7 days ago
In New Jersey, Benefits Bloom in Tiny Forests
It's a tiny space, no bigger than a couple shipping containers really. But standing there, the midsummer heat recedes. So does the roar of nearby airplanes and the fishy stench of the market next door.
In this thicket of elderberry plants shaded by honey locust trees, John Evangelista finds his respite.
'This is one of the only places in Elizabeth where you can stand in the middle of a forest,' said Mr. Evangelista. 'I just love being in here.'
This 45 foot by 40 foot plot, tucked inside a small urban farm behind a library in the city of Elizabeth, N.J., was the state's first 'microforest.' It's exactly what it sounds like: a miniature forest, packed with more than 260 native plants (and one anomaly, a Kentucky coffee tree).
The project was the brainchild of Mr. Evangelista, a farmer and executive director of Groundwork Elizabeth, a nonprofit that planted the forest in 2021 with support from the New Jersey Conservation Foundation. Over the past four years, with gardening help from a paid city youth program, the group has added four more microforests. Two are outside city-owned senior housing developments and one is in a cemetery. Yet another is growing at an elementary school in a nearby town.
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