Here comes again the season of harvesting bamboo shoots in Niiharu Forest. Every early spring, Japanese tele airs scenery of farmers harvesting bamboo shoots. They are like “Here in such-a-such community in Kyoto, people have hundreds years’ tradition to harvest the best bamboo shoots.” “Mr. A is nurturing his proud bamboo forest all year round.” Blah-blah-blah. The video then shows how they dig the shoots in their impeccable bamboo forest. It looks so easy. Their bamboo forest has soft soil. The bamboos stand in spacious ground large enough for somebody walking through with a large umbrella opened … Beautiful. I then reflected my skill of digging bamboo shoots. There are so many points which requires more practice in order to reach to the smooth moves of farmers in tele … Now we’re in the season of bamboo shoots. It’s the only time of a year to practice shoot digging!
COVID or not, we are taking care of bamboo forests in Niiharu all year round, but frankly they are too many. Basically, Niiharu Lovers dig out bamboo shoots as a part of forest management, not for agricultural production (; my post on May 13, 2016). Bamboos are ferocious multipliers that can easily congest their forest and spread rapidly to neighboring places for coniferous trees and oaks. Unless we control their growth, they can eventually dominate forests of non-bamboos to kill the original dwellers. In addition, their roots develop only in a shallow surface of the ground. Once a packed colony of bamboos occupies a forest, its surface is covered by tiny amount of soil that can trigger massive landslides, especially in hilly Yokohama. So, every spring, Niiharu Lovers enter bamboo forests with hoes to weed, yes, WEED, young bamboos while they are in buds … ah … yeah, they are shoots, not buds.
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| Lovers
are taking action for this site for sure, but … the long road is ahead. |
“You know, we are always short of helping hands, and the City keeps receiving request of public management from landlords for their bamboo forest. We cannot be level with increasing bamboos.” “Oh, yes. So, we take care of each bamboo forest one-by-one.” “If a place has been neglected for so long, it takes several years for us to clear the mess thanks to too-vigorous growth of bamboos.” From such colony, the bamboos often invade the neighboring non-bamboo forests. One of them is now attacking a plum tree orchard, another to afforested conifers. Digging bamboo shoots for the invaded forests is a task with some urgency. For example, please look the below photo, a scenery of Niiharu Forest.
FYI, the mess of the bamboo forest on our right-hand side is not due to the lack of effort by the Lovers. The landlord of this bamboo forest rejects our intervention to clear the mess. The problem is, the family says this, AND leaves their property in a mess. It allows their bamboos to spread their root to the broadleaved forest on the left-hand side that is a property of the City and contains some precious endangered species ... A compromising solution we took is
And there is more. Such bamboo forest in Niiharu is not the bamboos in tele. Say, an invader bamboo stood in the middle of cypresses, and its shoots are poking its head right next to the root of a conifer. We have to navigate our hoe-work to avoid injuring the cypress. Or, one shoot is coming out on the trekking road. Unless we remove it, it will be in few days an obstacle for the visitors to stroll. Oh, by the way, the pedestrian route in popular Niiharu is damned compacted by the treading pressure from human stomping. Digging the ground around a bamboo shoots on road is not at all a piece of cake. Those bamboo shoots which break the hard ground often has an odd direction to sprout. Identifying the proper side to strike the root of a shoot (; my post on May 13, 2016) can be a good guess-game. “Naomi, you’re digging the side of a shoot.” Really? “Yeah, look, this is the direction it comes out. The soil on sides of shoot is very very hard to dig. You’re wasting your energy. You remember that.” Gee … I realized I was not in a “bamboo shoot farm” in Kyoto, but in Yokohama’s bamboo forest left alone for too long in a rapid urbanization.
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| Could you see this guy? It should not be here. |
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| So, I tackled it … |
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| Done. Phew. |
Last year, spring 2020, in panic we had the first State of Emergency against COVID-19. Every activity of Lovers’ Association of Niiharu Citizen Forest was cancelled until the end of May. It meant we could not dig bamboo shoots systematically last year. When in May the number of patients and panic subsided, Lovers’ members returned the forest individually and kicked out the young, but already tall = not edible bamboo shoots to control the bamboos as much as we could. It turned out last year was a bumper year for bamboo shoots. “You know, I kicked, dug, and cut bamboo shoots when I found them. But what one individual could do was not much …” “Yeah. You see? Bamboo shoots come in plenty every other year. I don’t think we can expect that many shoots for 2021 …”
Still, every weekend so far this month, we go home with freshly harvested bamboo shoots as Niiharu Lovers have to every April. Since last year, several people with remote-work requirement have joined Niiharu Lovers’ Association. Some even commute from the center of Tokyo. People need fresh air and large enough space in forest to escape from strange tension with COVID-19 … The new members are all in big smile, carrying bamboo shoots home from Niiharu. Whatever the conditions are set, bamboo shoots are emerging and we find time spending in forest. Tasting bamboo shoots soup, Naomi is in a pensive mode this spring …
Oh, by the way, the artists for Laboratory of Forest Art return to their forest between April 25 and May 5 with their installation for 2020 Show (; my post on September 25, 2020). It would be thrilling to experience their creation in a fresh green of spring. 😀
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| Gentiana
zollingeri are
flowering now in Niiharu, as every spring they’ve done … |
If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, 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
Niiharu Administrative Office / Satoyama Exchange Center
新治管理事務所・里山交流センター
Phone: 045-931-4947
Fax: 045-937-0898
Email: info@niiharu.jp
http://www.niiharu.jp/
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