New Normal: Lovers Association for Niiharu Citizen Forest has resumed activity 新治市民の森

Now, we are searching for New Lifestyle with COVID-19. Already during the State of Emergency during April and May, the number of people who visited Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森 skyrocketed. According to May 21^st issue of Town News, Niiharu Satoyama Park Office said the number of people who visited the Park (1/3 area of Niiharu Forest, outside the “territory” of Niiharu Lovers Association) was 7,776 in April 2020, compared with 4,151 in April 2019. Although, the State of Emergency was lifted, the trend of more visitors continues. Yeah, we know new patients of COVID-19 emerge daily in Metropolitan Tokyo. We must adjust our way of doing things to live with COVID-19 …

Anyway, especially in April at the beginning of New Lifestyle, Lovers Association of Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森愛護会 heard many incidences in the Forest, including

• Theft of marketable plants and animals, including wild orchid, bamboo shoots, larvae for butterflies, etc.
• Unlawful parking in wherever near Niiharu Forest. Neighbors are furious now. People for the office of Satoyama Park found many number plates from Tokyo or beyond during the State of Emergency. “I just wonder why they don’t go to their nearby forest.” Yeah.
• Unleashing dogs; you may say “So what?” It’s a huge NO-NO. These pets have immunity for infectious diseases thanks to vaccine shots. They can carry illness without any problem. If you unleash them in forest, they leave the source of maladies there. Poor wild animals, like racoon dogs and hare, will easily receive viruses and the like, and be pushed to the edge. Actually, racoon dog families of Jike Citizen Forest 寺家市民の森 (; my post on July 10, 2015) are now near extinction due to scabies brought by pets. If you bring your pets to forest, please keep them within your reach ALWAYS, to save wild animals.
• Riding bikes in the forest; this is also a terrible prohibited move. Such mechanized tires dig and compact the soil without fail in a second. Under the climate of Yokohama, once a terrain in a forest is scarred in this way, it takes 100 years to recover 1cm of topsoil with natural process with leaf litters and soil organisms. Compressed soil deprives oxygen for the creatures living underground, including the roots of mighty oaks. The area will die as a biosphere sooner or later. If you want to experience thrills of mountain biking, please go to designated areas for the usage, not in natural forests.
• Barricaded a spot for “our family’s personal usage” with ropes tied to trees. Under Japanese law, the things growing in a forest is also a property of landlord of the place. Without permission of the owner, being it the governmental office (for Satoyama Park) or the private titleholders (for 2/3 of Niiharu Forest), such act is pure trespassing. The property-owners can sue the perpetrator for criminal offence. They may have wanted to pitch their tent and keep away “may-be COVID-19 infected people” from their weekend relaxation. But it’s illegal, PERIOD. Besides, fastening rope to trunks could damage the vegetation, you know.
• And, … Trashing. The number of garbage we collect during our patrolling is definitely on the rise for Niiharu Citizen Forest. Forest is not your trash can. Please carry your waste away from the forest, thank you.

In June, it seems to me, the situation is heading to a new equilibrium … Not many serious incidences now. Even though, the number of people who come to Niiharu Forest stays “Many” compared with the pre-COVID era. In addition to the families with kids, now we Lovers meet many groups of young people, including running circles. They may have found a new training ground for their future marathon events, instead of going circles around a crowded Imperial Palace … As Lovers suspended our forestry activity for April and May, the roads of Niiharu Forest are almost overwhelmed by overgrown grasses and tree branches. Weekend mowing and pruning has become heavier tasks compared with the pre-COVID time. We must do this and at the same time be alert of crowds passing by. “Naomi! Stop your weed whacker!” Then, behind me, a group of colorfully clad runners went in speed. Phew. Close call … I hoped some of them might be interested in helping us to take care of our nature … My wish is going to be fulfilled, perhaps. My senior for Lovers who’s in charge of answering email enquiries, Mr. Katsumasa Matsuda to be exact, told me. “From April, I’m receiving lots of emails asking how to be a member of Lovers. During the State of Emergency, they came to Niiharu Forest and impressed that much!” We resumed our weekly activity on June 6^th, and already there have come two new members. Will they remain? Will this trend continue?

