Biospheric Restoration Systems
The Green Phoenix Project
We at BRS are embarking on the development of an ambitious new reforestation method. Given that the climate crisis is accelerating rapidly, most reforestation methods cannot act quickly enough, or on a large enough scale, to capture enough carbon to prevent catastrophic levels of warming. The Miyawaki Method is capable of capturing massive amounts of carbon with rapid, biodiverse forest growth, but it is only functional on a small scale. It cannot address global climate change in its current form.
With the Green Phoenix project, we are attempting to overcome the limitations of the Miyawaki Method by adapting the methodology into a hydroponics environment. Should the Miyawaki method be adapted to this technology, it will enable it to work on a scale that was never possible before.
Imagine every 6 months, countless acres of forest being jump-started and quickly establishing themselves, rising out of the (sometimes literal) ashes like a phoenix. Whole lost ecosystems could be restored in far less than a lifetime and we will have a powerful new tool to combat the climate crisis.
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Only use native species of trees, and as many different species as possible. This results in plantings with several layers of trees of different heights, while using a mixture of shrubs and ground cover plants in the understory.
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Survey the soil of the planting site and modify it based on the results of the survey. This usually means adding perforators and organic fertilizers to the site. The site will need to be mulched to reduce weed growth. This ultimately makes the soil of the site as friendly to plants as possible, yielding faster rates of growth.
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The Miyawaki method also requires saplings to be grown under very specific conditions. Once each sapling sprouts a certain amount of leaves, they must be denied the vast majority of sunlight they would normally receive for a few months before being exposed to full sunlight. This replicates how saplings would grow in an old growth forest, as most saplings germinate under a canopy of leaves that blocks the majority of sunlight. It’s after the event of a tree fall that saplings get their required levels of light and they respond by dramatically increasing their rate of growth.
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When the saplings are planted the site requires some maintenance, usually needing someone to de-weed the site and potentially water it, depending on the local climate. However, once the trees drop their first leaves, the chemical cycle that sustains the forest has been established and it will not require maintenance ever again.