In the Beginning: Kuzuha Greenery 葛葉緑地 1

 

The forest surrounding Hakone Sengokubara wetland 箱根仙石原 is one of the newest additions to Kanagawa’s National Trust movement. Today, let me talk about my adventure in the oldest Trust Forest in Kanagawa. That is Kuzuha Greenery 葛葉緑地 in Hadano City. Strictly speaking the oldest National Trust Forest in Kanagawa is Oyatsu Forest 御谷 in Kamakura. It was established in 1964 with the help of national luminaries such as Yasunari Kawabata, a Nobel laureate. Oyatsu is the oldest Trust Forest in Japan, and has independent and large Foundation that is Kamakura Scenic Preservation Society. To some extent Oyatsu Forest is in a privileged position ... in the ancient city of Kamakura, next to lots of historical temples and monuments, with lots of rich neighbors who are celebrities of Japanese culture … Not all forests in Kanagawa have such condition calling for help to protection. Luckily (or not) Japanese forestry industry experienced a sharp decline since the 1960s and it made prefectural governments to think about it what to do, including the protection of private greeneries. In Kanagawa it created National Trust movement as a cooperation among civil society, private corporations and municipality. At the beginning it was a unique approach in Japan. Kuzuha Greenery was the first case saved by this method. Let me explain.

After losing the World War II, Japan needed to rebuild the cities and towns all over. (Hey, the world! Remember this for Ukraine!) Our grandparents needed lots of building materials, including timber. By 1945, domestic forests were destroyed for sustaining war effort. After 1945, Japanese landlords immediately resumed commercial forestry and afforestation, dreaming to strike big in timber business. The government subsidized the cost of seedlings and labor. Alas, trees need tens of years to be large enough for buildings. In no time, it occurred a huge chorus for buying cheap and large timber from abroad. Timber trade, or import to be exact, was completely liberalized in Japan in 1964. The direct subsidization for Japanese forestry was over. Landlords with still young trees on their land were thrown to a rough sea of international trade and lost the market. They abandoned the care of their young forests in droves. The Offices had awareness of crisis especially for water source forests. Many local governments established Public Forestry Corporation to take care of these near-abandoned private forests with public money. In 1968, Kanagawa Prefecture established Kanagawa Public Forestry Corporation.

Whatever the effort to life-save domestic forestry, Japanese industry lost the ground and many forestry cooperations around the nation piled up huge debt. Kanagawa’s Cooperation was no exception. Meanwhile the thing the society expects to forests evolved from procuring construction materials to environmental conservation and protection. The job description for Forestry Corporations changed accordingly. In Kanagawa for the 1980s, the financial problem and new environmental mission made public relation and environmental conservation sections be detached from the Public Forestry Corporation. Kanagawa Trust for Green Foundation かながわトラストみどり財団 was established to organize the national trust scheme … er … in case you’re interested in what happened since then for the rest of the Forestry Corporation in Kanagawa, they were dissolved last year. The public money invested in private forests via the Corporation was cleared by lands as substitute payments from the landlords. The prefecture is now concentrating on the management of former Corporation forests for water source management and natural disaster prevention. Anyway, the original aim of the Forestry Corporation was helping local forestry business. I think the new approach is more suitable for this era of climate change and sustaining biodiversity.

If you find such panel in mountains of Kanagawa,
it’s the sign the forest here was
under the management of Forestry Corporation.

Kanagawa Trust pooled the resources from Prefectural Government (aka tax money) with donations from private corporations and individuals. It then uses the Fund for purchase and maintenance of the forests by mobilizing volunteers, in the style of National Trust system. The main conservation target here is the greenery not so famous as Oyatsu that can ask donations et al relatively easily, but the places in our backyard prone to be ignored or exploited for non-conservation purpose. You see? The forest next to Sengokubara wetland could be a shopping center for tourists ... As of March 31st, 2021, Kanagawa Trust secured 29 forests across the Kanagawa Prefecture, preventing the encroachment of development into nature. The first forest that was secured by the Trust for conservation was Kuzuha Greenery in 1987. It is surrounded housing developments. A large AEON shopping center is near-by.

It’s an aerial photograph shown
at the entrance of Kuzuha Greenery.
Could you realize it’s surrounded by housing? 

Kanagawa Trust bought 0.56 ha of the area and made a long-term contract for 5.64 ha with the local landlords to protect the forests. The attached public land is combined with these land. In total 17 ha of Kuzuha Forest along meandering Kuzuha River 葛葉川 is designated as a nature protection area. Hadano City where Kuzuha Greenery is located provides a visitor center named Kuzuha-no-Ie (Kuzuha House) くずはの家 with full-time staff for the management of the forest. The city supports several volunteer organizations active in Kuzuha Greenery to promote the civic movement for conserving the Forest. Kuzuha House organizes events to know and enjoy the Kuzuha Greenery especially for kids. Their meeting room is to rent for civil societies organizing community events. More than 30 years have passed since the establishment of Kuzuha Greenery. The place is now a be-loved forest for the people of Hadano City. When you lose your way to Kuzuha Greenery, just ask locals where Kuzuha House is. They will surely give you directions!

The entrance to Kuzuha House

As the Greenery is along the Kuzuha River, it has an interesting feature to stroll. Next week, I tell you what I’ve found there. Please stay tuned!

If you need to make a contact with Kuzuha Greenery, below is the address:

Kuzuha-no-Ie くずはの家
1137 Soya, Hadano City, Kanagawa 257-0031

〒257-0031 神奈川県秦野市曽屋1137番地
Phone/Fax 0463-84-7874
kuzuhaie@city.hadano.kanagawa.jp