2009 Volume 14 Issue 2 Pages 55-64
The system of selection cutting for Sugi (Cryptomeria japonica) forest, which was controlled by the Akita Regional Forest Offices before World War II, was well known to have caused dispute about its method of forest regeneration. The present study was done to investigate how this selection cutting method was applied to actual forest working areas, by analysis of historical materials. The three forest working areas investigated were Obiraki, Nibuna and Iwakawa. We found that the Sugi forest in each area had been managed by clear cutting and reforestration until 1924, but since the late 1920s the system had changed greatly to selection cutting with only natural regeneration. Thereafeter, despite criticism from many researchers resistant to the natural regeneration method, this working system was retained in the major forest working areas up to the end of World War II. However, the forest working plan for Iwakawa, which was established in 1940, noticed a need for compensatory planting in areas where Sugi regeneration had failed. After World War II, the method of forest regeneration in major working areas was reexamined.
