One
January weekend, we’ve been Hadano Forestry Road 秦野林道 from Yadoriki Water Source Forest やどりき水源林 for a little survey. Immediately after Super Typhoon Trami last October,
the road was covered by debris, and we could figure out lots of broken trees on
both sides of the way (; my post on October 19, 2018). It seems to me the Prefecture is doing a
clean-up now. One of my senior forest instructors told me the Office is
harvesting the logs from there. Some afforested areas are currently under works
of forestry with new graveled roads for heavy machineries. Are they using
harvesters? “No. Tanzawa is too steep to use such vehicles. I think they use
chainsaws, and bring out the logs by a forwarder,” she said. Will it be some
help for the prefectural budget to manage healthy Tanzawa-Oyama Quasi-National Park 丹沢大山国定公園? Considering the current market condition, I’m not
optimistic for the yen-amount they collect from the work … But surely the
afforested trees must be harvested, or thinned, from time to time to keep the
forest healthy. If some money can be raised from the activity, it should be
better than nothing …
 |
| After the
super typhoon last October |
 |
| And after
the clean-up, this January |
 |
| Men at
work |
 |
| A new
road |
Weekends
of winter forests in Tanzawa Mountains 丹沢 are for deer hunters. We’ve
met members of Kanagawa Hunting Club 神奈川県猟友会 who are cooperating with the
Prefecture to control deer population in the National Parks. They said the
catch of the morning was 2-layer angle stags, and then continued their hunt
late afternoon. We’ve found a trace of deer on a trunk of Japanese Larch (Larix Kaempferi (Lamb.) Carrière) from which an animal rubbed
resin on its body for anti-ticks. Droppings of deer were found several places
as well. Still, my senior instructor told me the situation was far better than,
say, 10 years ago. “You see, we could even find bodies of deer along a road
busy with hikers. They were starved to death … Now the situation is stabilizing,
I think.” Hmmmmmmmmmmm. (Please see my posts about deer in Tanzawa in July 2017.) A
Hunter was sitting still, and concentrating on somewhere over there. We could
hear faint barks of dogs from the other side of a deep valley. The catch was
coming …
 |
| Could
you see hairs of deer here? |
 |
| They
did it. |
 |
| A
hunter is here. |
 |
You
see?
The plants along the road are unnaturally ‘mowed’ by deer.
They ate the
top soft part of these plants. |
The
mountain was cold and quiet otherwise. The majority of the sound we could hear
was the hum of airplanes high above and intermittent bird calls. Voices of
impatient Japanese tit (Parus minor)
were mixed with occasional easy-going calls of Varied tit (Parus varius). Listening them “in Japanese,” they were pronouncing
the same word, but the speed was definitely different. “Tsu-tsu
Pea, tsu-tsu pea (Japanese tit)” vs. “Tsu-u-Tsu-u Pea-a, tsu-u-tsu-u pea-a
(Varied tit).” As
they are in the same genus, there might be some interesting story during their
evolutionary process … We’ve found several couples of Red-billed leiothrix (Leiothrix lutea) which is designated as
one of the worst invasive species to Japanese archipelago. “Wow, this is my
first time to record them in Yadoriki Forest.” A veteran instructor said. There
happened so many things in a seemingly silent winter Tanzawa …
 |
A feather
of White-bellied green-pigeon (Treron
Sieboldii).
They live in this area of Tanzawa,
and go to Oiso Beach 大磯海岸 to
drink salty water. |
I
found the scenery was very contemplative and, beautiful. There is not much
color in winter forest. Understating ever-green trees. Various hues of greys
from trunks and boughs of deciduous trees. Dry January of Kanagawa Prefecture
gave us the clearest blue sky that contrasted astonishingly with the ridge
lines of mountains. Before the maples shed their leaves we could only imagine
the depth of the valley from the canopies that could be seen from high bridges.
Now it is clear down there were streams with very rocky riverbed. That was a landscape
we found in traditional ink paintings of China and Japan. Hadano Forestry Road
is not yet opened thoroughly due to the slope failure between Mushizawa Forestry
Road Junction 虫沢林道分岐 and Shin’nashi Bridge しんなし橋. Though, it’s the route where
4-wheel vehicles can run. If you plan to have a small peek of deep Tanzawa Mountains 丹沢 during winter, please try this road if only for the first 1 hour stroll
from Yadoriki O-hashi Bridge 寄大橋. I guarantee you a meditative
but relaxed weekend afternoon in quiet and monotonous mountains ... The world
of Zen.
 |
| In
July |
 |
| The
same place in January |
 |
| In
July |
 |
And
the same place in January.
Oh my … the slope is collapsed here … |
 |
| Yadoriki
O-hashi Bridge in July |
 |
| The
bridge in January |
Oh, by
the way, all the forestry roads in Japan are for permit-holders only to drive
by whatever vehicle, i.e. car, bikes and motorbikes. Please walk!
If you find an environmental issues
in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター
657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 〒243－0121 厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323
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