2025-05-15 Silviculture training "Planting and pruning"
Continuing from last week, Wang introduces the state of Faculty of Agriculture Department of Ecoregion Science 's "Forestry Training" held in Midori City, Gunma Prefecture.
On the second day, we moved to the Field Museum (FM) for a hands-on lesson in planting and pruning!
In the morning, we had a practical lesson in planting tree seedlings. The technical staff prepared the ground by piling up the branches, leaves, and trunks that had not been harvested in advance on shelves.
First, as you can see in the first and second pictures, we carried the cedar seedlings on our backs and planted them in a checkerboard pattern using a 1.5m guide pole as a guide. We planted the seedlings straight, tamped them down firmly, and finally fertilized them. We all lined up side by side and kept planting as we climbed the slope!
In the afternoon, participants practiced pruning, cutting off excess branches from trees using cypress trees, whose branches are less likely to break. Pruning is an important task for growing high-quality wood without knots, and it brightens the forest and helps vegetation recover.
The third photo shows the students at work. They climb up to the branches using a centipede ladder, then climb along the branches, leaving the branches with leaves at the top of the tree where the sunlight is good, and cut off the lower branches from the shaded branches below.
Photos 4~5, Hakken and Koken I climbed to the top of the centipede ladder!
When pruning, it's important to make a cut under the branch before cutting it off. If you don't do this, the weight of the branch can peel off the bark on the bottom and damage the tree. A pruning hatchet is often used as a tool, but this can be dangerous if you're not experienced, so in the practical training we used a pruning saw.
What a nice view!
In the 6th and 7th photos, a technical staff member showed us how to operate the pruning robot "Yamabiko"! It has a small chainsaw that climbs around the trunk and cuts down the branches. It's heavy and difficult to carry up the steep mountain slopes, but it's a convenient robot that allows humans to prune trees without having to climb them.
"Yamabiko" pruning the branches.
We were blessed with good weather and it was a very fulfilling training session!
After working hard, the lunch we had on the forest road was exceptionally delicious!
# Exploring Hakken and Koken Education # Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology # TUAT #大学 #university #tokyo #東京 #大学受験 #受験 #受験生 #研究 #研究紹介 # Faculty of Agriculture # Department of Ecoregion Science #キャンパスライフ #授業 #大学生 #実習 #森林 #自然 #森 #林業 #樹木 #合宿 #生態系 #生態学 #林学 #森林工学 #森林土壌学 #生態 #植栽 #枝打ち
Related links
- 2022-07-01 Forestry training “Thinning”
- 2022-07-04 Forestry training “Planting”
- 2022-07-08 Forestry training “Pruning”
- 2022-12-23 Regional Ecosystem Studies Training II “Satoyama Management Fieldwork”
- 2024-01-16 Regional Ecosystem Studies Training II (Forest B Route) “Satoyama Management Fieldwork Training” ①
- 2024-01-26 Regional Ecosystem Studies Training II (Forest B Route) “Satoyama Management Fieldwork Training” ②
- 2024-05-30 Silviculture training "Planting, pruning, and soil survey"
- 2024-12-19 Regional Ecosystem Studies Training II "Satoyama Management Fieldwork Training" ①
- 2024-12-19 Regional Ecosystem Studies Training II "Satoyama Management Fieldwork Training" ②
- 2025-05-14 Silviculture training "Thinning"
- Faculty of Agriculture Department of Ecoregion Science
- Professor Hiroto Toda, Department of Ecoregion Science Faculty of Agriculture Researcher Information
-
Professor Hiroto Toda, Department of Ecoregion Science Faculty of Agriculture, Laboratory website
- (Research Visit to Hakken and Koken) 2022-01-28 Department of Ecoregion Science Faculty of Agriculture, Hiroto Toda Laboratory "Impact of Air Pollution on Trees"
-
(Research Visit to Hakken and Koken) 2022-01-31 Department of Ecoregion Science Faculty of Agriculture, Hiroto Toda Laboratory "Sugar content of maple syrup"
- Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Official Instagram (@tuat_hakkenkoken)
