Forest Maintenance and Nature Observation at the Takao Forest Nature School

At the forest maintenance area of the Takao Forest Nature School run by the 7-Eleven Memorial Foundation, which is the base for our activities in the suburbs of Tokyo, the participants were instructed by the staff of the school on maintenance work and biodiversity conservation, and carried out maintenance activities.

On Saturday, May 21, 21 volunteers, including those involved in environment-related work at the Hitachi High-Tech Group, took part in the activities. The number of volunteers was limited as part of COVID-19 measures.

After a briefing by the Takao Forest Nature School staff on the facility and the school’s activities, the participants moved to the forest maintenance area that the Hitachi High-Tech Group is in charge of and cleared bamboo grass, weeds, and other vegetation, and removed dead trees and logs.

Next, we conducted maintenance on the Insect Hotel, an insect box built by volunteers of Hitachi High-Tech employees two years ago and installed in the forest. For this maintenance, we took the bamboo grass cut down during the forest maintenance, selected stalks of appropriate diameter considering the characteristics of the insects and used it to replace the aging nesting materials in the Insect Hotel.

We observed nest marks and the presence of larvae from the old nest materials that had just been removed and were able to confirm and deepen our knowledge of the ecology of the insects that nested in the Insect Hotel by identifying them through comparison with the expected species.

Through this activity, participants were able to learn how people interact with natural forests and the diversity and importance of forest life. Many participants said that they were very satisfied with the activity,we will expand this activity company as a whole.