Reforestation Activities

We have been maintaining this site since fiscal 2008, working with the local Youtei Forestry Cooperative. In fiscal 2019, based on a five-year plan that began in fiscal 2013, we undertook maintenance to ensure sufficient forest road width (for a distance of approximately 8 kilometers), and cleared underbrush in locations that had previously been reforested (approximately 14 hectares).

Responding to requests from local community associations, we transformed the tailings dam site at the closed Toyoha Mine into a scenic forest. We are thinning Japanese white birch growing naturally on this site and planting trees in the resulting spaces to maintain the environment. In fiscal 2019, we undertook weeding across an area covering 2,800 square meters.

We have been engaged in reforestation of this site since fiscal 2007, working with the local Hakodate Wide Area Forestry Cooperative to plant approximately 31,300 saplings in an area spanning some 15 hectares.
Ongoing maintenance and restoration work in fiscal 2019 included clearing of underbrush around the planted saplings (approximately 3 hectares) and field mice extermination (approximately 15 hectares).

Since fiscal 2009, we have been cooperating with the city of Nanyo on a project to improve the scenic beauty of a section of the Ringo district. This Nikko Ryuju-Satoyama Reforestation Project is also seen as a measure for revitalizing the local region. In fiscal 2019, we sought to ensure the health and vitality of the forest by clearing underbrush in a previously reforested area of around 3 hectares and conducting surveys of sapling growth. We also improved walking paths, installed steps, and took other measures to make the forest more walkable.

We have been engaged in reforestation of this site and maintenance of previously improved areas since fiscal 2005, working with the local Koriyama City Forestry Cooperative. In fiscal 2019, we planted 500 saplings in the area where the ground had been prepared in the previous fiscal year for tree planting. In addition, as ongoing forest restoration work, we undertook further ground preparation and underbrush clearing (approximately 13 hectares), and opened a utility road.

The city of Hitachi is the Group's place of origin. Approximately 500 Oshima cherries and wild cherries planted in the early days by Hitachi Mine are growing on Mt. Kurakake, next to our Hitachi Works. Since 2008, the Mt. Kurakake Cherry Centennial Committee of Hitachi City has sponsored activities to protect these trees and create a place of rest and relaxation for the local community, as well as a place for environmental education of the children of the future. Each year we participate in these activities, enlisting volunteers from our Hitachi Works .