Miyawaki's One-Year Anniversary
By Kira Telgen, IATC Program & Volunteer Coordinator
This March marks the one-year anniversary of the planting of Issaquah’s first Miyawaki Forest. Funded by the Forterra NW Community Restoration Grant and the Foundation for Intelligent Life on Earth, Issaquah’s pocket forest resides just south of Confluence Park along Issaquah Creek.
Along with serving as a hub for biodiversity and carbon capture, our Miyawaki forest is a place for community. Over the past year, the City of Issaquah and the Issaquah Alps Trails Club have hosted 11 work parties, with volunteers dedicating 340 collective hours to building and improving our forest. These community members worked to plant 880 shrubs and trees, spread 35 cubic yards of mulch, and water our newly established pocket forest.
In addition to a dedicated group of volunteers, Issaquah’s Miyawaki Forest was fortunate enough to be tended by two Gibson Ek High School interns last summer, Quinalt Filo and Milo Armstrong, who watered the site weekly and helped run our summer maintenance events.
Take a look below at the development of our pocket forest throughout this past year, and please save the date for our Miyawaki one-year anniversary celebration on Thursday, May 28th, from 4 to 6 PM—details to come.
We held our first work parties in March 2025 at the Miyawaki Forest, planting our first batch of trees and shrubs.
After our spring planting, volunteers mulched the area, helping our new shrubs and trees retain moisture.
Volunteers gathered all summer long to water and weed our Miyawaki Forest.
In October 2025, we held our second round of planting.
Our Miyawaki Forest this fall, thriving after a summer of mulching, caging, and our fall planting.
