Baby trees in Mad Max 3: planting trees in the place of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Kanagawa Green Trust かながわみどり財団 has a year-round program for anybody to join forest management in Kanagawa Prefecture.  Once to three times a month, they organize a field trip to a forest for planting, mowing, thinning, pruning … you’ve got the idea, haven’t you? The majority of event-dates are during weekend + the place is mainly a public land that is normally off-limit.  It’s a good weekend getaway from urban life. The Trust arranges a free bus tour to the site from a commuter train station of Odakyu Line 小田急線. And so, your transportation cost is minimized. Volunteers make an online reservation (; you can reserve your seat for an event here), then, on the reserved day, wear mountaineering gear (a pair of work gloves is a MUST), carry your lunch and lots of drinking water, and go to a meeting place normally within 5 minutes’ walk from a designated train station. The rest is taken care of by the Green Trust and Kanagawa Forest Instructors. The forest activity is for the morning. After lunch in the forest, many events are over and the Trust brings you back to the commuter train station. Sometimes additional program is arranged such as meeting with local forest volunteer organizations, or free spa in Hakone 箱根. Actually, if a forest is in Hakone, it is a HUGE bargain to visit a forest of Hakone! They say the program is gaining popularity these days and seats for some date become rapidly full. The purpose of this tax-payer funded fun is to provide opportunities for urbanites to know forest management hands-on, and to manage vast water catchment forests of the prefecture in whatever way. As such, the forests chosen for the program is often for water conservation in Tanzawa and Hakone. For the water source forests in Tanzawa, I’ll post you my experience there soon. Today, I tell you my experience with continuing afforestation efforts in Sengoku-hara 仙石原 of Hakone. Although the area ceased to be the water source for the City of Odawara 小田原, the place still provides water to the community in northern Hakone. A weekend forest activity concluded with relaxing free spa is, I tell you, gorgeous.

The gate of off-limit prefectural forest in Hakone.
It’s open only for the time of forest management.

Hakone is one of the most prestigious resort towns in Japan. Inevitably, there are several golf courses. Among them, Hakone Country Club in Sengoku-hara is the place for rich and famous in Japan to enjoy their weekends. In the premise, they have several ponds, of course, but one of them, the largest, is not for golfers.  Its name is Itari Pond イタリ池. It is one of the remnants of a marsh spreading in the northern Hakone area until some 70 years ago before the place underwent a massive resort construction. In 1959, another remnant, the Sengoku-hara hygrophyte meadow was designated as a National Natural Treasure of Japan. The meadow attracts lots of visitors, contributing to the tourism business of the town. Aside from being scenery of rich golfers, Itari Pond too is sustaining the economy of the area in a very practical way. The people in Sengoku-hara area pump up the water of Itari Pond (about 700m ASL) to 2.5km south of Owakudani 大涌谷 (about 1050m ASL) and let it through the well of volcanic steam. The H2O becomes mineral rich boiling water and comes down to northern Hakone to be spas. So far, it never fails to provide lots of lots of spa water. No wonder. The area is the source of Hayakawa River 早川 pouring to Sagami Bay 相模湾 in the south of Odawara City. It is the river supplied water for some 400 years to Odawara, although since 1936 Odawara is using water coming from Tanzawa Mountains.

Over there is Hakone Country Club.
According to Neon Genesis Evangelion,
this is the place for Neo Tokyo-3.
At least for now,
the majority of strollers in the premise are not millennials,
but their parents or grandparents.
(In any case, we have survived 2015 …)

