By Ericka O’Connell, Roosevelt Island Daily
Hello, friends! This past Saturday, Roosevelt Island marked a milestone that feels both local and global. To kick off Climate Week 2025, neighbors, community partners, and environmental advocates gathered to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Manhattan Healing Forest, New York City’s first-ever pocket forest.
Planted with care using the Miyawaki Method, this project has become more than a collection of trees. It’s a living classroom, a refuge, and a hopeful model for what green innovation can look like in dense urban spaces like ours.
A Year of Healing in a Small Forest
The Manhattan Healing Forest, located right here on Roosevelt Island, came to life through the dedication of iDig2Learn, SUGi, the Lenape Center, and the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC). It was a bold idea: to create a thriving mini-ecosystem in a corner of our city better known for concrete than canopy.
In just one year, the pocket forest has shown remarkable progress. What began as saplings now stretches upward in dense, leafy layers, drawing birds, insects, and neighbors alike. More importantly, it demonstrates the transformative power of the Miyawaki Method, which emphasizes planting dense, native species that restore biodiversity and grow quickly without chemical inputs.
A Climate Week Celebration
The anniversary was celebrated in tandem with Climate Week, an event that asks all of us to look closely at our role in protecting the planet. At the gathering, RIOC President and CEO B.J. Jones reflected on the urgency of the work:
“We need to use every tool at our disposal to combat climate change, particularly in densely populated urban centers that often favor hot asphalt and concrete over green spaces. This is where the Miyawaki Method of planting pocket forests can truly be transformative.”
Jones highlighted how this small forest already serves as a template for the city—proof that compact but ambitious green projects can thrive in urban environments.
A Legacy in the Making
More than just a patch of green, the Manhattan Healing Forest represents resilience. It’s a gift of shade, oxygen, and beauty, but it also serves as a cultural and ecological bridge. With guidance from the Lenape Center, the project honors the land’s deeper history and invites us to rethink our relationship with the natural world.
A year in, the forest is not finished—it’s only beginning. As trees grow taller and roots dig deeper, so too does our commitment to making Roosevelt Island a model for urban sustainability.
What Comes Next
As neighbors, we can celebrate this first year, but we’re also called to action. More pocket forests could sprout in other boroughs, schools, and communities if the Roosevelt Island model continues to inspire. And, as Jones reminds us, adapting to climate change is not a someday problem—it’s a now problem.
So next time you pass by the Manhattan Healing Forest, pause. Listen to the birds. Watch the leaves flutter. This little forest tells a big story: that even in the heart of a city, healing can take root.
Rivercross and the Quiet Green Light
Rivercross privatization was enabled in 2010. This matters now because the same governance structures that allowed Rivercross to privatize without formal conflict controls are still in place. The same public authority oversees land leases, settlements, and redevelopment decisions that affect every resident on Roosevelt Island today.