Niiharu Lovers do community service, including a support for local schools who visit the Forest for educational purposes. Just recently, 5^th Graders of nearby Miho Elementary came to mow the area of School Forest. Miho Elementary 三保小学校 is one of the 5 biggest elementary schools in the City of Yokohama. 5^th Graders are 200 kids of 5 classes with 40 pupils each. In Pre-COVID, they came the Forest en masse, had an orientation meeting at once, then entered the site to do the task altogether. Not this time with COVID-19. The program was designed to avoid having a large gathering. Class-by-class, 40 kids each, they came to the site separately. Teachers used the walkie-talkie heavily to keep distance between the classes. “This is Class-3. We’ve arrived the entrance to Ikebuchi Hiroba いけぶち広場, over?” “Copied. This is Class-2. We will complete the task in 15 minutes.” “This is Class-3. Roger.” Woooooow. This is some sort of serious operation. We Lovers did the same orientation 5 times. A smaller group of 2-3 kids were spreading widely in the forest, and we instructed their usage of sharp sickles almost personally, 5 times for each class. All of us wore masks, and kids wiped the handles and helmets after their use with sanitizing wipes they brought from home.

Sanitized sickles … we’re not butcher, for sure.

Sanitized helmets. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm …

When Class-5 came to the site, it was past 11 o’clock. Some of them were saying “Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, I’m hungry!” “Well, after finishing this, you’ll have a school lunch, won’t you.” “Nope!” “Huh? Have you brought a packed lunch from home?” “Nope.” “?” “We go home after this.” “We don’t have a full-day school yet.” “Someday is only in the morning. The other day is only for the afternoon.” Oh … We understood. Still, kids looked very happy in the forest. They impressively mowed their field. “Well, do you want to do it more? Do you want to play in the forest?” “Yeaaah!” They replied with twinkling eyes and bright cheeks poked from the side of masks. I was a bit afraid if they were nearing to heat strokes …They are lucky kids, living next to one of the richest forests of Megalopolis Tokyo. Since last March, the schools that Kanagawa Forest Instructors regularly support their forest activities do not have any of such activities at all. We don’t know when their educational forest adventure resumes … Meanwhile, kids around Niiharu Forest are playing almost daily in the forest and fishing Louisiana Crawfish. Well, they don’t have 6-week summer vacation, nor 2-week winter recess this year. Those holidays are already halved to re-schedule the covering of lost school days. New normal for the Covid-19 Generation.

Before kids

After kids. They did a wonderful job.

Oh, if you’re interested in joining Niiharu Lovers, please email to

niiharu_aigokai@nifty.com

Mr. Matsuda understands English. We’re doing our weekend forestry every week, rain or shine, literally. (Oh, yeah) Annual membership fee is 1000 yen which is for insurance. 😊

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/

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

If you find 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

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/

Bright Side! Shikinomori Park of Kanagawa Prefecture 神奈川県立四季の森公園

In the City of Yokohama, there are 3 Prefectural Park of Kanagawa. All of them are not far from JR East train stations. Access to them is not bad. Among these, Hodogaya Park 保土谷公園 (near JR Hodogaya Station 保土ヶ谷駅) and Mitsuike Park 三ッ池公園 (near JR Tsurumi Station 鶴見駅) are typical urban parks with sports facilities opened during the 1950s. The vegetation down there are “constructed” as garden. The third, and the newest (in relative terms), is Shikinomori Park 四季の森公園, opened in 1988. For landscape design, 30-years of difference in inauguration is perhaps definitive. Unlike the two older parks, Shikinomori Park is “managed” Satoyama forest of 45.3ha. Yesteryear’s usage of land in a traditional agricultural village is preserved to some extent. Artificial deployment of plants is not much. It locates next to Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森. So, it becomes the northeast corner of Yokohama’s North Forest Area. This week, I tell you my leisurely adventure in this well-manicured nature park … Oxymoron?

The easiest access to Shikinomori Park is from JR Nakayama Station 中山駅 of Yokohama Line 横浜線. We leave the station from the South Exit, and take a road going south from the corner of McDonald’s. Soon, we’ll meet a traffic light named “Nakayama Station South Exit Entrance 中山駅南口入口” at Prefectural Road #109. Cross #109 and turn right to walk 10 meters or so. On our left, there is an entrance to a small road diving into a residential area. It’s the “Promenade to Shikinomori Park.” Let’s take this one, about 850m long pedestrian way to the Park. Eventually, the route goes along a small watercourse. The water flow is the characteristics of Shikinomori Park … Before long, there is the North Entrance of Shikinomori Park. This side of the Park does not have a parking. If you drive, please go to the South Entrance of the Park. It opens 8:30-18:00 (May-September) or 8:30-17:00 (October-April), free of charge during weekdays, and 530 yen (or 100 yen for motorcycle) for holidays. It has spaces for 165 cars!

