Slicing a cake: Kuzuha Greenery 葛葉緑地 2

There are several options for the access to Kuzuha Greenery 葛葉緑地. It has ample car parking. You set your car navigation to Kuzuha Ryokuchi (Kuzuha Greenery), drive your car along Route 246, and reach your destination. Or, if you’re willing, you can walk from Odakyu Hadano Station 小田急秦野駅 to the Forest. It’s about 30-40 minutes’ walk of mainly paved bus roads … I guess it would not be much fun … The third option is riding a commuter bus from Hadano Station. Take any service from #2 bus stop for the Station and leave at Miyagami Stop 宮上. It’s less than 10 minutes ride. Walk back about 100-150m to the direction the bus came from the Station, and cross the traffic light named Miyagami to the opposite side of the bus route. Then, walk in the direction we’ve come from and turn right at the first corner. Go straight. In front of you is the entrance of the Kuzuha Greenery with the panel of an aerial photo I showed you last week.

At the entrance

Before entering the Forest, please check a house on your right. It is a café named Forest Café and a gallery for local artists. I’ve been there during this Golden Week Thursday, but the place was reserved for a private party. We could not try the place. Actually, not only we but also several other groups were turned down the entry due to the event, which means the place is popular. If you have a chance, it would be a nice place for lunch, especially with organic local veggies. (It’s closed for Wednesdays and Thursdays.)

Forest Café

At the entrance of the forest, you find a narrow pedestrian road going down rapidly towards Kuzuha River 葛葉川. This is a characteristic feature of Kuzuha Greenery. Basically, Hadano 秦野 is a basin which is an alluvial fun created by several rivers running down from Tanzawa Mountains. Before, Kuzuha River took a straighter route running down from the slope of Mt. Ninotoh (ASL 1144m) 二ノ塔. About 60 thousand years ago the plate tectonics of crashing Philippine and North American plates pushed up the land mass of present-day Oiso Hill 大磯丘陵 that was/is on the Philippine Plate. The alluvial fan north of Oiso Hill received huge pressures and several faults were created like creases of linen. At least 3 fault lines, Hadano 秦野, Shimojuku 下宿, and Mitsuya 三屋 lines crossing Kuzuha River were activated and created waterfalls. The upper stream of each fall had a gentler slope where water ran slower. It meandered in the alluvial fan and eroded the riverbed until the fall disappeared when the inclination of the riverbed reached the degree of pre-tectonic change. In this way, the valleys have become deeper as it went down near to the point of a gone waterfall. Inevitably, From the Forest entrance to the river, the pedestrian road is rapidly going for approximately 30m down.

Down, down, …

Going down, we meet a cozy garden with a mixture of native and imported flowering trees. When we stroll along the path, we soon meet Kuzuha House that is an admin office cum meeting place for locals. You enter the house and pick up several info leaflets. Oh, some of them are also downloadable from their HP here. The staff of the House is kind and friendly. They also know the latest about the Forest. Er … speaking of the “latest,” Kuzuha Greenery is in the process of recovery from the devastations due to storms in recent years. In addition, oak tree wilt is rampant and killed several large oaks in the Forest. So, as of May 2023, the path to upper stream of Kuzuha River where fireflies dance in late May to early June is closed for safety concerns + rejuvenation of firefly population. By the same reason, the access to lower stream of the River within the Greenery is also closed. Consequently, the place we can enjoy now is about ½ of Kuzuha Greenery. Having said that, the place has lots of places with richness of living creatures + the planet earth.

Inside the Kuzuha House where community can gather.

They also have a small natural museum.

The Kuzuha Greenery is managed to control different environment among the spots. The place we enter via a steep slope intentionally leaves local trees and some lower shrubs some of which are introduced. Relatively speaking, its floor is wetter and tends to receive less sunlight. The ground herbaceous are those that love such environment. On the left of Kuzuha House to the upper stream direction, there is an open space named Camphor Tree Space. It has several picnic benches that are popular for weekend picnics. The space is surrounded by large trees, some of them are imported variety. The number of trees is smaller than the garden we came from. The floor has more sunlight, and so, the place has the herbs for drier places such as sedges. We can enjoy such difference in just 10 or so meters apart. That’s fun. In front of Kuzuha House, there is a suspension bridge called Kuzuha Suspension Bridge くずはのつり橋. Let‘s walk this to cross Kuzuha River. The other side has more “wild” atmosphere that would reflects less human intervention. Going straight from the bridge and we enter residential area surrounding the Greenery. Today let’s turn right from the bridge to go down the steps. We’ll meet another special feature of Kuzuha Greenery.

