We conducted environmental education activities at the Sophia Forest in Karuizawa on Saturday, October 27. Twenty graduate students and two faculty members joined the trip. This time, by plotting the local natural and planted forests and splitting up into 4 groups, we conducted research on the forest’s tree species, carbon amount and other forest ecosystem features (plants and animals.).After that we held a workshop at the Sophia Seminar House where we invited Dr. Tamotsu Sato of the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute and Mr. Sawayama of the District Forest Office to give talks concerning the technical aspects of afforestation and issues concerning national forests. The workshop was very successful with lively discussion.

Brief information on the activities conducted can be downloaded here（Sophia Forest（PDF）) as a Powerpoint presentation made jointly by students groups.