Brookview Park is a adjacent to Brookview Elementary School. The park is part of a collaboration between the City of West Des Moines and the Waukee Community School District. The large open play area is great for a team sports practice or a pick up game of ball. Due to Brookview Park's proximity to a school, alcohol of any kind is not permitted in the park.

Facilities include:

• A rentable picnic shelter with grill (available Friday evenings after 4, Saturday and Sunday) 
• Restrooms (open April 15 - October 15, weather permitting)
• Play equipment (2-5 and 5-12 year-old sections; shared with Brookview School) 
• Large open playfield
• Backstop
• Parking lot
• Trail connection to Jordan Creek Trail system
• Native plantings
• Brookview Park Map

 For more information please call 222-3444 or email parkrec@wdm.iowa.gov.

Mini-Forest

The City of West Des Moines Parks and Recreation Department worked with a group of interested citizens to create a mini-forest demonstration project in Brookview Park, near Jordan Creek and the Jordan Creek recreational trail. View map.

The mini-forest is roughly the size of a tennis court, about 2,800 square feet, or one-tenth of an acre.

Volunteers helped coordinate assistance with planning, planting, and fundraising for extra expenses, including fencing and signage. Plans are underway for education and research activities related to the mini-forest that include leaders at Brookview Elementary School, Waukee APEX, and Iowa State University.

Why a Mini-forest? 

The idea of creating dense mini-forests was developed by Japanese botanist Dr. Akira Miyawaki in the 1970s and has grown in popularity around the world, now with thousands of examples in many countries and across North America. Local governments, cities, businesses, factories, and schools have been leaders in mini-forest projects.

The mini-forest approach involves planting small areas, often on degraded land in urban areas. Native species are planted to recreate the layers of a natural forest tailored to the site’s environment. Seedlings are planted close together to shade out weeds and reduce competition. The site is carefully prepared, planted, mulched, watered, and tended at the beginning.

Mini-forests have many benefits, including: 

• They grow fast and are more biodiverse than those planted by conventional methods.
• They can store significant amounts of carbon in a small area, helping meet climate goals.
• They help reduce runoff and erosion and improve air quality.
• They serve as green oases that provide wildlife habitat, especially for birds and beneficial insects.
• They can serve as important areas for environmental and science education.
• After establishment, these small forests planted to quickly develop into woodlands that resemble native climax forests and generally require minimal maintenance.

Good sources of information about mini-forests: 

• “Mini-Forest Revolution: Using the Miyawaki Method to Rapidly Rewild the World” by Hannah Lewis, Minneapolis, an editor for Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, who helped create a Miyawaki forest in France.
• TED Talks by Shubhendu Sharma, a former automobile engineer, who helped plant a mini-forest with others at a Toyota factory and was inspired to begin a new career helping start mini-forests around the world. Afforestt, a company founded by Sharma, offers tutorials, an introductory video and other resources.
• Urban Forests data and concepts, https://urban-forests.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Urban-Forests-report-The-Miyawaki-method-–-Data-concepts.pdf, Urban Forests Company (2020)