Hakone Yumoto 箱根湯本 and Hayakawa River

The reason why Odawara switched its water source was, Hayakawa River could not fulfill the demand any more. There was population growth of course, which made even the rich marsh of Hakone could not satisfy people’s satiation. You may say Sengoku-hara is right next to Lake Ashinoko 芦ノ湖 that is the source of Hayakawa River anyway. The lake can take care of the matter, can’t it? Well, yes and no. The water right of Ashinoko Lake is held by Shizuoka Prefecture 静岡県, not Kanagawa, because of historical reasons originated in the 17^th century. Based on the present-day law, the civil engineering maintenance for the lake is under the jurisdiction of Kanagawa Prefecture, but the water of Ashinoko Lake must go to Shizuoka via Fukara Canal 深良用水 which holds the title of International Heritage of Irrigation Facility, designated by International Commission onIrrigation and Drainage. So, Kojiri Watergate 湖尻水門 in Sengoku-hara leading to Hayakawa River is permanently closed. That’s that. In any case, I suspect one of the reasons for the 20^th century water shortage from Hayakawa was environmental. Here is a photo, borrowing from the homepage of Hakone Shrine. It shows how Sengoku-hara area was in 1949 when the Emperor Hirohito came to hold an afforestation ceremony. The marsh was not that much wet but more of dry grassland. Water retention was definitely lower in 1949 comparing with 2017 when the area is fully-afforested.

In Itari of Sengoku-hara meadow, spring 1949.
Actually, Japanese Emperor presides over
the annual afforestation festival since 1934,
importing the American idea of Arbor Day.
The festival could not be held in 1944 and 1945,
but otherwise it has been one of the most important
official duties of the Emperor.
This year, the event was held in Toyama Prefecture.

Sengokuhara meadow, in summer 2017

For more than 70 years of continuous afforestation, the former grassland is now a forest (and 2 golf-courses).  First, people planted coniferous trees there. They are now matured cedars and cypresses many of which are harvested for funding nature management programs of the Prefecture. This spring, in the forest management tour we planted next generation trees to the newly created vacant plots in Itari area of Sengoku-hara. The site is now managed by Kanagawa Water Supply Authority 神奈川県内広域水道企業団 in order to supply water to the northern Hakone area. The chosen seedlings this time were deciduous trees, nurtured from the local seeds of Stewartia monadelpha (Tall stewartia), Acer palmatum (Japanese maple), Cerasus jamasakura (Japanese hill cherry), and Cornus kousa (Kousa dogwood). Before we arrived, The Water Supply Authority cleared the place and marked the place with a bamboo stick for the seedlings to be planted. Although, Hakone area does not (yet) suffer deer problem, the place was enclosed by sturdy wire mesh to prevent deer lunch, just in case. Everything was ready when we went there. We simply dug at the indicated point holes deep and wide enough for the roots of seedlings to be covered with 2-5 cm of soil and applied gentle stomping around the root to stabilize the soil (; it’s a maneuver similar to a dance around a small poll, which I loved). Then, each baby tree was loosely tied to the bamboo cane with a hemp yarn. The fastening of the seedling is important to prevent the weak babies to be knocked out by strong winds and rains. The point to apply yarn is at 2/3 of a seedling from the bottom.  We put the string in 8-shaped loop around the marker-stick and tied the end at a seedling, not so tight but secure enough for the fastener to stay at the point. The baby trees grow taller and spread their branches from their growing point, normally at the tip. The trunk 2/3 from the root will not have a new bough anymore, but only get thicker. So, gentle tying with a yarn will not hamper their growth.

The underground reservoir that gathers water in Itari forest

A tag attached to a seedling.
 There is an interesting story about such switch in afforestation
from coniferous trees suitable for mass market
to locally procured broad-leaved trees.
I tell you about it in my later post
together with the thing of grassland and the forest;
they are related.

It’s the water purification plant for northern Hakone.
Not that huge, isn’t it?

After the planting we had a tour in the water purification plant.

The water from Itari forest is not contaminated,
but the plant is to make it sanitary.
Bacteria, poops of wild animals, etc, etc., you know?

Interestingly,
the purified water is slightly acidic
due to volcanic activity of the area.
In order to make the taste
acceptable for the majority of the tourists,
the Authority adds baking powder
for neutralization before distribution.

Our senior Forest Instructors said, “What fascinating in afforestation is, we imagine how these babies grow. Here, the sun light comes from this direction so that these thin branches near the growing point will take a shape to receive the max energy from the sun in such way (he explained by body language). The direction of the tree to get taller will also be affected by the direction of sun. Then, there will be a race for survival not only among these seedlings we planted today, but also with weeds and wild seedlings now dormant in the soil but will come out sooner. All compete for the max sun shine, and water and nutrients underground. Taking care of the planting site is watching a gradual change of the natural community where we brought the seedlings. Sometimes, our first expectation will be completely off target because some seedlings could not survive for their first few years. Others could have a shape we did not expect originally. Some became spectacular, another just mediocre. We know we cannot live long enough to make it sure how the most successful baby tree becomes in hundreds of years. That’s the best part of afforestation, realizing such things by attending the same forest for a long time.”

