Niiharu Citizen Forest in snow

 

With La Niña, Japan always has lots of snow. In the afternoon of 6th of January, Yokohama had snowstorm. Yeah, it was not much compared with the other places like in Niigata 新潟 or Hokkaido 北海道. But for us, it was a lot. We had a cold night on that day. The temperature dipped below zero. Next morning, I’ve been to Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森. Sure enough, the roads were frozen. Several car crashes I’ve witnessed. Many open spaces were in white. But …

Frankly, it was beautiful …

Ikebuchi Open Space

Of course, where the sun came in, the ice and snow started to melt. That’s that. But, I noticed. To begin with, the dark forest floors did not have snow. Tree canopies caught the snow far above. Before the snow came down, they were melted. Yeah. There’s no wonder for that … I simply wonder how then forests keep accounting rain or snow for survival … Especially how do those neglected afforested areas, where the floor is too dark, trees were tall but lanky, and sometimes receives illegal damping, manage water intake …? It would be natural for such places to collapse by a uber-violent storm and create massive land slide …

We really need to take care of our forest particularly now with rapidly changing climate. I just remind myself in that morning.

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/