Yakama Nation, USA

Healing Forest

A forest that restores the harmony to body, mind & spirit.

Our goal is to transform a barren landscape into a thriving, lush forest at the“Yakama Nation Corrections & Rehabilitation Facility” to nourish the land and restore the lives of inhabitants.

The Healing Forest will teach the wisdom of the old ways, in which individuals live in balance with themselves, their neighbors, and the natural world. Illness happens when this harmony is broken.

This is to be a forest that restores harmony to body, mind, and spirit, and to relationships with family, community, and nature.

Forest Maker Ethan Bryson

Yakama Nation Healing Forest sustainable project

7,500

trees

23,000

SQUARE FEET

native species

This site for the forest at the Yakama Nation Corrections & Rehabilitation Facility.

After nineteen months of growth, the Healing Forest is flourishing.

Forest Partner

“With the right attention we can nurture a barren space to become a model of natural diversity and abundance. The way we treat the life around us is a reflection of ourselves. For the long term wellbeing of our planet and ensuring healthy communities we need to care for life in the soil, and enliven the return of nature's bounty.”

— Ethan Bryson, Urban Natural Forests

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Twelve months of growth at the Healing Forest:

“I have never observed growth like that. The smaller trees were only about 8-10 inches and those trees are now 3 feet."

— SUGi Forest Maker Ethan Bryson

Why a Healing Forest?

Our goal is to transform a barren landscape into a thriving, lush forest at the“Yakama Nation Corrections & Rehabilitation Facility” to nourish the land and restore the lives of inhabitants.

The Healing Forest will teach the wisdom of the old ways, in which individuals live in balance with themselves, their neighbors, and the natural world. Illness happens when this harmony is broken. This is to be a forest that restores harmony to body, mind, and spirit, and to relationships with family, community, and nature.

Between months eleven and twelve, significant growth was observed in the Healing Forest. During this time, some trees grew as much as three feet.

Native Species & Traditional Medicine

We will combine the Miyawaki Method with site specific attention to the soil biota to ensure soil health and nutrient retention.

Forest matrix selection with up to 36 total species in 4 ascending layers (shrub, subtree, tree, and canopy). Some examples include once common trees and shrubs to the habitat zone for the selected site as well as Black Cottonwood, Scouler Willow, Trembling Aspen, Wild Rose, Buffalo Berry, Native Blackberries, and Huckleberry.

Medicinal herbs to be planted include: stinging nettles for pain relief; tree moss for overall health; huckleberry leaves to settle the stomach; pine needle tea for digestive health; and yarrow for wound-healing.