They are about 70 years’ old trees in Itari.

In the event of forest management by the Green Trust, we returned the same place during summer for mowing. Certainly, the seedlings we planted were surrounded by tall weeds and in a competition with wild seedlings such as Japanese pepper (Zanthoxylum piperitum). “Please mow all except the planted seedlings!” OK. When I cut the pepper tree, the air was filled with the pure aroma of Japanese pepper … piquant and a hint of fresh mint. Do you think mowing them wasteful? Well, I’m sure when we return the same place next summer, another wild Japanese pepper trees are establishing themselves no matter what. The caged afforestation field in Hakone is the place for the survival of the fittest.   Very Mad Max place. Welcome Aunty Entity.

The afforestation site in August.
The wild weeds are dominating the place.

After mowing.
The baby trees can take a breath now.

In the established coniferous forest of Itari,
in August wild Hydrangea macrophylla had very large buds everywhere.

If you find environmental problems in Hakone, please make a contact to the Visitor Center of Hakone National Park

 

Hakone Visitor Centre, Ministry of Environment 環境省 箱根ビジターセンター

164 Motohakone, Hakone-machi, Ashigara-shimo-gun, Kanagawa, 250-0522

〒250-0522　神奈川県足柄下郡箱根町元箱根164

(TEL)　0460-84-9981

(FAX)　0460-84-5721

(Email)　hakone-vc@kanagawa.email.ne.jp

http://hakonevc.sunnyday.jp/

National Trust in Kanagawa and forest instructor training

Yokohama’s Citizen Forest was born of the idea to preserve urban greenery that was threatened by relentless urbanization in Metropolitan Tokyo. The large portion of Kanagawa is also facing the same developmental problem. From the city of Odawara (小田原 the entrance to Hakone National Park) to the district of Marunouchi (丸の内 the major Tokyo business area with lots of HDQs of multinationals), it takes only 1 hour or so nowadays. As such, Kanagawa Prefecture has always been the frontline of the battle between suburbanization and natural environment. Take the City of Kamakura. Do you remember Wuethrich Citizen Forest, near the border between Yokohama and Kamakura? The former landlord of the place, Arnold Wuethrich from Bern, had a successful trading business in Tokyo, got married with a local girl, and built a European style home near the Forest in 1933. At that time the area was already posh among yuppies in the downtown for having their modern houses. Although the speed of bulldozers became slow during the war years, by 1960 it returned full-swing in Kanagawa. According to the city of Kamakura, among the forests threatened there were several historical greeneries. Some were conquered by the real-estate business. The present day houses around Enkakuji Temple 円覚寺 were newly built after the World War II.  

The road leading to Wuerthrich Forest is
now a well-established alley.
The width of this way tells us
this community is at least not brand-new.

Now people normally visit Enkakuji Temple from
the North Exit of JR Kitakamakura Station 北鎌倉.
But the original main entrance is near the South Exit,
shown here.
To reach to the temple buildings in an old-fashioned way
we have to pass a railroad crossing with the JR Yokosuka Line.
The rail service was started in 1889
in order to connect Tokyo and Yokosuka
that had the HDQ of Japanese Imperial Navy.
i.e., Long ago the construction demolished
the inner sanctuary of the religious establishment
that was very close to the ancient national political power.
The developmental enthusiasm ignored cultural things …
corollary: “who cares the forest spreading outside the Temple?”

