Trying: a bit of introduction for national policy to the forests in Japan

We are here. 70% of Japanese territory is covered by forest. World’s Forests Map by ESA.

So, in Japanese forests, landlords are struggling to keep their property healthy and sustainable. Institutionally, Japanese government, local and national, also attempts to help as this is the age of COP and SDGs. According to a professor for Tokyo University this February, “The budget for taking care of the forests is allocated abundantly. Problem is, Japanese forests cannot digest such generous offerings due to man-power problems.” Hmmmmmmmmm. At least, we are trying. Let me tell you the story.

Until (roughly) the 1980s, Japanese policy regarding forests was for forestry business. Due to population expansion, successive wars and economic growth, there was a massive demand for woods for energy (until coal, then oil, dominated the economy) and for construction. Especially after 1952, Japanese market for woods was overheated, which made increase in prices for wood products far outpaced the general inflation. Japanese government scrambled to tackle the issue. They gave generous subsidies for landlords to log and plant seedlings massively for cedars and cypresses that could grow straight (i.e. suitable as construction materials) and relatively quick. In addition, in 1964, the year for the first Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, the government completely liberalized imports of woods and wood products to satisfy the demand. It seems to me they optimistically thought once one-off monetary incentive let them afforest, private business would take care of the forest for 50 years until the next crop is ready. They also did not expect during the subsequent 50 years wages in cities became easily available and far better for rural kids who once stayed for their birth-forest and took care of the ancestral land, but now moved to Tokyo for, first factory, and, now sales jobs. Worse, the government underestimated the power of comparative advantage imported woods had: they were far cheaper even with global transportation costs. By the time Tokyo will host the 2^nd Olympics and Paralympics Game of 2020, Japanese forestry has been decimated. Mr. Junji Ino’ue 井上淳治 of Nishikawa Forestry Area 西川林業 (my post last week 😉) self-deprecatingly said, “You see, we Japanese foresters count our heads about 45 thousand as of 2015. The estimated number of Japanese serow was about 100 thousand in the early 1980s when crop damage by them could be ignored. Now, many fields next to forests all over Japan regularly report destruction by the animal, and they are legally protected as a ‘special natural monument.’ Who’s in the danger of extinction!?”

By 1971, Japanese forestry business rapidly became rare, even with liberal subsidy. Thank God, before that time bold mountain was scarce in Japan, which was good. Roughly half of Japanese forests were now of afforested coniferous trees. But Japanese forests that had lost the battle to cheap imports could not expect proper management any more. No mowing, thinning, or pruning was done. At the turn of the century, cedar and cypress seedlings planted packed turned into congested forests of lanky trees. Not enough sunshine reached to the forest floor. It made the ground below the canopy bared. Instead, rain dropped directly to the soil without cushions of grasses. When it poured in steep Japanese mountains, the rain immediately transformed into rapid streams that washed away the top soil. The entire forests were unstable. Landslides and devastation of check dams showed up in dangerous frequency for this earthquake-prone archipelago. Meanwhile, people started reacting positively to “environmentally conscientious” messages. After 1992 UNFCCC and 1997 COP3 in Kyoto, opinion polls showed people got to think of forests not as places for industrial materials, but for CO2 sink, recreational space, and clean air. Till then, Japanese policy for forests was a part of national industrial policy. Responding to the changes in circumstances, during the 1990s the government changed the direction for nation’s forest management radically. First, in 1998, they quit central commando mentality for forests, and transferred the role of planning and supervision to local governments. In 2001, strict regulation over forestry activity, defined by Americans during 1945-1952 occupation era, was abolished and the 3^rd parties were allowed to plan and execute forestry based on business contract with landlords. It opened the gate for volunteer organizations to engage in serious forest management activities. Local and national governments, together with landlords, were expected to devise long-term management plans for forests in each locale to achieve land conservation, cohabitation of forests and human society, and sustainable forestry. In 2008, mowing, thinning, and pruning were defined as a part of methodology to maximize CO2 absorption by forests … That’s something when we recall the start was simple “chop to build cities for business.”

