We investigated the shoot and root growth of the containerized cuttings of Cryptomeria japonica during two years after planting by comparing with those of bare-root cuttings. Initial tree height and root mass at planting were smaller for the containerized cuttings compared to the bare-root cuttings. There was no difference in stem elongation during the first two growing season between the two cutting, resulting in smaller tree height of the containerized cuttings. Increase of root mass also smaller in the containerized cutting, there was no evidence to support the superiority of the containerized cutting. The top-root ratios of both cutting types once decreased, suggesting the ‘planting shock’ associated with severe water stress. However, rapid recovery of the top-root ratio in the containerized cuttings suggested their earlier recovery from water stress. Despite of a possible advantage of the containerized cuttings in terms of their rapid recovery from the planting shock, the other growth analyses demonstrated no evidence that this advantage could lead the fast stem elongation to exceed the growth of the bare-root cuttings. We concluded these results that it is difficult to expect the contribution of the containerized cutting to non- or less-frequent weeding treatment for the laborsaving in silviculture work.

View full abstract

To clarify the features of lower-story trees facing high risk of snow accretion damage in the two-storied forests, snow accretion damage was examined in a two-storied Cryptomeria japonica plantation (109-year-old for the upper-story trees and 19-year-old for the lower-story trees) in Iwate Prefecture. The range and average of the height/diameter ratio for the lower-story trees was 63-131, 94.7, respectively. The relative number of total damaged lower-story trees was 28.4%, among them fatally damaged ones (stem breakage and arch, etc) amounted to 21.2%. The height/diameter ratio significantly correlated with the occurrence of snow accretion damage, while the distance from the nearest crown edge of upper-story trees did not remarkably correlate with the damage. The result of present study is different from some previous studies emphasizing the effect of spatial relationship with upper-story crowns, suggesting that the damage outbreak mechanisms are various due to stand structure of two-storied forests such as openings among crowns and heights of the upper-story trees.

View full abstract

Marking a century since the commencement of forestry and its specialized education. Recently, forests have been more actively utilized for varied purposes as well as professional education, which has led to active studies on forest education. However, there have been no systematic reviews to date comprising a grasp of forestry education studies in Japan’s forestry sector. This article targets wide-ranging comprehension and a systematic review of studies on forestry education in Japan. To achieve the target, the Japan Forest Society and its associated and related societies extracted sources relating to forestry education after examining each of the released academic journals. Moreover, examination of extracted literature, arranged in chronological order and based on subjects, showed that the extracts during 1925-2011 amounted to 448, with recent soaring numbers following a sporadic increase until the 1980s. This article classifies our historical forestry education studies into research which deals with specialized education and its educational sites such as forests and related exhibiting facilities. It emerges that research dealing with specialized education, starting with forestry education, has developed into professional education at high schools and universities and educational training, while research dealing with forests and related facilities has started studying the function of forests, starting with school forests owned by schools for educational purposes, followed by experimental forests.

View full abstract

Forest education activities have been widely carried out as forest environmental education and tree learning education, which we call, “Moku-iku”. But the educational purposes of forest education have not been established yet, so activities related to forest education have been poorly understood as part of school education. In order to propose a theory about the educational purposes of forest education, we analyzed the educational purposes of school education, and definitions about forests and forest education. Furthermore, we classified the contents of purposes about forest education based on the description from literatures related to precedent activities about forest education. The purposes of forest education were proposed based on these results and an angle of what functions forest education could be carried out in future society and education. The purposes of forest education were proposed as “education through direct experience in forests for human resources who know regional forests as a natural environment and trees as circulation resources, who have acquired skill and awareness of forests, and who will support and promote a culture which establishes symbiosis with nature and a sustainable society”. Learning forest education is part of five kinds of “basic aspects of forests” (diversity, life, production, relation, and finiteness), and five kinds of “basic concepts about the relationship between forests and human society” (reality, regionality, culture, science, and sustainability).

View full abstract

This paper reports how a German forest kindergarten utilizes the space and resources of a local forest. Parents of kindergarten children and other local residents of the city of Bensheim, the state of Hesse were surveyed regarding their uses of the forest. Among the parents of kindergarten children, those who took their children for walks in the forest once or twice a week were the most typical, regardless of whether their children were attending a conventional or a forest kindergarten. This finding indicates that families with small children often visit nearby forests in their daily lives. Regarding past and present utilization of forest resources by local residents, the 131 ways of usage counted included the use for food, tea/medicine, handicraft/decoration, toys, fuel, etc. After 19 ways that the residents used the forest in their childhood as toys were subtracted from 131, 90 out of 112 ways are currently used by the residents. Sixty-four out of 90 were also in use in the forest kindergarten. Seven out of 22 ways that have fallen out of use by the residents were used for educational purposes in the forest kindergarten. On the other hand, only 5 ways were newly devised for education in the forest kindergarten. The utilization of resources in the forest kindergarten thus reflects the history of the local usage of forest resources.

View full abstract

This study investigated what tree species elementary school students are familiar with. The subjects were 440 fourth-grade children from five elementary schools in Fujisawa in Kanagawa Prefecture. A questionnaire in which the children had to fill in the names of tree species and explain how they had learned of the species was administered. The results showed that cherry and maple trees were among the most commonly named species. Many children claimed to have learned of these species by having seen them in the circumference of their school (e.g., in schoolyards, parks, or nearby localities). Therefore, it appears that children tend to be cognizant of outdoor environments and to learn from them. Other commonly named species not seen in the circumference of elementary schools were apple, coconut, grape, banana, pear, etc. There is a possibility that many children learned of these species through television. Finally, some children claimed that they had learned of certain tree species through classroom instruction. In sum, students learned of trees species through outdoor avenues such as school grounds and parks and indoor avenues such as classrooms and television.

View full abstract

To examine forestry and forest education at vocational high schools, the history of changes in the purpose and content of subjects related to “Forestry Management” was analyzed. We analyzed it during the postwar period, based on the Ministry’s official guidelines for school teaching and textbooks on the subject of “Forestry Management”, which includes “Forest Economics”, “Forest Management and Registration”, “Forest Measurement”, and “Forestry Management”. The purpose of the subject changed from “training as technical experts in forestry” into “training targeting forest management, particularly sustainable management”. The contents of the subject were classified into eight kinds of elements, which include 30 kinds of details: forest resources and forest management, forest functions, forest measurement, forest valuation, forest planning, management of production, timber circulation, forest policy and legislation. Before the 1990s, the subject included contents related to forestry management based on timber production, but since 1999, when the name of the subject changed, it has added topics related to forest management based on forest multiple functions. As a result, the core ideas of the subject were unclear, and the new textbook lacked consistency. It was necessary to restructure the subject of “Forest Management” based on an examination of technical terms and skills, aiming at the next revision of the textbook.

View full abstract

“Forest Learning Facilities” are the open facilities in which visitors can learn about forest with materials in fields or exhibition. These open facilities are important for forest education because everyone can use whenever they want to. So we clarified the current situation of forest learning facilities using four data sources from three different administration fields such as forestry, environment, and social education. At first, we made the database by the four data sources. As a result, there are 992 forest learning facilities in Japan. It’s twice as many as the 401 facilities that were grasped by forestry administration. And 77.1 percent of them were established by local governments such as prefectures or municipalities. It’s an issue for later to clarify the current situation of the management or use of them.

View full abstract