「困った木」で作る 時木の積層

大学をはじめ、幼稚部、小学部、中学部、高等部、大学院が広大なキャンパスに集う総合学園である、東京・町田市の玉川学園。「自然の尊重」を教育信条のひとつに掲げ、創立から90年以上にわたり教職員、生徒、学生の参加型でキャンパス内の植林労作活動を推進してきました。彼らの正しい管理と間伐作業の結果、現在では動植物や自然環境の生育にとって貴重な里山環境が形成されています。今回取得したのは玉川大学の学生や教授らが参加した労作にて間伐されたヒマラヤスギと校舎建設のため移植が難しく、伐採することになったカナリーヤシの2種類。教育活動と真摯に向かい、実践する彼らのやさしい想いが、困った木を本質的に救うのではないでしょうか。

Tree that Came From the University

Tamagawa Gakuen, located in Machida City, Tokyo, is an integrated educational institution with a vast campus that houses everything from kindergarten and elementary to junior high, high school, university, and graduate school. With “Respect for Nature” as one of its core educational principles, the school has promoted participatory afforestation and forest maintenance activities involving faculty, staff, and students for over 90 years. Thanks to their careful management and thinning efforts, the campus has now developed into a valuable satoyama environment—a traditional Japanese landscape where people and nature coexist—that supports diverse plant and animal life.
What we acquired this time are two types of trees. Himalayan cedars that were thinned through hands-on forest management activities involving Tamagawa University students and professors, and Canary Island date palms that had to be felled due to the difficulty of relocation during campus construction. Their sincere commitment to education and thoughtful, hands-on efforts may offer a truly meaningful way to give new life to trees that might otherwise have been lost.