Flower arrangement with living cedars: Pruning in Hakone 箱根

Hakone Sengokubara 仙石原

Last year’s monster typhoons threw Hakone 箱根 into a mess. Lake Ashinoko 芦ノ湖 overflew. Town’s roads system was destroyed by landslides. Railroads lost their tracks with collapsed mountain slopes … One year has passed since then. Fortunately (or not), according to this analysis, Japanese have accumulated the know-how to swiftly deal with such problems. The transportation system in Hakone has restarted its normalcy this July, 3 months earlier than the original schedule. Recently, I’ve been there. Yeah, in spite of the COVID-things, Hakone is resuming its tourism business. Traffic congestions were here and there. Impressive.

Fukuzumiro 福住楼,
 one of traditional Japanese hot-spa inns in Hakone

Though, the effect of Japanese oak tree wilt (; my post on August 23, 2019) is remaining in Hakone. The area was the first in Kanagawa Prefecture where we noticed the dying trees, some 3 or 4 years ago. Several mountain slopes in Hakone are now covered with desiccated brown patches that are definitely-not autumn leaves. Sad. Despite of ferocious typhoon winds last year, those dead trees keep on standing … It is remarkable, certainly. But, how long will it take for Hakone to recover mountains covered with healthy greens? I wonder.

The restored train operation,
 and unrestored mountain with oak tree wilt
 in Hakone

Hakone is also seeing the problems of overpopulated Shika deer. Tanzawa 丹沢, Hakone’s eastern neighbor, is having this problem for years. When we enter Tanzawa mountains we must cover our foot against vampire leeches carried by deer population (; my post on 14 July 2017). Shizuoka Prefecture 静岡県, the western neighbor of Hakone, also having the issues with the animal. Hakone has spared such challenges so far, but it could be a matter of time if its adjacent areas are full of deer (; my post on 21 July 2017). Actually, when we mow the forest floor in Hakone, saplings and young trees are often become lunch for hungry deer. As the place is the National Park, the authorities are more alarmed if such popular tourist destination having bold mountains and pestering vampire worms as her neighbors.

Lunch for deer

So, one day when we pruned the boughs of young pollen-free cedars (my post on December 16, 2016), the Prefectural office asked forest instructors to have a novel measure to protect the trees. Trees can withstand a bit of bites on their body, but once stripping of their skin becomes substantial enough, it dies. Voracious deer don’t care if a forest is dying due to their eating habit. So it comes the novel way to protect the young trees. We covered the foot of pruned cedars with its removed boughs, just like wearing skirts. Our intention was, by protecting trunks of young trees, deer cannot gnaw barks of the forest. “You see? Christmas wraths made of cedars keep its green for at least 2 years. The protection we made today would last for some time. Trees can grow stronger meanwhile.” I see. “You try to have a viewpoint of hungry deer. They come here and try to chew the vegetation within the reach of their mouth.” I imagined myself entering the forest on all fours and extending my neck to have a lunch. “Well, this lower space looks appetizing.” i.e. We had to cover that part. We fastened the branches leaned on a trunk by tying them with a longer cedar bough. They were flexible enough to be a securing band. “We cannot do this with cypress, you know.” It was a fun operation. We were becoming more artistic to make an interesting barrier around the trunks. It was like doing a flower arrangement in a forest.

Cedars wearing skirts

This installation is figurative,
 don’t you think?

We don’t know if our approach is effective to protect the forest from insatiable herds of deer. In any case, something is happening for forests of Japan. This fall, we’ve heard so many news about hungry wild animals, like deer, serow, bear, boar, … wondering into human settlement for food. It’s rainy fall this year. Winter is approaching …

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/