2020 Volume 65 Issue 4 Pages 129-139
Weed management is negatively impacted in depopulated and aging communities, leading to greater dependence on local governments to maintain city roads, high-volume traffic minor and agricultural roads, and the sides of agricultural irrigation channels. Wildlife management of species such as wild boar is also becoming an issue, particularly in mountainous areas. A questionnaire survey was conducted within municipalities in the Tochigi Prefecture to understand perceptions and actions in relation to weed and wildlife management. In July 2018, a questionnaire together with a reply envelope was sent to 137 divisions in all 25 municipalities in the Tochigi Prefecture. All municipalities were represented by the total responses of 83 divisions. Multiple response data were aggregated by simply summing the responses from each municipality. Results were divided into civil life, civil engineering and agricultural elements with the perceptions of the issues compared within each division. Most of the municipalities reported shortages of staff and financial budget, and land rights (e.g. for access) were also a common problem. Analysis of the response data suggests that departmental collaboration centered on the civil life divisions would be most effective in solving problems within a limited budget.
