🌱 Community Spotlight: Natives of Corkscrew Nursery 🌱

The Sgt. Elio Diaz Memorial Forest is a “micro forest” – a small footprint with a big ecological impact. Designed to jump-start a mature native Florida habitat, this forest holds 22 different species in an area of less than a tenth of an acre. That’s just 3,500 sq ft, yet when planted using the Miyawaki Method (which is what we used), these forests can grow up to ten times faster than a typical single-species stand.

To bring this biodiverse memorial to life, we needed an array of native trees and understory species. The kind team at Natives of Corkscrew Nursery stepped in and made a truly meaningful contribution, providing four of the species that now anchor the memorial forest: cedars, sweet bay magnolias, red maples, and live oaks.

We are sending a very big thank-you to the Natives of Corkscrew Nursery team for their un-be-leaf-able generosity. And extra bonus points go to them for delivering everything in chilly, rainy, 40-degree weather – all with a smile.

(PS – Can you spot one of the young oaks in the photo of the finished forest?)