In early 1964, the desire for housing expansion reached to Oyatsu 御谷 area, the forests surrounding Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine 鶴岡八幡宮. Yeah, it’s the huge Shinto shrine in the middle of Kamakura. Some of the yuppies moved from Tokyo in the early 20th century, including Nobel Laureate Yasunari Kawabata 川端康成, had become by then grand-old daddies of Japanese culture and voiced strong objections to this commercial scheme. The leading figure of their movement was Jiro Osaragi 大佛次郎, a popular novelist who widely disseminated the English idea of National Trust for the occasion. The star-studded volunteers established the Kamakura Trust 鎌倉風致保存会 in English style and solicited donations from all over Japan to buy-up the land. They also persuaded the City to demand very strict building code for the construction. The developer gave up their plan, and the City of Kamakura contributed partially to the fund, which in December 1964 enabled the Kamakura Trust to secure the threatened entire 1.5 ha. People say this was the beginning of Japanese National Trust movement. The success of volunteering by the Kamakura Trust instigated the similar movements in Kyoto and Nara, and finally in 1966 persuaded National Diet to legislate Act on Special Measures concerning Preservation of Traditional Scenic Beauty in Ancient Capitals 古都における歴史的風土の保存に関する特別措置法（古都保存法）.

It’s the photo taken few years back during the fall
 Yabusame Festival 流鏑馬 in Tsurugaoka Hachimangu.
Could you see the mountain over there?
That place could have been rows of houses and condos
if the Kamakura Trust had failed to obtain the land in 1964.
It’s … amazing.
Oh, by the way, this year’s Yabusame was held on October 2^nd.

And this is the inside of that mountain.
Actually, it is a part of the Rokkokutoge Hiking Trail 六国峠ハイキングコース
we visited from Yokohama the other day.
This spot might have been a parking lot for a supermarket,
if the developers had their way 50 years ago.

So, Kanagawa Prefecture is the birth place of Japanese National Trust. Since then, National Trust movement spread all over the country. In 1983 local organizations established a nation-wide coordination mechanism which is now the Association of National Trusts in Japan. Also in 1983, the Kanagawa Prefectural government convened a citizen council, かながわ都市緑化推進協議会, to discuss support system of the National Trust movement in the area. In 1985, the council evolved into a Prefectural Citizen Conference for Green Community Kanagawa みどりのまち・かながわ県民会議, and at the same time recommended the governor to provide seed money for supporting the Trust movement. Next year, in 1986, with 5 billion yen, Kanagawa Green Trust Fund was established. On the other hand, as a part of post-war reconstruction policy Japan has had afforestation program since 1950 that has evolved into fund-raising activities by National Land Afforestation Promotion Organization 国家緑化推進機構. In Kanagawa Prefecture, the money collected via the national scheme was arranged to feed into the Green Trust Fund. After several changes in the subsequent 20 years for tax laws and corporate legislations, in 2012 the Kanagawa Green Trust かながわみどり財団became to have the current form. Now, the Green Trust pools the money from the citizens, the Organization and the prefectural government. The Trust uses the fund to secure the threatened greenery in Kanagawa either by purchase or long-term lease agreement with landlords. During the very first day of the forest instructor course this year, the people from Kanagawa Green Trust explained they have about 200 million yen budget for FY 2016 (70% of it is from prefectural government). So far the Trust assured 28 forests of 84+ ha, half of them is in Kamakura and Miura Peninsula. Koajiro Forest is one of them.

Koajiro Forest. National Trust, Japanese style.

One of the ways the Kanagawa Green Trust raises money is
collection box system for public parking spaces throughout the prefecture.
It is to ask drivers 20 yen per car to offset
(at least partially) their carbon footprints.
It collects 20 million yen per year on average.
In Shikinomori Park 県立四季の森公園 near Niiharu,
20 yen is automatically added for the fee as this notice says.

The Trust also welcomes donations
from the corporations with CSR activity.
This is a billboard for Coca Cola
who donated the fund for the forest near
Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center
神奈川県自然環境保全センター.

The Kanagawa Green Trust also promotes environmental education for the public and facilitates volunteer activities that take care of the assured nature. Their to-do list includes training forest instructors. One of the main objectives of this public funded education program is to nurture future leaders for environmental awareness in Kanagawa. For example, National Land Afforestation Promotion Organization has boy/girl scout style youth program in which school age kids can participate for basic forestry, community festivals, fund-raising activities, etc., including tree-planting ceremony presided by the Emperor. People from the Trust told us upon successful completion of the course, we are expected to lead these kids. There also is a program of helping school “forest day” where the instructors will be dispatched to teach kids technicalities of the basic forest husbandry. (A-ha, this is what my seniors of Niiharu Lovers do regularly for the schools around the Niiharu Forest.) The Green Trust organizes regular citizen forestry throughout the year where anybody who has the will can join for planting, weeding, thinning, coppicing … in the Trust forests and the forests in Hakone National Park and Tanzawa Quasi-National Park. The volunteer instructors will help the professionals for these occasions to organize 100+ participants majority of whom are pure urbanites without previous experience. “So, for accepting the new trainees of our course, we have invited you who have some experience of community activity in this field.” The trust people said. Sure enough, among us there are teachers from kindergartens where they bring kids to forests regularly. Aside from businessmen introducing themselves as “our company engages in the sustainable construction,” my fellow students include a yoga instructor and an aroma therapist, both expressing their expectation for the training that shall help their business to go more eco-friendly direction. How will the training go? I will report you my experience from time to time. ;) 

