Evil trees spoiling Japan's most beautiful valley

[Taro Toporific]

[floatl][/floatl]

'Japan's most beautiful valley' faces crisis due to unkempt trees
2008 Aug 28 - Mainichi Daily News
KOFU --The tourist association of Shosenkyo, a scenic spot in Yamanashi Prefecture that promotes itself as "Japan's most beautiful valley," has been receiving many complaints from visitors... about the number of unkempt trees spoiling the view including that of Kakuenpo, a huge, symbolic rock in the valley. In consideration of the situation, the association learned of the decision to cut down the trees growing along the most scenic 300-meter part of a four-kilometer trail in the valley...more...

[GuyJean]

ha,ha,ha! Bonsai those fuckers! The tallest tree must be hammered..

GJ

[den4]

Wasn't Lumberjack Blinky Ishihara supposed to chop down all obstructing trees in Japan in his anti-hay fever campaign? Or did that already end after his last election?

[Samurai_Jerk]

Where's Alex Kerr to call bullshit when you need him?


Seriously, that is fucking pathetic.

[Taro Toporific]

Wasn't Lumberjack Blinky Ishihara supposed to chop down all obstructing trees in Japan in his anti-hay fever campaign? Or did that already end after his last election?

Old thread....
Gov. Ishihara's true calling: LUMBERJACK

"I didn't want to do this job. I wanted to be... a lumberjack!...."
[floatl][/floatl]
[INDENT]Tokyo launches cedar pollen reduction project in Tama
The Japan Times/Kyodo News, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006---[/INDENT]
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"I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay / I sleep all night and I work all day....I cut down trees / I skip and jump / like to press wild flowers / I put on women's clothing / and hang around in bars...." ---YouTube video "Monty Python - Lumberjack Song"

Pollen set to come out of hibernation
The Japan Times Online - Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008
....The Tokyo Metropolitan Government provides regional up-to-date pollen count forecasts in e-mail to registered cell phone users.
The Forestry Agency plans to log cedar and replace them with new strains that were developed to release less pollen.
Cedar forests cover about 4.5 million hectares. According to an agency study, the Kanto and Kansai regions trace their pollen concentrations to a combined 95,000 forested hectares. Here, too, plans are afoot for the agency and local governments to log the mature cedar and replant forests with the new strains.
The goal is to halve problematic forests in those areas by 2017...more...

[Charles]

[Taro Toporific]

[amdg]

The Japanese people have always lived in harmony with nature.*



* First line from the Ise-jingu pamphlet.

[Charles]

..These roads are an ecological disaster and cost a hell of a lot to maintain..

I don't get it. Once you cut down the trees, you don't need the roads anymore, so you can just let them revert to forest. No maintenance necessary.

[james]

surprised they haven't yet covered the area in a more aesthetically pleasing concrete..

[Taro Toporific]

I don't get it. Once you cut down the trees, you don't need the roads anymore, so you can just let them revert to forest. No maintenance necessary.

Nowadays, environmental restrictions in Japan/US/EU require that logging roads to be either:[indent]1) Deep rototill-ed and compost added to deal with severe soil compaction before being replanted. The compacted soils of logging trails can take decades to restore with replanting (which is why draft horse teams, balloon and helicopter logging can be better/cheaper).

<or>

2) Minimally maintain the logging roads for fire fighting and public access (which generally cheaper than replanting in both the short term and even the medium term).[/indent]

--Taro, owner of forests in Shikoku, Colorado, Arkansas and Lithuania

[AssKissinger]

I fucking hate when trees get in between me and nature!

[Catoneinutica]

I don't get it. Once you cut down the trees, you don't need the roads anymore, so you can just let them revert to forest. No maintenance necessary.

Well, see, that's the beauty part: cutting roads into hillisides promotes mudslides, and mudslides require...more roads to get people in to clean up the mudslides.

[Charles]

Nowadays, environmental restrictions in Japan/US/EU require that logging roads to be either:[indent]1) Deep rototill-ed and compost added to deal with severe soil compaction before being replanted. The compacted soils of logging trails can take decades to restore with replanting (which is why draft horse teams, balloon and helicopter logging can be better/cheaper).

<or>

2) Minimally maintain the logging roads for fire fighting and public access (which generally cheaper than replanting in both the short term and even the medium term).[/indent]

--Taro, owner of forests in Shikoku, Colorado, Arkansas and Lithuania

That makes perfect sense. But I'm still confused. They just want to kill the trees, right? The goal is to eliminate pollen-heavy trees and to replant with low pollen trees. They don't really need to harvest the cut trees, so they don't need roads for lumber trucks to haul them back down the mountains. So just send some guys up on foot, carrying a few chainsaws, cut the trees and let them lay where they fall. No roads necessary, only foot paths. Amirite?