Restore 100 Hectares of the Miyagi Coastal Forest

We are thankful to all our GlobalGiving donors for supporting our project. It is now on its second phase wherein activities mostly focus on site maintenance- improvement of site water drainage, weeding (kuzu, nise acacia and fuji tsuru), and thinning. The thinning process is crucial for the growth of broad, tall, and sturdy tree trunks, promotes the horizontal and deep rooting of black-pines, and to prevent the withering of the lower branches of black-pines. These factors guarantee the creation of a strong and resilient forest (different from the pre-tsunami coastal forest) that will protect local communities from disasters.

 According to the experts, pre-tsunami coastal forests were congested with almost 10,000 standing black-pines per hectare. Without any thinning, the trees were weak with no sturdy trunks, and since they were planted closely, the trees were not able to expand their roots both horizontally and vertically. Moreover, as a result of not doing any thinning, lower branches of pre-tsunami black-pines have withered.

 We are the pioneer organization to do thinning the coastal forests of Japan. We officially started the thinning process early January through March this year. We will be removing 1,650 trees or 33% of the 5,000 standing trees per hectare. As we are targeting to do it in an area of 10 hectares, a total of 16,500 black-pines will be cut. We will do the same process for 7 straight years. We will be needing the amount of 170,000 USD per year (just for thinning and the sustainable disposal of the thinned trees). The central and prefectural government of Japan committed to shoulder the 50% cost for this year and next year.

 Meanwhile, due to corona, there was a decline in the number of volunteers from outside Miyagi Prefecture. We received several requests expressing their intention to help, but we have no choice but to decline to comply with the government`s safety protocols. In spite of this, the increase in the number of local volunteers compensated the absence of outside volunteers. Equipped with strong volunteer spirit and deep understanding of how meaningful their contributions are, local volunteers are willing to volunteer for an average of 8 hours to help us maintain our project site. While other organizations are struggling from engaging volunteers (both local and outside volunteers), our group of volunteers keeps on getting bigger and it is heartwarming because they keep on returning. We were able to mobilize 237 volunteers this year, which is almost 8 times lower than the 1,800 average of volunteers that we have before corona. Under much safer condition, we are looking forward to working with the volunteers from the different parts of Japan or from abroad.

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.