers through an archipelago off the coast of BC for ten days of immersive environmental education.  

Before the launch, a reporter asked Cousteau how the journey might affect these high school students.

 “They’ll never be the same,” he definitively pronounced. “They will become ambassadors of the environment.”

In Eugene’s case, he was right.

She remembers her turn on the LIFEboat Flotilla at the age of 15 as one of the most impactful times of her life. She learned to sail on the open water, docking on several Gulf Islands to explore the flora and fauna of each microenvironment.

She met Jane Goodall, who taught her how to do a chimp call, and told stories of her lifelong goal to protect chimp habitats.

“And then, I remember her explaining, that there are so many animals,” Eugene pauses, her voice catches in her throat, “who need our protection.”

Eugene pursued her post-secondary education in the direction of journalism, thinking she’d report on these kinds of environmental stories.

Out of pragmatism, her plans changed, and she completed a teaching degree instead—her student loans covered it, and she figured she could travel the world and have a job wherever she landed.

But having children changed her perspective once again. “I have two daughters,” she explains. “It’s a family of four. If we fly, that’s four times the emissions.” They’ve avoided long-haul flights for ten years.

And Eugene has found her calling in the classroom, boosting her curriculum with resources from BC Hydro such as their Power Smart for Schools program and their annual energy challenges.  

“I have a lot of anxiety about climate change,” Eugene says. “Doing this work keeps me afloat.”

With her family, she embarks on more environmentally friendly adventures, such as hiking days-long trails in the Rocky Mountains and exploring the coastline of the Salish Sea.

This spring break, they’ll drive their electric car for two days to Utah to camp among the sandstone cliffs of Zion National Park.

She’s excited for late March, to return to the Lower Mainland after the snow has melted, when she and her students can observe the Pocket Forest as it unfurls its new shoots.

She knows the burst of growth they’re about to experience will amaze them all.

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Across BC, teachers like Eugene make schools and communities more sustainable.  

Visit Power Smart for Schools, BC Hydro’s free, curriculum-friendly resources that bring clean energy and conservation to life in the classroom.