The entrance to the Promenade to Shikinomori Park

Half the promenade runs along this small stream.

The North Entrance of Shikinomori Park

The South Entrace of Shikinomori Park.
 “Parking = P” sign is there.

Parking space is ample.

The Park spreads over slopes of tiny valleys (; the map is here). North Entrance is at the point where these small flows gather to be ponds. Before the place became a park, it was used for rice cultivation. Rumors say the landlords paid their inheritance tax by land to the prefecture … South to southwest of the Park, the ridge of the valleys, is large housing complexes in Hikarigaoka ひかりが丘団地. Those places were developed before the Prefecture made the area a park. People in the housing community have used the place as a shortcut to JR Nakayama Station. Shikinomori Park continues to be a part of community roads for locals. Thus, we can meet a lot of people always there. In Shikinomori Park, many roads are paved or with wood decks. You don’t have to wear hiking boots. Good town shoes would be enough. The place also has several toilets and vending machines for drinks. At the parking, they have a small shop selling snacks and ice creams. The place is well-equipped. With this COVID-19 thing, the Park becomes popular more and more.

Hikarigaoka Housing Complex,
 next to the ridgeway of Shikinomori Park

The commuters’ way in the Park
 from Hikarigaoka to Nakayama Station

At the North Entrance,
 there are an admin office and a small meeting building.
 Unfortunately, the meeting places inside the park are
 now closed due to COVID-19.

A shop next to the parking sells sweets and soft drinks.

Next to the parking, there is a garden with a large fountain loved by local toddlers, especially in summer. From there a tiny hill goes up to the point with a viewing gazebo, the highest point of the park (ASL 41m!). Next to the gazebo there is an entrance to a large slide going down to a playground with equipment, near to the North Entrance. All are immensely popular among kids. If your family plans to play there, you’d better bring cardboard boxes to use as a cushion for slides. Next to the playground is a field and a constructed small valley. The field is ideal for families to pitch tents for picnic. During summer weekends, many parents came here for a nap while their kids are playing around. The artificial valley is called “Jabu-jabu Ike じゃぶじゃぶ池 (Splashing Pond)” where kindergarteners can play in a very shallow water during summer. Now the management is doing the maintenance job there and we don’t know if we have access to this very popular spot this summer … I suspect the prefectural office plays safe to stop crowds gathering for summer with corona virus … Er, well, the Park has rules. No BBQ or fireworks; No playing with balls like baseball, tennis, football, golf, et al; No bike (except that for kids with training wheels), motorcycle, or car; No skateboarding or roller skating; No trashing or vandalism; No smoking. The regular things, you know. In addition to this, the management these days broadcasts regularly warnings via loudspeakers in the forest. “Please do not congregate even you are in open space park. Maintain proper social distance. Wear masks whenever you speak to your fellow stroller. Please wash your hands with soap. Thank you.” *Sigh*

The fountain and the kids

ASL 41m is there.

The slide goes down …

The playing park in April 2020.
 It was closed due to the State of Emergency
 against COVID-19.
 It’s now open. 😃

The field where families can pitch tents.
 We can see the playing park over there.

Jabu-jabu Ike.
 It’s dry now due to the maintenance work.

Even with Covid-19 alert, Shikinomori Park certainly has a capacity for visitors. Many trees of the Park are of oak family, like bamboo-leaf oak (Quercus myrsinifolia), sawtooth oak (Quercus acutissima) and jolcham oak (Quercus serrata), which were once used as fuels of daily life. It seems to me they are at least 40-50 years old with signs of coppicing that was done ages ago. I guess before landlords sold their property to the Prefecture, they have long abandoned the management of their forest … In a sense it was fortunate the place becomes such a popular park with always-many visitors, under proper forestry. If you prefer “wild” atmosphere of forest, please try Area 7 or slopes beyond Area 6. As trees are old for Shikinomori Park, these areas still have damaged large trees due to severe storms last year. Several routes are closed. Even though, the roads are definitely wider and safer compared to, say, roads of the next door Niiharu Citizen Forest. If you seldom visit natural forest in your life, Shikinomori Park is a good place to begin.

Wood deck is constructed along the pond.

The other side of the pond is like this.
 No need for hiking boots, for sure.

Unpaved parts of the Park.
 Well-maintained.

