“Canadian wildlife populations have declined almost 70 per cent over the last 50 years,” says John Geiger, CEO of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. “Development has stressed and eliminated enormous tracts of native habitat, and we know habitat loss and degradation are the primary causes of decline for 82 per cent of species at risk in Canada. With the help of individual Canadians, governments, and corporate landowners, we can reverse this trend.” 

The Network of Nature was launched on Oct. 14 with a tree-planting event at the Toronto Zoo – the first in a series of plantings that will take place across the country. With around 50 volunteers, approximately 900 trees were planted in under six hours, creating essential new habitat for local species as well as migratory animals and pollinators. All the trees planted are native species found within the forested areas of the zoo grounds, including sugar maple, red oak, ironwood, black cherry, hemlock and serviceberry, among others.

Planted as a Miyawaki forest (a densely planted forest smaller than a tennis court), these trees will assist in absorbing carbon, mitigating stormwater runoff and improving air quality. Named after the Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, who invented the planting method about 40 years ago, Miyawaki forests are made up of diverse, locally native species in a multilayered design created to replicate the intricacy of a native forest. 

“What I love as an ecologist about this method is that it’s recognizing that trees, like humans, are social creatures,” says Heather Schibli, a landscape architect, ecologist and arborist with Dougan & Associates. “They’ve evolved with other species; they are not happy being isolated in a patch of grass.”

Schibli adds that many people are unaware of the complex fungal systems that develop underground and are essential to the success of a healthy forest. “There’s a lot happening below ground too.”