
Earthwatch publishes Tiny Forest Monitoring Report 2023
26th February 2024
Earthwatch Europe has published its 2023 monitoring report for the Tiny Forest programme, showcasing the benefits that a Tiny Forest can bring to urban communities between the first and third growing season.
A Tiny Forest is a dense fast-growing native woodland. Earthwatch planted the UK’s first Tiny Forest in Witney, Oxford in 2020. Since then the movement has grown to over 200 forests, spanning the UK.
This network of Tiny Forests provides a unique opportunity to examine the environmental and social benefits of urban woodlands. In 2023, 100 Tiny Forests in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands were monitored by volunteers. The Tiny Forest Team engaged 1,744 people in citizen science events, while many others took part independently. Among the volunteers were members of our national network of Tree Keepers, members of local communities, schools and businesses.
This report reveals findings from our five Tiny Forest research topics: biodiversity; flood management; tree growth and carbon storage; thermal comfort; and social benefits.
Key findings
- Flood management: rainwater is absorbed up to 65% faster inside three-year-old forests compared to surrounding land
- Thermal comfort: the average air temperature inside a Tiny Forest was 6°C cooler than outside the forest, recorded in forests with trees 1.3m tall on average
- Carbon storage: 13-fold increase in mean carbon stored in Tiny Forests between the first and third growing season
- Biodiversity: number of ground dweller groups increases as Tiny Forests grow and the forest soil develops
- Social benefits: volunteers spent a total number of 12,057 mindful minutes observing wildlife in Tiny Forests
If you are interested in helping to record data at your local Tiny Forest or who would like to become a Tree Keeper volunteer, you can get in touch with the Tiny Forest team: tinyforest@earthwatch.org.uk. Or you can check out our upcoming events here.
Image at the top: Tiny Forest Science Day at William Torbitt Tiny Forest, Redbridge.