After descending the slope,
we enter such cozy path to Kuzuha House.

Camphor Tree Space.
Could you see the difference from the above photo?

Kuzuha Suspension Bridge

The other side is like this.
I guess we’ll see a spectacular autumn colors here ...

In early May, the step was adorned by Pourthiaea villosa.

We go down the steps and arrive at the bank of Kuzuha River. Unless the weather is bad, the River is, frankly, small. There are several points whose water depth is probably less than 20cm. Though, the valley is deep. That‘s the result of plate tectonics. Both side of the river has steep slope, or cliff where vegetations cling to. We walk a couple of minutes from the end of the steps, and on our left we find a large geological formation with plates attached. That‘s special for Kuzuha Greenery. This is one of the few places where we can observe natural cross section of Hadano Basin 秦野盆地. The bottom is named Kuzuha-dai Gravel Layer 葛葉台礫層 which was formed about 120-130 thousand years ago. It contains round rocks that came from Tanzawa Mountains, i.e., the evidence of the former riverbed. Above it, there are several whitish layers that have volcanic rocks from the large eruptions piled up in a short period of time. Between these white layers there are thick brown layers gathering small particles of volcanic ashes, yellow sands from China, and the other things. Among them, the layers with the name starting with “K” received the contribution of violent and continuous Hakone eruptions of 130-80 thousand years ago. A layer some 5 m above the river bottom has the name starting with “O” which is the evidence a huge eruption of Mt. Kiso Ontake 木曽御嶽山 98 thousand years ago that threw out pumice far and wide. Then, the very top immediately beneath the vegetation is Iwakura Gravel Layer 岩倉礫層 where before the tectonic push created waterfalls the river ran there. We can know how the earth is doing!. Wow.

We reached the river.

The slice of a cake

Deutzia scabra is clinging on the cliff.

Yearly, Kuzuha House organizes one year training course for nature observation instructors. The lecturers are pros from museums and research centers of the Prefecture. Though all the sessions are in Japanese, if you’re interested in it, please check their HP. The seat is limited, first-come-first-served base. The cost is 3000 yen (for 2023), and the application starts every March. Checking the member of the lecturers, what we can learn from the training would be useful in all over Kanagawa Prefecture. What Kuzuha House provides about the nature of Kuzuha Greenery is based on their study of the place. They concluded the Kuzuha Forest is a very rich place. I could feel it. Please try.

If you need to make a contact with Kuzuha Greenery, below is the address:

Kuzuha-no-Ie くずはの家
1137 Soya, Hadano City, Kanagawa 257-0031 

〒257-0031 神奈川県秦野市曽屋1137番地
Phone/Fax 0463-84-7874
kuzuhaie@city.hadano.kanagawa.jp

In the Beginning: Kuzuha Greenery 葛葉緑地 1

 

The forest surrounding Hakone Sengokubara wetland 箱根仙石原 is one of the newest additions to Kanagawa’s National Trust movement. Today, let me talk about my adventure in the oldest Trust Forest in Kanagawa. That is Kuzuha Greenery 葛葉緑地 in Hadano City. Strictly speaking the oldest National Trust Forest in Kanagawa is Oyatsu Forest 御谷 in Kamakura. It was established in 1964 with the help of national luminaries such as Yasunari Kawabata, a Nobel laureate. Oyatsu is the oldest Trust Forest in Japan, and has independent and large Foundation that is Kamakura Scenic Preservation Society. To some extent Oyatsu Forest is in a privileged position ... in the ancient city of Kamakura, next to lots of historical temples and monuments, with lots of rich neighbors who are celebrities of Japanese culture … Not all forests in Kanagawa have such condition calling for help to protection. Luckily (or not) Japanese forestry industry experienced a sharp decline since the 1960s and it made prefectural governments to think about it what to do, including the protection of private greeneries. In Kanagawa it created National Trust movement as a cooperation among civil society, private corporations and municipality. At the beginning it was a unique approach in Japan. Kuzuha Greenery was the first case saved by this method. Let me explain.