Actually, history of Lovers Association of Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森 reflects such changes in national policy. Niiharu Citizen Forest was opened in March 2000 as the 22^nd Citizen Forest of the City of Yokohama. Our Niiharu Forest had almost unique characteristics. From the beginning, it was the largest Citizen Forest in Yokohama. It means lots of landlords existed (and exist even now) for the forest. Until then, management of each Citizen Forest of Yokohama was almost exclusively done by landlords and their very close friends. The only exception was Araizawa Citizen Forest 荒井沢市民の森 opened in May 1998, where landlords could not find enough helping hands from their acquaintances and consequently asked their neighborhood associations to mobilize the people. Niiharu Forest with lots of landlords would not have had such problem so that it might have been possible for them to follow so-far-standard approach to exclude volunteers. Even though, the founding “fathers” and “mothers” of Niiharu Citizen Forest did not do that. The first pals of Lovers Association were neighbors many of whom happened to move in Yokohama from far and found the magic of Niiharu Forest in their new neighborhood. They were really “volunteers.” That was impossible if the law General MacArthur gave effective monopoly of forestry activity to landlords. Then, after the 2001 change in the law for forestry planning, Niiharu Lovers Association had lots of study sessions and created “Conservation and Management Plan for Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森管理保全計画” that is consisted of detailed project managements plans with zoning. (More to Niiharu’s 20 years in my later post.) In 2015 Niiharu Forest was designated as one of the 500 “Important Satochi-Satoyama to Maintain Biodiversity in Japan” by the Ministry of Environment. Indeed Niiharu Forest now protects several endangered species in the middle of uber-urban Megalopolis Tokyo. Japanese policy change after UNFCCC is achieving its goals so far.

Parking for visitors to Niiharu Citizen Forest is here!

To some extent, Kanagawa Prefecture has a leg-up to respond national policy changes. For one thing, we are a part of Tokyo area where lots of possible volunteers live. Historically, mountains and forests of Kanagawa have been a research field for geologists, civil engineers of water and mountains, botanists, zoologists, and dendrologists in many universities of the capital city. In Kanagawa Prefecture, it was not so hard not only to make planning for the forests but also for timely execution of it. Next week, I introduce you 50 Year Plan of Kanagawa Prefecture for our forests.

If you find an 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/

Labor Econ 101 in a Forest: an anecdote from Nishikawa Forestry Area, Saitama Prefecture

After listening how difficult it was making a witch’s broom from bamboos of Niiharu, I’ve recalled the basic difficulties Japanese forests face these days. Once upon a time, forests are providers of materials for tools, foods, medicine, energy, etc. for daily life. In the 21^st century, fossil fuel replaced many things forest offered before. Heating is not by wood charcoal, but with energy generated from petro. Brooms can be made of plastics in automation. Drugs can be manufactured synthetically. Even veggies are fattened by chemical fertilizers. Not much demand remains for the forest any more. Even if people still can have an intention to utilize the forest as before, it requires specific skills and time which are both in short supply for the 21^st century City of Yokohama. No wonder in general Japanese forests are not taken care of. Neglected forests with degraded forest floors can cause massive landside with growingly stronger typhoons these days. Something must be done. But how? That’s the question.

Yet, wooden spoons are really attractive and easy to use …

New kinds of wooden dishes are available
 in Japanese department stores.

Last summer I attended a chatting event with Mr. Junji Ino’ue 井上淳治, a landlord from Han’no City 飯能市 of Saitama Prefecture 埼玉県. For generations, his family owns roughly 90ha of afforested coniferous forest in 20000ha of Nishikawa Forestry Area 西川林業, Chichibu Mountains 秩父山地. From there, several rivers pour to Tokyo Bay so that the place was once a main supplier of construction materials to Edo, aka Tokyo. He was the present-day owner of one of such forests continuing for more than 300 years. Even though, his business has very typical problems of contemporary Japanese forestry. To begin with, Japanese forestry is not much “business” nowadays. Consider a case we cut a 90 years old cedar with 45cm breast high diameter. For this bulk, usable timber volume is about 1.6m³ on average. As of summer 2018, the price of cedar timber of such size was 81600 yen, plus some amount that can be generated by selling remnants after lumbering. On the other hand the cost to cut a cedar is 16000 yen for chopping and moving the subsequent log from the site to a depo + 65000 yen to transport the log and process it to a timer in a factory = 81000 yen. i.e. Estimated profit for this operation would be from the sales of remnants, like @300yen (USD 2.5) pot stands from cross-cuttings of tips of the tree. Do you think it is an attractive business for young guys?