During the recent training day,
we ventured into the forest of
Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center
to learn the basic monitoring technique for ground ecology.
This is a demonstration for dynamics study of seedling.

Chief Scientist of the Center, Mr. Atsushi Tamura,
teaches us how to use fish-eye lens
to measure the degree of canopy openness whose
value is almost exactly proportional to illuminance at the ground level.
FYI, Mr. Tamura introduced us a freeware,
CanopON2, to derive data from photos.
It is created by Mr. Akio Takenaka of
Center for Environmental Biology and Ecosystem Studies.

Tree-hugging, aka,
the lab to measure the size of trees in the forest

The contact address for Kanagawa Green Trust かながわトラストみどり財団 is

Phone: 045-412-2255

Email: midori@ktm.or.jp

Forests and water sources for Kanagawa Prefecture

Last year, in 2015 when I attended the introductory course for Yokohama Forest Volunteers, there were at least 2 secretly enthusiastic water cooler topics among volunteers. One was about the chainsaws. Another was for Forest Instructor Training Course organized by Kanagawa Green Trust かながわみどり財団. Yeah, that’s organization for Koajiro Forest. The training is for volunteers to take care of forests in Kanagawa Prefecture, including in Hakone National Park and TanzawaQuasi-National Park. What’s notable for this program is (a) it’s free, whose opening is once in 2 years, (b) it’s 1.5 years’ course of 24 days, held in weekends, (c) upon completion, the volunteers are certified by the Governor as Kanagawa Forest Instructor and will organize educational nature activities throughout the Prefecture, and (d) there are a screening process for attending the course, and exams to receive the certification. I was taken aback. Screening and exams for volunteer activities? “Oh, yeah.” ”Well, it’s a serious staff, you know.” “Yes, Yes. Will you apply for the next opening?”

Last year’s trainees for Yokohama’s Forests 101.
Oh, by the way, this year’s Forest Volunteer 101 by the City
will be held again in October and November.
For reserving the seat, please check here.

I google-searched the course, and found 2016 is the opening year for the class of 15th session. And screening … a submission of an essay by the deadline to proceed to an interview at the second round … wow. I applied it, and (to my surprise, honestly) I was called for an interview at Yokohama Port Opening Memorial Hall 横浜開港記念館. The number of trainees for the class of 2016 would be 35. Each applicant was allocated 10 minutes’ slot for an interview held by 2 examiners. The Kanagawa Green Trust used 3 rooms that held the interviews simultaneously. The first meeting started at 10:00, and the last one ended at 16:00 with 1 hour lunch break from 12:00. i.e. There were at least 90 interviewees for 35 chairs of the training course … hmmmm. When my turn came, two gentlemen of the Trust asked “Well, this course is demanding. It has several practical sessions of forestry using tools in steep mountains of Tanzawa and Hakone. Could you cope with it?” “The contents cover large area, such as CPR methodology for emergency, ecology of our mountains and more. Are you OK for this?” etc. etc. To my second surprise, I received a letter from the Trust saying “Congratulations. Please attend the first session at Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター.” So one August weekend morning, I went there on the foot of Tanzawa Mountains.

Yokohama Port Opening Memorial Hall is
designated as an Important Cultural Property
by the national government.
During the early 20^th century,
it was a town hall of Yokohama built
solely by the donation of citizens of the City, not by tax.
Inside we can admire very Japanese stained glasses.
It’s one of them.

Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center is in a town that is somewhat known for Nanasawa Onsen hot spring 七沢温泉, and a huge prefectural medical center forrehabilitation 神奈川リハビリテーション病院 to the patients of serious ailments, such as circulatory failure and spinal cord injury. Almost sandwiched by 2 large campuses of the medical center, there is the Natural Environment Conservation Center that is in charge of the environmental policy implementation for Kanagawa Prefecture … The relationship between the city of Yokohama and the Kanagawa Prefecture is a bit complicated. Yokohama is designated by the national cabinet order as somewhat independent entity even though we are within the border of Kanagawa Prefecture. According to an insider of the prefectural government, Yokohama is a kind of “… er they’re different, you know” category: FY2014 revenue for the prefecture was JPY 1.98 trillion, whereas Yokohama had independent revenue of JPY 1.48 trillion. I was a bit surprised to know during the interview for this training course that the people of the Green Trust, an important actor for prefectural environment policy, did not know Citizen Forest System of Yokohama. Even though, roughly 3.7 million citizens of Yokohama are a part of 9.1 million people living in Kanagawa Prefecture, and paying prefectural taxes. One component of the prefectural levy for citizens of Yokohama is yearly 300 yen per head Forest Environment Tax. Yokohama’s 900 yen per head Green Tax is to protect remaining greenery in a large city of Yokohama where people live very close to polka-dotted forests within the city. Aside from cultural values of the forests, the prosaic objective of the Yokohama's policy is to reduce disaster risks for residents from landslides, fallen trees, floods, etc., emanating from abandoned forests. Prefectural environment policy with another earmarked tax tots up the additional mission to culture and disaster risk reduction: preservation of water resources. (Oh, by the way, Yokohama’s water system is the oldest in Japan as a modern water system.)

Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center
 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

The first day of the course this year was comprised of 2 lectures. One is about National Trust system of Japan which encompasses Kanagawa Green Trust (more about this in the next post). Another is about prefectural policy about forests and water resource protection. Our tap of water in Yokohama is coming from Lake Sagami 相模湖, Lake Tsukui 津久井湖, and Lake Miyagase 宮ケ瀬湖 all of which are surrounded by the forests within Kanagawa Prefecture (and Yamanashi Prefecture 山梨県 along with Doshi River 道志川 to Lake Sagami: I’ll post about it more later). That’s one of the reasons why the entire Kanagawa Prefecture including Yokohama is not in sync about drought with the other prefectures in Kanto Regions such as Tokyo. (All of them are dependent on Tone River Water System.) It sounds very well and secure, so I thought. Wrong. According to Mr. Kazuyoshi Mashiko of Kanagawa Prefectural Government who gave the lecture, although the volume of greenery in the forests of Kanagawa Prefecture is OK for now, the quality is deteriorating rapidly. The main reason is the same as the problem for Satoyama in Yokohama. The forestry as industry, in terms of gross product and labor force, reached its peak in Kanagawa for 1952 - the early 1960s, and declined steadily to the bottom of 2003. Although it is getting better slightly (“Labor force has recovered from 313 personnel in 2003 to 351 in 2014!”), viability of economic activity in the forests is grim unless we count eco-tourism. As such, not many people take care of the afforested area of middle elevation in Hakone / Tanzawa mountains. Many plantations of coniferous trees have been abandoned for decades now. Trees without thinning and pruning are now collapsing …

Near the Natural Environment Conservation Center,
there is the office of Atsugi Forestry Cooperative 厚木森林組合.
According to Mr. Mashiko, these days the majority of forestry job
in the Prefecture is done by such cooperatives.

Moreover, the higher elevation of Kanagawa’s forests which is the National and Quasi-National Parks has another problem. When Japanese thinking of environmental protection was in infancy, there was a policy not to control the population of cervus nippon in the park areas. It was OK until the 1980s when the forests in Hakone and Tanzawa had large snow fall during winter. Many Japanese deer could not survive in the snow-covered mountains with little food. Then, the planet is warming and the Parks do not have much snow anymore. Surviving deer ate, ate, and ate the vegetation in the protected area to proliferate. They caused massive deforestation of fagus crenata and their forest floors that once covered the top parts of Hakone and Tanzawa mountains. Finally, the lowest part of the Kanagawa’s greenery, i.e. Satoyama, is almost in siege by urbanization. Uncared forests with these backgrounds erode large amount of soil. They could not retain water as before. The volume of water we can use is decreasing now. The washed away soils made the entire mountain fragile against earthquakes and storms that would cause large landslides and massive floods running down the rivers. The dirt reaches to the beach which makes the Sagami Bay murky, with less fishes to catch for fishermen, and of smaller beaches for important tourism industry. In conclusion! The forests in Kanagawa Prefecture need help for maintenance in order to maintain the entire ecosystem of the prefecture. If left untreated, the amount of greenery in the entire prefecture will shrink. Smaller biodiversity in our parks, more polluted air from the window …

