Kirk here with old but still very relevant news from local author Sean Micheal Wilson. In some personal correspondence with Sean, he pointed out to me that Kumamoto City has no policy to require home builders to replace trees they remove due to construction. I hadn’t thought about the need to create legal incentives to plant trees until Sean pointed it out to me but his word certainly ring true. Much of my neighborhood, some of which had been cultivated land bordered by trees until very recently, is now almost all paved over. Most of the land has become plots for houses but many of the home owners have elected to cover all of their land in pavement – no dirt, no trees. :(
— start quote — Call that progress?: In the city of Kumamoto, a Meiji Era house and its beautiful old Japanese-style wall were knocked down recently, with 90 percent of its trees torn down too. The small area left at the back gives an idea of what the trees were like in the main garden. The plot is now a car park. | SEAN MICHAEL WILSON — end quote —