They are definitely not @300 yen,
 but elaborately crafted lacquerware for incense containers.
 Yet, the suppliers of wood for them cannot receive much
 despite of the efforts to provide nice material
 for such traditional art works.

Mr. Inoue and his forestry pals in Han’no City are trying many things to revive their industry under such business climate. For example, one of his projects is adding value to timbers. When a leftover of pruning is still alive, the growing cambium of the tree engulfs the remnant while the fragment of a former bough itself tries to develop as well. The cells fight each other but in the end the main cambium wins and covers the offcut part. Such competition left cracks within the trunk, which becomes obvious when people lumber the tree. For a strong construction material such fractures are huge No-No, but as decorative panels the timber can fetch a handsome price. Traditionally, top-ranked sushi-bars love walls of this interior design, which makes the demand of the panel stable at higher-end. It is definitely better than 300 yen pot stands so that foresters in Han’no are trying to supply such product reliably by applying a specific pruning technique. They also hold seminars in metropolitan Tokyo area to promote building houses with timbers from Japanese forest, not by imported materials. “In this age of global warming, we must stop irresponsible procurement of housing stuff world-wide. Besides, now in Japan, there are literally tons of building materials ready to be harvested. Why not use such resources from our backyard?”

A darling of Sushi chefs.
 Could you figure out there is a crack
 at the yellow arrow?

Will the next generation carry on such efforts of Mr. Inoue? His 20-something daughter is eager to keep on her family business, but forestry is not a job done by one girl only. More hands are needed. Not many people come to work in his premise yet. “We thought maybe we 50-somethings are a bit of intimidating for younger generations. We’ve talked with Han’no City to support young foresters to settle in the community and to preserve our tradition of forestry … Our experiment is just several years old so that we don’t know yet if it is effective. We keep our fingers crossed.” 

Making something by hands only with the materials from forests, as our ancestors did, is not at all easy. It certainly needs education and experience, now I know. Unlike manufactured plastic brooms from factories, a broom from bamboos of Niiharu requires really a labor intensive process. We have to cut a bamboo of suitable size in a forest. We then have to drug it to a working space, which require us, I tell you, carrying not so light stuff for at least several hundred meters from deep within the forest. We then have to wait for the bamboo to be dried for about 2-3 month during winter. Next, we have to shed the leaves from stems by hand, and to trim the stems and trunks for appropriately sized materials. Now, we can tackle to twine the bamboo stems for a bamboo trunk by wire, which my senior Niiharu Lovers did with helps of a vise … Making bamboo broom is not a piece of cake. Without such cumbersome manual process to create a broom, abundant supply of bamboos will easily end up as a pile of city garbage to be burned. Niiharu Citizen Forest is still better off; the place has Lovers’ Association of Niiharu Citizen Forest who engages in forest management weekly, such as thinning, mowing, planting, etc. Many Japanese forests do not have such guardians. Meanwhile, kids are busy with video games, not playing in forests. Even their science classes encourage them to sit in front of a PC “to write a code,” not to go outside and feel the real nature by themselves. They definitely do not have a chance to learn the process of making brooms from bamboos. 300 year tradition of managing forest is facing a serious problem of trained hands. The owners of the forests are struggling to lure young talents who can continue management of the forests. And Japan imports lots of timber from overseas. We don’t know, really, if this system is sustainable. Something is definitely out of sync. Don’t you think so?

If you find an 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/

Witch’s Broom, Japanese style: making a bamboo broom

Witch’s brooms, aka besom brooms, are not only for Halloween. They are damned practical tool for sweeping a front yard, or tidying up forest floor after forestry activity. In Japan, we use witch’s brooms made of bamboo. These days those sold in Japanese hardware warehouses are made in China. They are modestly priced, but according to my mum, “They’re worn out very quickly! There is a problem of cost performance here.” Er, well, I don’t want to enter issues of trade disputes. But one thing is for sure. In Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森, we Lovers of Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森愛護会 are taking care of the bamboo forests year-round in order to tackle really vigorous growth of the forest that can affect the other vegetation. So, especially from fall to winter, thinning bamboos is regular activity. One thinned bamboo produces a loooooong trunk, and piles of boughs and twigs. City of Yokohama asks us to bring it all to a depo yard where later garbage collectors hired by the City come to pick them up. Some becomes chips for mulching in the parks of the city. But many are just burned. WASTE! Instead of importing brooms from China, we can make it here with continuous and abundant supply of the materials!

