Over 50 years ago, near the small city of Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture at the southern tip of Japan, an experiment was started by people who would not see the end result of their efforts in their working life. They wanted to find out the optimum spacing for planting trees to maximise productivity in a forest planted for harvesting wood.

In two adjacent areas 360 cedar trees were planted in 10 concentric circles and at 10 degree radial increments.

Map Location of Japanese Concentric Circle forest trees near Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture

See Google Earth for the exact location and image.

 

It's likely that 2 big circles of trees was not the first idea that came to mind, when planning this experiment. This clever design took a lot of time and thought. It allows for many variations in light and water supply.

Hopefully, you can make out from the image at the top that the trees in the innermost circle are smaller than the next circle out and this pattern continues to the outermost circle, which has the tallest trees. In fact, the tree height difference from the inner to outer ring is on average 5m (16 feet).

The Tree Circles Will Not Be Cut Down.

The experiment is part of a plantation forest that will be harvested. It is likely that the tree circles will not be cut down.

I wonder if those conducting and planning the experiment or those planting the trees imagined what a great spectacle they were creating for the future.

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Aba Selassie
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Replies

• Aziz (June 15, 2024)
  You can see them on Google Earth. Bit like wide eyes in the woods.

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