It’s a windy day at St. Edward’s University, and although it’s only 53 degrees with freezing temperatures on the way, the sun is shining and spirits are high. About 50 people gather around a plot of untilled earth across from the school’s baseball field.
A man in a narrow-brimmed, straw cowboy hat clears his throat in the middle of the crowd, drawing attention. His name is Roy Johnson, and he’s the arborist for St. Edward’s. After a semester of planning alongside student interns, he welcomes everyone to the first “Tiny Forest” planting in Central Texas.
Akira Miyawaki, a botanist from Japan who wanted to counter the nation’s rapid industrialization, engineered the tiny forest method. These trees skip the early stages of development and, in some cases, can reach full maturity in 10 years, Johnson tells the crowd.
“It’s not a silver bullet. It’s not an answer for everything,” Johnson states, “but it’s a great method for mitigating climate change.” He explains how this method could be applied to the eastern crescent of Austin, where “there’s lots of communities with less than 15% tree coverage.”
The Austin Community Tree Priority Map – designed in 2020 – reveals a sharp contrast in the city’s climate equity. Almost all of East Austin is high priority for increasing coverage, while West Austin is low priority.
In an urban setting, canopy coverage provides shade and creates a more balanced ecosystem. With fewer trees, Austin’s heat becomes less bearable. Combined with the higher concentration of industry in the eastern crescent, residents there experience the effects of climate change more acutely.
Over 3,000 tiny forests exist across the world, says Johnson. At St. Edward’s, every plot will have an upper canopy tree, lower canopy tree, and shrub. Guided by three student interns – Veronica Chavez, Javier Zavala, and Agatha Ais – the volunteers in attendance place saplings one by one.
Students at St. Edward’s play a small but critical role in climate research. “Getting the tiny forest under my belt is kind of like career exploration,” says Chavez, a junior majoring in environmental biology and climate change. She and Dalia Zamora, another student intern, utilized an ecology and data science stipend provided by St. Edward’s to support their research, she says.
“We’re not done yet,” Johnson announced after the saplings had been planted. There’s a freeze making its way to Austin. To protect the flora, attendees spread mulch around the plot, insulating the soil and trapping moisture.
Across the road, six larger, but still native, trees are spread out and tagged. Here, students and faculty have been monitoring the impact of such freezes and other extreme weather on the urban tree canopy through their Climate Resiliency Living Lab, nicknamed CLI-RES.
Iman Haddad, who will earn her degree in environmental science and policy this spring, tracks the trees’ development through a wireless device called a dendrometer. She explains how their growth slowed down during a heat wave this summer, but restabilized quickly, which “is a good indicator of their overall health.”
Javier Zavala uses those same measurements through a computer science lens. Using AI prediction tools, he can anticipate future trends, which allows for communities to prepare for heat, drought, or cold. “I’m going to try to make those models more sustainable,” he says.
“This is a long-term project, and the plan is to add more treatments and trees as we get more funding,” explains Dr. Amy Concilio, a professor of environmental science and policy on campus. CLI-RES is funded in part by a $29,000 urban-forest grant from the Austin Community Foundation. H-E-B, in partnership with Texan by Nature, awarded St. Edward’s a grant for the tiny forest, according to Johnson.
St. Edward’s also has an organic garden – currently led by Zavala – and a food forest on campus. The food forest incorporates regenerative growing practices to create a diverse, nutritious ecosystem.
Agatha Ais, a forensic science major from Uganda, works closely with the food forest. She says that she helped implement an international section with crops from 50 countries. “If I want to eat something from home, I could go to the food forest and get that,” Ais details.
Whether they’re working on the tiny forest, CLI-RES, or another project, the interns say they have fallen in love with trees and the environment. Zavala encourages other young people to get involved, even if it’s just a small contribution. “When they volunteer, that helps us a lot, and it helps the environment.”
Johnson notes the university’s progress in the decade since he started. “When I first got here, the campus used every synthetic chemical known to man. Now, we are Green Grounds Gold Level certified,” he states proudly. This means the vast majority of the campus’ grounds are maintained organically. “The 90% required for gold excludes our five sports fields, which are about 9% of our campus’ 200 acres,” he said.
As St. Edward’s continues to prioritize sustainability and environmental programs, more students on campus are finding their green thumb. “Students want to be a part of that [work],” states Dr. Steven Fletcher, another environmental science and policy professor, “because it’s their world that’s going to be inherited.”
This article appears in January 23 • 2026.