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The Good News Podcast is your thrice weekly reminder that not all news is bad.
Hi, I'm Neil, the host of the good news podcast. This is your source for good news, fun stories and Sonic joy. All of this goodness is coming to you from beautiful Chicago, Illinois. For today's episode of the good news podcast, I wanted to share two updates from two trees stories, tiny forests in the Miyawaki method and the potential revitalization of the sycamore gap tree in Hadrian's Wall. I think based on the kind of news that I read, I probably get more forest and tree news than the average reader. And I've got to tell you, I am so glad that I do. First we're headed to New York City, technically Manhattan and even more technically Roosevelt Island in the East River down on the very southern tip of Roosevelt Island, a new forest will soon be planted the Manhattan healing forest, this forest will be planted in the Miyawaki method. As a very quick refresher, that means it is a very tightly packed and widely varied forest ecosystem. In a really small footprint. It'll be a little bit bigger than 50 feet by 50 feet, so maybe a little bit bigger than half of an NBA basketball court, and it should turn into a delightful little pocket forest. There'll be 40 Different species in this forest, including white oak, Virginia, strawberry butternut, New York Fern and Eastern White Pine. I read about this in the New York Times, and I will link to this article in the show notes. Next we're talking about the sycamore gap tree out of the UK. A few months ago, very sadly, this famous tree was cut down in an act of vandalism. Previously on The good news podcast I shared that work immediately jumped off to try to save this tree. And the BBC recently got to tour a secret plant facility where seedlings are already starting to pop up. seedlings will of course take a number of years to become a tree. But it is very good news that these seeds were able to be gathered as quickly as they were and were treated with such care perhaps even more exciting, some of the twigs and branches from the fallen tree were grafted on to existing rootstock and those apparently are also doing pretty well. So that's sort of a jumpstart over the seedlings. So between the grafted twigs, the seedlings and the potential for a new tree to grow out of the stump that still there it feels like there's real potential that the sycamore gap tree will grow again. But for me the best part of this story is the top secret hidden location where these plants are being nurtured with tons of other super rare super important trees, including genetic copies of the apple tree that dropped an apple and inspired Sir Isaac Newton, I would love to visit this secret greenhouse. It reminds me of the Svalbard seed vault that we've covered on the good news podcast. But these aren't seeds in cold storage. They are growing rare, dare I say near mythical plants? Pretty darn cool. I read about this in the BBC and I will link to this article as well. That's the good news I have for you today. Enjoy the rest of your day. Thanks for listening. If you've got good news or an idea for the show, amazing. Send an email to Hello at the good news podcast.fm. While you're at it, follow us on Twitter at the good news pod. If you love the show, think about supporting our Patreon or reviewing us wherever you're getting this podcast from. Both are great. The music you hear on the show is from Paddington Bear. Have a great day.