Some roads are closed due to the storms last year.

Area 7 is called “Sakura-no-tani 桜の谷 (Cherry Blossom Valley)” that is along busy Nakahara Street 中原街道. It’s amazing at the bottom of the Valley, incessant traffic noise of Nakahara Street sounds far away. The network of the road for the area lets us walk around. Not many people come here even with COVID-19. It’s a good place to feel solitude in city with well-equipped roads. The western part of the Valley has preserved rice paddies used for educational purposes to the neighboring schools. They manage the field in completely organic way by no-till farming. If you’re interested in such things, it will be interesting to observe the seasonal natural changes of the place ...

Entrance to Sakura-no-tani, near the parking

We cross a bridge from the Parking
 and go down rapidly to the Valley.

Or from the North Entrance,
 the entrance to the Valley is this way, via …

Tunnel.

Sakura-no-tani is surrounded by
 these large trees from 3 directions.
 The 4^th side is Nakahara Street.
 It’s amazing we are now next to an arterial road
 for Metropolitan Tokyo …

Sakura-no-tani in June

Organic rice paddies.
 It seems to me, the place is home for a family
 of Indian spot-billed duck.
 In organic rice cultivation,
 they have an important role to control weeds and pests.

A lady of common kingfisher lives here as well.
 The paddies are rich in their food.

Slopes beyond Area 6 are water source areas for small streams gathering below at the North Entrance area. Most of the roads here are not paved, but well-maintained so that you don’t have to wear hiking boots even here. This area is also quiet and relatively dark forest due to large ever-green bamboo-leaf oaks. When a forest was used for harvesting logs for fuel like 100 years ago, the dominating trees were broad-leaved deciduous oaks like sawtooth and jolham. In fall they shed their leaves, which allowed forest floors to receive sun light and made biodiversity richer. In terms of natural ecosystem for the climate of Yokohama, climax forest should consist of ever-green broad leaves such as bamboo-leaf oaks. Their thick leaves do not allow much sun light to reach to the floor even during winter. If people do not maintain the forest here in Yokohama, deciduous oaks would lose out to the ever-green and the forest becomes dark with lesser biodiversity ... Before, people used forests as Satoyama here in Yokohama so that dark climax forest near human settlement was rare for at least about 2000 years. But now, in the 21^st century, Shikinomori Park has such forest of smaller biodiversity, surrounded by large housing areas and busy industrial roads. There are several opinions about this. We may watch out how the discussion goes for Shikinomori Park. At least now, the middle canopy of the forest is dominated by shade-loving maple trees. They are beautiful in late autumn …

It’s the area, beginning of beyond Area 6.
 The water gathers here and then
 pours into the ponds in front of the North Entrance.

The road is very wide and well-maintained anyway.

Shade loving maples are thriving along the water stream.

This is the steps leading to small West Entrance.
 Mind you, this is the longest
 and steepest slope of the Park,
 more than 100 steps ahead.
 Popular training course for trail runners, inevitably.

A mighty bamboo-leaf oak

It’s beautiful in December …

But the main reason why Shikinomori Park is popular comes from the area surrounding the pond in front of the North Entrance. This is a part of the Park well-manicured. Area 6 is a shallow pond for irises that are full-bloom from late May to early June. The valley opposite to Jabu-jabu Ike beyond playground ridge is a substantial valley of reeds where fireflies make their home. From there, they come out to the space surrounding the front pond, dancing in early June. People visit here en masse, literally, even from Chiba or Saitama Prefectures beyond Tokyo. Unfortunately, this year the management of the Park cancelled night-time festival for fireflies due to the threat of the pandemic. I personally think it is a good thing. For several years, I’ve heard murmurs like “Well, Shikinomori’s firefly festival became too grande. The habitat of fireflies is certainly disturbed, and the number of bugs we can count during the season is dwindling for sure. We have to do something.” Huh, COVID-19 has done a favor easily, perhaps, for fireflies. Let’s always look on the bright side of life! If next year we don’t have problem like 2020, fireflies will present us their dancing show again in June. The area is surely well-maintained so that you can enjoy their performance even in wheelchairs. Keep crossing fingers …

It’s a large pond.

The wetland has strong current
 which keeps the water clean, suitable for fireflies.

Irises were ending in the middle of June.
 Yet, they were beautiful …

I’ve met an Arctic Warbler this June in Shikinomori Park.
 Will it stay here, or move to higher mountains?

If you find 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

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/