It looks nice these brooms …
 My mum hate them, though, because

This is how they turned out within a month.

Lovers in action for Niiharu’s bamboo forest.

A provisional depo next to a bamboo forest in Niiharu

This is the boughs and leaves
 attached to the above bamboos.
 They are quicker to dry,
 so the volume becomes at least ½ within a week.

Niiharu’s depo for thinned vegetation.

So, I promised my mum I would make a broom from bamboos harvested in Niiharu. I did a bit of internet search and found this site telling us how to make a bamboo broom. One weekend afternoon, from a depo yard I packed a modest amount of bamboo twigs and a bamboo trunk that would be a nice broom handle for my project. Then my seniors of Niiharu Lovers said, “Naomi, are you going to make a bamboo broom?” Yes. “Er, I think you’d have a problem.” ? “Yes, you know? Bamboo trunks are waxy. It’s difficult to tie the twigs to it.” “Unless you fasten those twigs very tightly, the broom will fall apart when we sweep the ground.” “I myself made a broom from these bamboos before. It was extremely hard to secure the shoots with a wire. In the end I used a vice borrowed from the Niiharu woodworks atelier.” Whoops. One of my seniors then showed me his work now extensively used for forestry activity. It is a beautiful broom … with a help of vice. “So, I don’t recommend you to do it home.” Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm …

This is indeed a beautiful work.
 He said he used one whole bamboo tree,
 and a vice, to make this broom.

To make it, first,
 he processed the boughs and twigs to remove leaves;
 sprayed them water and covered them by a plastic tarp for 3 days.
 Then, he plucked leaves by hand.
 Imagine doing it for one bamboo tree.
 It’s an effort.

The point is how to attach the boughs around a trunk.
 Could you see it is secured in a two-story way?
 He said near the end of the handle,
 he pegged a nail to pull the wire.

After fastening twigs,
 he inserted several more twigs in small gaps
 to make the bundle tighter.

“Instead, just make a broom without a handle. It’s a useful tool, and professional landscapers utilize them to clean up smaller spaces.” “I think that would be enough for home usage. You don’t have to struggle with tying the twigs to the trunk.” I see. So, I changed my strategy to make a bamboo broom without a handle. Below is how I did:

My tools.
 My garden scissors and a ball of hemp twine.

The amount of bamboo twigs I used this time.

I first prepared the twigs small and long.
 Small ones are mainly from trimming the long stems.

After trimming, a long stem looks like this.

A trimmed twig.
 This one goes to the pile of smaller twigs.

I first made a bundle of smaller twigs,
 and tied its end with a hemp twine in double.

Next,
 I spread the longer stems on the double hemp twine,

and put the bundle of shorter stems in the middle.

A tacked bundle of bamboo twigs.

Then, I fastened the lower part of the bundle
 with the double hemp twine, and

Trimmed the bottom and the top to make a tidy shape.
 I also added one more fastening with the hemp twine.

Done!
 I covered the bottom of the broom with yellow duct tape
 and attached a hemp string for hanging the broom.

The commercial version.
 599 yen + tax, made in China.

This way, it was not so difficult to make a broom. I hope my mum is satisfied with my work for sweeping her front yard ... 

