About the Miyawaki Urban Forest History Project

How We Got Started

The Miyawaki Urban Forest History Project is a project that began in 2022. Community members were tasked with coming up with an idea to utilize the empty field on the Museum grounds.

Vision

Develop an incremental plan for the field incorporating local history, the environment, and educational programming with the intent to build community.

Based on the vision, the community group, “Miyawaki Forest Friends” (MFF) found that a Miyawaki Forest was the perfect solution. Instead of a traditional museum brick and mortar building to mount exhibits, they decided to make a forest to act as the walls for their museum project.

Learn how to pronounce the Lushootseed word for White Oak.

Why we chose the White Oak acorn as our logo

According to Aristotle, an acorn, similar to human development when given a healthy environment, nurturing and proper care, can grow into its intended potential.

The Miyawaki Forest Friends have been “nurturing” the vision that was created so that someday it will become more than just a thought, but a place where all living

things can gather and grow.

The Oregon White Oak, (Quercus garryana) is Washington’s only native oak. It provides valuable habitats to support our wildlife diversity. According to the Washington Fish and Wildlife, “The decline of Oregon white oak woodlands has been accelerated by human activities –primarily oak removal.”

It is our hope that our project will also provide, as the White Oak does, a gathering spot for a diversity of people, plants, and wildlife. We also hope that we can provide information of how we as humans can begin to appreciate the value in our native plant species so that someday, we will not be so quick to cut down or eradicate that which we at first can not see the value.