Japanese deers in stamps

Shichirigahama Beach in August 2009,
which was still wide … but …

Shirigahama Beach in August 2016.
The beach becomes too narrow so that
the prefecture is applying preventive measure to keep the coast line …
global warming and deterioration of forests … sad.

Who’s gonna take care of these actually then? 351 forestry people alone cannot cover 95 thousand hectares of greenery in Kanagawa. True, there are forest rangers for National Parks, but the absolute shortage of helping hands remains the same. Here comes the thinking of National Trust. I’ll report you next about the Japanese National Trust in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Beyond the houses is the beginning of Tanzawa Mountains.

The contact address for Water Source Environmental Conservation Division of Kanagawa Prefecture is,


Water Source Environmental Conservation Division, Environment Agricultural Administration Bureau
神奈川県環境農政局緑政部水源環境保全課
Phone: 045-210-4352 http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/0517/

Fantastic Typhoon … Wishing a safe delivery for chiromantes haematocheir in Koajiro Forest

Er … this year, I was lucky enough to win a lottery for an admission to one of those reservation-only departure parties in Koajiro Forest 小網代の森 for chiromantes haematocheir babies アカテガ二放仔観察会 … or not. I sent an electronic application to Kanagawa Green Trust, received a congratulating email notifying me a party ticket for August 21^st … and heard a weather report in the evening of August 19. “A tropical cyclone gained strength around Mariana Islands and became Typhoon #9, Mindulle. It is expected to move north, and hit Kanto region early 22^nd. Please be prepared … blah, blah, blah …”

Mindulle means dandelion in Korean.
Its godparent is none other than DPRK!

The moms of chiromantes haematocheir carry their eggs around their body and wait in the forest until they hatch. When the babies come out as zoeas, the moms bring them softly to the seashore during the evening and release them in flood tide. The babies say goodbye to the mom, and depart to their life time journey. The ecology of the Koajiro Forest is ideal for this event. The forest surrounds an entire river from its source to the estuary. The mouth of the river has a tideland where crab moms can utilize for their delivery with ease. On the other hand, basically Koajiro Forest is off-limit after sunset so that we cannot observe the occasions unless we join the tour organized by the Green Trust. I was looking forward to the night of 21^st August … That weekend was the time Koajiro tideland received the highest tide in August 2016 so that crab-moms could have safe deliveries, … so I thought. That was a mistake. Typhoon swell magnified the high-tide even higher, which made the municipalities along Sagami Bay issue evacuation preparation information to the communities on the beach and the river. The Green Trust sent us a twitter feed. “Due to the storm surge, the Observation Tours for chiromantes haematocheir for 20^th and 21^st are cancelled.” ** sigh **

Mindulle did come to Kanto Area, destroyed trees next to JR Harajuku Station and other places, stopped many commuter trains, flooded lots of home, and became extratropical cyclone in the Sea of Okhotsk on 23^rd. I don’t think moms of crabs can choose the date of delivery according to the weather. The babies’ first steps last weekend for chiromantes haematocheir must have been very stormy … Hmmm … this is life!

The latest gossip for Koajiro Forest. According to the people who know such things, the place is loved by the Emperor. When he and the Empress stay in the Hayama Imperial Villa, they secretly and frequently come to the Forest. Come to think of it, Emperor Akihito is a scholar for sea creatures. Koajiro Forest must be his play ground. When he retires near future, we might be given an audience by him often down there. ;) 

If you find a problem in Koajiro Forest, please make a contact with

Kanagawa Green Trust かながわトラストみどり財団

Phone: 045-412-2255

Email: midori@ktm.or.jp