Students Create Tiny Forest at Sam Houston Elementary

By Colleen Hook, Executive Director, Quinta Mazatlan

The Sam Houston Elementary community gathered in McAllen on March 7, 2024, to plant 1,800 native trees and shrubs in just a 10,000-square-foot space, creating Quinta Mazatlán’s second Schoolyard Tiny Forest. A Tiny Forest is a small, densely planted environment of native plants, just larger than a tennis court, designed for city spaces.

The students, led by principal Jessica Lowe, began the Tiny Forest inauguration with a skit titled, “I speak for the trees as they have no voice.” Thirty students presented on a different native plant and spoke of “their” benefits to people and wildlife. McAllen City Commissioner Rodolfo “Rudy” Castillo and Commissioner Tony Aguirre also spoke of the many benefits of a Tiny Forest for the children and the surrounding community.

The inspiration for Tiny Forests came from a Japanese botanist named Akira Miyawaki. The botanist would travel to old temples in Japan surrounded by remnants of historic forests, which he called “tiny forests.” Miyawaki studied the makeup of the old forests and replicated one in his hometown. Miyawaki passed in 2021 at the age of 93 and is credited with growing over 1,300 Tiny Forests.

Tiny Forests offer significant benefits, including science education with the addition of an outdoor living laboratory and forest curriculum. The project also addresses three critical environmental issues in our students’ lifetimes: climate change, loss of forests/green space, and biodiversity loss. This past year, the RGV set a record high of 97 days over 100 degrees, tripling from just a decade before.

The Executive Director of Quinta Mazatlan, Colleen Hook, thanked the non-profit group, the Friends of Quinta Mazatlan, for raising over $30,000 for the schoolyard Tiny Forest. She said, “Our valuable partnership with McAllen ISD is one that will continue to grow to benefit both education and the environment.”