Beau Miles is a nature-lover, adventurer, and a self-described oddball who makes stuff from other people’s junk. Based in Australia, he delves into urban foraging on his YouTube channel, wrote a book called The Backyard Adventurer, and has made numerous films about everything from building a tiny cabin to exploring Sydney’s most polluted river. Miles also happened to plant a small, flourishing forest in one day.
“Without being dramatic, it was easily the hardest thing I’ve ever done in a single day,” he says. “But it was also fun—and the kind of thing that shifted how I intend to use my ideas and my body as a force for good. It was practical, hard, and an outcomes-driven use of time and energy.”
Miles planted one tree per minute for 24 hours—that’s 1,440 in total—and when he made the initial video, he promised to return every two years to report on its progress. In a recent update, he revisits the 2021 marathon project, documenting the wildlife that has moved in, wandering beneath healthy, young trees, and building a small fire from scrounged wood.
“This was a special day because I really felt like the project had landed,” Miles says. “I had a cup of tea in the new forest, from water boiled on a fire made from the forest itself. It’s perhaps the most profound cup of tea I’ve ever had.”
Another video that Miles posted in July set a virtual one-month timer on an endeavor to turn his streaming channel into a force for good. With funds from advertising, he aims to purchase and plant even more trees. Follow his updates on YouTube, Instagram, and his site. (via Kottke)
