Rhapsody in (spring) Blue, on and on: the 20th Anniversary for Niiharu Citizen Forest and Covid-19 新治市民の森

On February 12, 2000, Niiharu Forest became Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森. Till then, the landlords of the forest did not allow general public to enter their property. From that time, the majority (but not all, I tell you) of the area has been OK for the visitors walking along the trekking roads. The Lovers Association of Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森愛護会 already engaged in the forest management before the opening as a member of preparation committee. (More to it in my later post this year. Please stay tuned!) At the time of Citizen Forest inauguration, the group was officially named as the Lovers Association. So, 2020 is our 20^th Anniversary Year. To celebrate this glorious calendar for community-based environmental management and protection in Japan, we Lovers have prepared several events. This March, we planned to have the anniversary party inviting the Diet member, Prefectural Assembly member, City Council member, the headperson of Midori Ward (where the Forest situates), the headperson of … you’ve got the idea, haven’t you? COVID-19 coughed off all of these.

They are the people who have stayed active
 as the Lovers member since the beginning.
 Many original members have passed away already …

Anyway, the Lovers come to Niiharu Citizen Forest every weekend, rain or shine. It’s open air space. It’s early spring getting warmer. Many tasks of forestry do not have to form a scrum in closed proximity. So far, none of us gets COVID-19. One of the events for anniversary this month was planting saplings of oaks and acers. For this, we researched the place and moved several species to another area of the Forest for protection. We cleared an area of over-grown afforested area of cedars and cypresses in order to prepare the ground for young broadleaved trees. After cutting trees, we carried out the heavy logs and roots by men-power alone. We nurtured the seedlings of oaks from acorns harvested in Niiharu. We layered the established acers in Niiharu to collect the young trees, etc, etc ... All in all, it took more than 2 years for preparation. Standing in front of the rows of young trees perfectly ready to be transferred in their place, we are determined to work and fight against COVID-19. So, last Sunday, we did a small celebration and planting the baby trees by ourselves alone.

This part of the forest was an orchard for mulberries some 70 years ago.
 Till that time, sericulture was a good business for farmers in Yokohama
 … After-war reconstruction urged briefly landlords  to cut mulberry trees
and plant cedars and cypresses for construction, like here.
 In 1960, trade liberalization of timbers changed the condition.
 Such afforested coniferous trees were practically abandoned.
 Now this is the City’s property since
 the new landlord paid their inheritance tax with land.
 Niiharu Lovers regularly mow the forest floor of such afforested areas,
 without any scope of selling the logs as originally planned.
 For the occasion of the 20^th anniversary,
 the City Office told us OK to deforest the area
 to plant deciduous trees which dominated the place 150 years ago.

The area is cleared for replanting broadleaved trees.

Oaks are growing from seeds, aka acorns.

It was warm and cozy Sunday. Yeah, there was no grand speeches from the guests. But, so what? With the virus or not, the forest must remain. We will do our best for Niiharu Forest to be so. Many people visited Niiharu Forest for their weekend (wearing masks). Teenagers (wearing masks) sat on picnic tables, 1m apart each other for sure, and talked their things for hours under budding cherry blossoms … Families (wearing masks) leisurely walked along the trekking road, cheering early flowers of violets. We (wearing masks) easily finished planting the trees. “Hey, you stomp the soil over the root ball. Yeah, that’s right.” “Now make a well around. Where are water bottles?” “Here.” “Well, you’ll be bigger, won’t you, baby oak?” How will they look like in 20 more years? Shall I see how they are in 2040?

We are planting.

We Lovers also made a small booklet recording our activity since the inauguration. At least the Library system of Yokohama City will have it in open shelf from someday this year. (Naomi was a member of the editorial committee. I’m now busy persuading senior Lovers to make it downloadable online.) Please stay tuned for my later post about this booklet. I’ve learned there were so many helps from the people to make this volunteer-based environmental project successfully lasting this long. Come to think of it, the Lovers Association is older than Ms. Greta Thunberg. Yeah, raising awareness about environmental issues by marching in well-paved plazas and boulevards of OECD cities is very important, when many people are not interested in the subject. But, actually working in the ground for a sustained period of history with soiled shoes and hands is also crucial, I think.

If you find a problem in Niiharu Forest, 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/

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/