Restore 100 Hectares of the Miyagi Coastal Forest

It has been 10 years since we started our Coastal Forest Restoration in March 2011 with the support of many people around the world. All 370,000 Japanese black pine trees were planted on 100ha of land, and the larger ones are over 6m long, and strong pine trees with thick trunks are growing. Since ancient times, it was always believed that the quality of seedlings is crucial to the growth and survival of the planted crops. This is similar with the Japanese black pines. The Natori Coastal Forest Regeneration Association, responsible in growing good seedlings that are 30 cm tall, have thick roots, and have well-developed roots. The last 10 years haven't always been good from start to finish. At the beginning of raising seedlings, it was a series of trial and error, such as when to sow seeds, the composition and amount of fertilizer in the soil of the nursery, and the timing of disinfection. In addition, many members of the Association are self-employed and experienced farmers, and some of them did not agree with the process of growing the seedlings. Thus, stopped participating along the way. Under such circumstances, the unveiling ceremony of the stone monument was held on the 21st of July. Due to the corona disaster, the ceremony was forced to be held on a smaller scale. There were 40 people present during the ceremony including, the members of the Association responsible in growing seedlings, the professional forest workers in charge in planting and management, and OISCA staff. The former members of the Association who stopped participating in the work along the way were deeply moved by the fact that all the people involved were able to celebrate the construction of the monument. The 1,400 characters engraved in the monument are about the situation at the time of the earthquake, how OISCA became involved in coastal forest restoration, who was responsible for raising seedlings, planting, and managing. The last engraved characters convey the unprecedented great earthquake, its restoration and reconstruction, and the restoration of coastal forests to posterity. Thinning work will begin in December. All the staff will continue to make efforts to create a strong and thick coastal disaster prevention forest.

We wish to extend our deepest gratitude for your continuous support to our project in Natori. Without your generosity, it would be difficult for us to implement the needed activities.

Our project is now on its second phase and despite the corona pandemic, we are working hard together with the government`s forest experts, sub-contracted forest workers, and mobilized local volunteers for the maintenance of our project site.

On May 17, we conducted a thinning trial together with the Miyagi Central Forestry experts and Matsushima General Forest. In an area of 0.12 hectare, we meticulously removed a total of 138 growing black-pine trees. For the entire process of thinning, we needed 6 people who had to work relay for the safe and efficient removal of the black-pines away from the site. One person was assigned for the actual cutting using a small chainsaw, 4 persons to carry them outside, and 1 person to load on the truck. If the cut trees are left within the project site to rot, it will become a hotbed for damaging pine worms.

Here are the three main reasons why there is a need to do thinning:

1. Thinning will promote horizontal growth of roots which is important for growing strong, big, and sturdy individual trees tolerant to natural disturbance. This is crucial for the creation of a healthy and resilient forest that will protect the people from disasters, wind-blown sand, salt-spray, and strong wind. Moreover, the pre-tsunami black-pines were never thinned and as a result, they were easily uprooted and wiped-out by tsunami.
2. With thinning, sunlight could freely penetrate the ground and will prevent black-pines` lower branches from withering. Both the lower and upper branches of the black-pines are crucial for the protection of the communities and their agricultural farms from disasters, wind-blown sand, salt-spray, and strong wind.
3. Thinning encourages undergrowth expansion, plant diversity, and improve wildlife habitat. Undergrowth hampers movement of wind-blown sand/soil that can be damaging to the agricultural farms.

We initially scheduled to do thinning in 2023, but due to the unexpected fast growth of our black-pines, we felt the need to immediately reduce the number of standing trees starting this year. Following the guidelines of Japan`s Forest Agency, we are scheduled to remove at least 25% or 6,250 black-pines planted in 5-hectare 2014 site.