If you find a problem in the Niiharu Citizen 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/

Ink Painting: a bit of walk along Hadano Forestry Road in winter 秦野林道

One January weekend, we’ve been Hadano Forestry Road 秦野林道 from Yadoriki Water Source Forest やどりき水源林 for a little survey. Immediately after Super Typhoon Trami last October, the road was covered by debris, and we could figure out lots of broken trees on both sides of the way (; my post on October 19, 2018). It seems to me the Prefecture is doing a clean-up now. One of my senior forest instructors told me the Office is harvesting the logs from there. Some afforested areas are currently under works of forestry with new graveled roads for heavy machineries. Are they using harvesters? “No. Tanzawa is too steep to use such vehicles. I think they use chainsaws, and bring out the logs by a forwarder,” she said. Will it be some help for the prefectural budget to manage healthy Tanzawa-Oyama Quasi-National Park 丹沢大山国定公園? Considering the current market condition, I’m not optimistic for the yen-amount they collect from the work … But surely the afforested trees must be harvested, or thinned, from time to time to keep the forest healthy. If some money can be raised from the activity, it should be better than nothing …

After the super typhoon last October

And after the clean-up, this January

Men at work

A new road

Weekends of winter forests in Tanzawa Mountains 丹沢 are for deer hunters. We’ve met members of Kanagawa Hunting Club 神奈川県猟友会 who are cooperating with the Prefecture to control deer population in the National Parks. They said the catch of the morning was 2-layer angle stags, and then continued their hunt late afternoon. We’ve found a trace of deer on a trunk of Japanese Larch (Larix Kaempferi (Lamb.) Carrière) from which an animal rubbed resin on its body for anti-ticks. Droppings of deer were found several places as well. Still, my senior instructor told me the situation was far better than, say, 10 years ago. “You see, we could even find bodies of deer along a road busy with hikers. They were starved to death … Now the situation is stabilizing, I think.” Hmmmmmmmmmmm. (Please see my posts about deer in Tanzawa in July 2017.) A Hunter was sitting still, and concentrating on somewhere over there. We could hear faint barks of dogs from the other side of a deep valley. The catch was coming …

Could you see hairs of deer here?

They did it.

A hunter is here.

You see?
 The plants along the road are unnaturally ‘mowed’ by deer.
 They ate the top soft part of these plants.

The mountain was cold and quiet otherwise. The majority of the sound we could hear was the hum of airplanes high above and intermittent bird calls. Voices of impatient Japanese tit (Parus minor) were mixed with occasional easy-going calls of Varied tit (Parus varius). Listening them “in Japanese,” they were pronouncing the same word, but the speed was definitely different. “Tsu-tsu Pea, tsu-tsu pea (Japanese tit)” vs. “Tsu-u-Tsu-u Pea-a, tsu-u-tsu-u pea-a (Varied tit).” As they are in the same genus, there might be some interesting story during their evolutionary process … We’ve found several couples of Red-billed leiothrix (Leiothrix lutea) which is designated as one of the worst invasive species to Japanese archipelago. “Wow, this is my first time to record them in Yadoriki Forest.” A veteran instructor said. There happened so many things in a seemingly silent winter Tanzawa …

A feather of White-bellied green-pigeon (Treron Sieboldii).
 They live in this area of Tanzawa,
 and go to Oiso Beach 大磯海岸 to drink salty water.

I found the scenery was very contemplative and, beautiful. There is not much color in winter forest. Understating ever-green trees. Various hues of greys from trunks and boughs of deciduous trees. Dry January of Kanagawa Prefecture gave us the clearest blue sky that contrasted astonishingly with the ridge lines of mountains. Before the maples shed their leaves we could only imagine the depth of the valley from the canopies that could be seen from high bridges. Now it is clear down there were streams with very rocky riverbed. That was a landscape we found in traditional ink paintings of China and Japan. Hadano Forestry Road is not yet opened thoroughly due to the slope failure between Mushizawa Forestry Road Junction 虫沢林道分岐 and Shin’nashi Bridge しんなし橋. Though, it’s the route where 4-wheel vehicles can run. If you plan to have a small peek of deep Tanzawa Mountains 丹沢 during winter, please try this road if only for the first 1 hour stroll from Yadoriki O-hashi Bridge 寄大橋. I guarantee you a meditative but relaxed weekend afternoon in quiet and monotonous mountains ... The world of Zen.

In July

The same place in January

In July

And the same place in January.
 Oh my … the slope is collapsed here …

Yadoriki O-hashi Bridge in July

The bridge in January

Oh, by the way, all the forestry roads in Japan are for permit-holders only to drive by whatever vehicle, i.e. car, bikes and motorbikes. Please walk!

If you find an 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/