After losing the World War II, Japan needed to rebuild the cities and towns all over. (Hey, the world! Remember this for Ukraine!) Our grandparents needed lots of building materials, including timber. By 1945, domestic forests were destroyed for sustaining war effort. After 1945, Japanese landlords immediately resumed commercial forestry and afforestation, dreaming to strike big in timber business. The government subsidized the cost of seedlings and labor. Alas, trees need tens of years to be large enough for buildings. In no time, it occurred a huge chorus for buying cheap and large timber from abroad. Timber trade, or import to be exact, was completely liberalized in Japan in 1964. The direct subsidization for Japanese forestry was over. Landlords with still young trees on their land were thrown to a rough sea of international trade and lost the market. They abandoned the care of their young forests in droves. The Offices had awareness of crisis especially for water source forests. Many local governments established Public Forestry Corporation to take care of these near-abandoned private forests with public money. In 1968, Kanagawa Prefecture established Kanagawa Public Forestry Corporation.

Whatever the effort to life-save domestic forestry, Japanese industry lost the ground and many forestry cooperations around the nation piled up huge debt. Kanagawa’s Cooperation was no exception. Meanwhile the thing the society expects to forests evolved from procuring construction materials to environmental conservation and protection. The job description for Forestry Corporations changed accordingly. In Kanagawa for the 1980s, the financial problem and new environmental mission made public relation and environmental conservation sections be detached from the Public Forestry Corporation. Kanagawa Trust for Green Foundation かながわトラストみどり財団 was established to organize the national trust scheme … er … in case you’re interested in what happened since then for the rest of the Forestry Corporation in Kanagawa, they were dissolved last year. The public money invested in private forests via the Corporation was cleared by lands as substitute payments from the landlords. The prefecture is now concentrating on the management of former Corporation forests for water source management and natural disaster prevention. Anyway, the original aim of the Forestry Corporation was helping local forestry business. I think the new approach is more suitable for this era of climate change and sustaining biodiversity.

If you find such panel in mountains of Kanagawa,
it’s the sign the forest here was
under the management of Forestry Corporation.

Kanagawa Trust pooled the resources from Prefectural Government (aka tax money) with donations from private corporations and individuals. It then uses the Fund for purchase and maintenance of the forests by mobilizing volunteers, in the style of National Trust system. The main conservation target here is the greenery not so famous as Oyatsu that can ask donations et al relatively easily, but the places in our backyard prone to be ignored or exploited for non-conservation purpose. You see? The forest next to Sengokubara wetland could be a shopping center for tourists ... As of March 31st, 2021, Kanagawa Trust secured 29 forests across the Kanagawa Prefecture, preventing the encroachment of development into nature. The first forest that was secured by the Trust for conservation was Kuzuha Greenery in 1987. It is surrounded housing developments. A large AEON shopping center is near-by.

It’s an aerial photograph shown
at the entrance of Kuzuha Greenery.
Could you realize it’s surrounded by housing? 

Kanagawa Trust bought 0.56 ha of the area and made a long-term contract for 5.64 ha with the local landlords to protect the forests. The attached public land is combined with these land. In total 17 ha of Kuzuha Forest along meandering Kuzuha River 葛葉川 is designated as a nature protection area. Hadano City where Kuzuha Greenery is located provides a visitor center named Kuzuha-no-Ie (Kuzuha House) くずはの家 with full-time staff for the management of the forest. The city supports several volunteer organizations active in Kuzuha Greenery to promote the civic movement for conserving the Forest. Kuzuha House organizes events to know and enjoy the Kuzuha Greenery especially for kids. Their meeting room is to rent for civil societies organizing community events. More than 30 years have passed since the establishment of Kuzuha Greenery. The place is now a be-loved forest for the people of Hadano City. When you lose your way to Kuzuha Greenery, just ask locals where Kuzuha House is. They will surely give you directions!

The entrance to Kuzuha House

As the Greenery is along the Kuzuha River, it has an interesting feature to stroll. Next week, I tell you what I’ve found there. Please stay tuned!

If you need to make a contact with Kuzuha Greenery, below is the address:

Kuzuha-no-Ie くずはの家
1137 Soya, Hadano City, Kanagawa 257-0031

〒257-0031 神奈川県秦野市曽屋1137番地
Phone/Fax 0463-84-7874
kuzuhaie@city.hadano.kanagawa.jp