After breaking
my right wrist, I had to concentrate my activities in forests not to actual maintenance
works like thinning or mowing with powered tools, but to nature observation or
to learning forest bathing. One of my friends told me, “Well, Naomi, it’s a
kind of oracle from the goddess of mountain to reflect yourself with your
broken wrist.” Er, OK. I’m recovering now and have started to join little by
little summer mowing sessions in Niiharu and in the forests of Kanagawa Prefecture.
Though, I noticed I now have a slightly different mind-set about my definition
to have a fun in forests … unexpectedly to be honest. Before the incidence, I
was like “Wow, keeping biodiversity in Japanese forests is really busy and hard
works! We need more hands to complete weekend schedules for thinning (or
mowing, or coppicing, or … pls. choose your pick). Busy, busy, busy.”
Practically, I still think so, but … how should I put it? … I feel forests are
different space from such city-rat mentality of “To Do List.” … Whatever humans
do, it’s really difficult to force forests to behave according to our schedule.
Yeah, we can enforce lots of yields or out-of-season harvests by applying
chemicals or the like to veggies. But, of course, that’s not our forest
volunteers want to achieve. Then, what? With my aching wrist, I realized a
change in me when I saw insects.
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| Wonderful
canopy of trees seen from a bridge over a deep valley in Tanzawa area 丹沢. So, birds are watching them always to spot food, like a caterpillar … really? |
Till this
season, I was not much aware of forest bugs around me. Yeah, butterflies flew
before me a lot, or insect bites were weekend rituals these days. But it was
just that. This spring, as I could not have worked with my saw for several
months, I had lots of time in forests to see how moths behave, or the way Panorpa japonica ヤマトシリアゲ preys on the other insects (; it
sucks bodily fluid of the other bugs by holding them tight … wow). I found simply
observing them was fun! As both the City of Yokohama and Kanagawa Prefecture
ask us to record the spotting of particular kinds of creatures in order to
measure the condition of environment, it’s also like “hunting” them in forests.
For this game I’ve learned we need to be strategic. In order to find Mnais costalis 二ホンカワトンボ with beautiful wings of reddish
orange, we need to be near a gently flowing stream within a natural environment
where the application of chemicals are minimum. To meet a chic Lethe diana クロヒカゲ, we have to
enter a forest of substantial size without the record of marine transgression
during interglacial period, like Tanzawa 丹沢 or Hakone 箱根. When there are
many kinds of cockroaches which are different folks from the invaders to our
kitchen, it’s a sign the forest is rich in biodiversity … Before powering up a
chainsaw, let’s stop and look around. I could find a busy world of these
creatures. Amazing.
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| Panorpa japonica in Niiharu Citizen Forest |
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| Mnais pruinosa Yamamoto in a South Forest of Yokohama. Japan has 2 kinds of Mnais dragonflies, and Mnais pruinosa Yamamoto is for southern Japan. The North Forests of Yokohama has another, Mnais costalis which is for northern Japan. i.e. Kanagawa Prefecture is on the border of these 2 kinds of Mnaises whose DNAs are different each other. Scholars for the Museum of Kanagawa Prefecture hypothesize they had a same ancestor long ago. During interglacial period when a much higher sea level created a complicated shoreline in present-day Kanagawa, the community of Mnais was divided accordingly and the species evolved to have different genes. |
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| Vanessa indica in Tanzawa. It’s a common butterfly from India to the east, and so, the City of Yokohama designates them an indicator species which could imply the condition of natural environment in a city. |
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| Ypthima argus in a forestry road of Tanzawa. They don’t like cities and we have to go to relatively clear forests of mountains. |
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| Cradles
of Attelabidae, made of leaves of Euptelea Polyandra, we found on a forestry road. Hey, any car of deer hunters can crash them! |
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| Chubby Amata fortunei in Niiharu Citizen Forest |
During forest
instructor trainings, we’ve learned the objective of taking care of forests
with chainsaws is to facilitate activities of non-humans in forests. Plants are
the basis of forests; lots of plants mean lots of tiny creatures, like insects,
birds, and the others, that can feed on them. Saws and sickles are to help
plants to thrive and sustain living things that depend on vegetation. Then come
those carnivorous ones, again insects, birds, fishes, animals … to eat the
herbivorous things. At the end of the cycle is the sweepers in forests, like
microbes, mushrooms, carrion beetles, … cleaning up the dead bodies of any of
living things on the ground and make the soil rich for the plants to cover the
floor … that’s the theory. Though, it’s easy for us to be into cutting trees or
mowing grasses carelessly. It’s simply a fun to apply chainsaw, oh yeah. Meanwhile,
forests have their own time no matter what. Wielding saws cannot change it, unless
we end up with create a desert or destroy completely a mountain. So, human
activity in a forest is like reciting Om always to keep a pace with the
environment where so many caterpillars are munching fresh early-summer leaves
and dreaming to molt soon … Hmmmmmmm, my tiny step to enlightenment, isn’t it?
Maybe, the goddess of the mountain truly has given me the time to feel that
with my bandaged dominant hand. Oh dear …
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| Lycaena phlaeas in early spring of Niiharu Citizen Forest. They lay eggs on Polygonaceae in an open field. i.e. Well-timed mowing by humans is important for them to thrive. |
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| Mycalesis gotama in Niiharu Citizen Forest. They lay eggs in the bushes of Pleiblastus chino. If we too enthusiastically mow bamboo grass in a forest, they would be gone. Thankfully, they are ubiquitous for now … I think their understated bull’s eye patterns are chic, representing Japanese traditional rural life … |
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| Two
snails taking a nap on the back of a leaf of kudzu (Pueraria montana) … ZZZZZZZZ |
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| Marks
of spawning by white stripe long-horned beetle on Quercus serrata in Niiharu. Their caterpillars then dig further deep in the trunk eating the fresh of the tree. When they do this in commercial chestnut orchard, they are enemy of farmers. But they simply use old deciduous broad-leaved trees for their procreation, and hence contribute to forest regeneration when the forest is natural and healthy. Do we regard them nuisance? Or … |
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| Lots of cecidium! Another sign of cradles for bugs. |
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| Table manner of insects 😄 |
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| So
sorry for out-of-focus photo … could you figure out a caterpillar of Lymantria dispar in the middle? |
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| Whose baby is this? |
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| This
is cute! A tiny caterpillar of Kaniska canace on a leaf of Smilax china. |
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| And
his older brother in the same house of Smilax
china in Niiharu. Hmmmmmmmmm … I’m entering into the world of ”Nausicaä of the valley of the wind” … |
If you find a
problem in Yokohama’s forests, please make a contact with
Office for the Park Greeneries in the
North北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government
Creative Environment Policy Bureau横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-311-2016
FAX: 045-316-8420
Or
Office for the Park Greeneries in the
South 南部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government
Creative Environment Policy Bureau 横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-831-8484
FAX: 045-831-9389
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