NIS student Elyssa, ten metres up in the Seto mountain forests. YOKO YAMAMOTO.
If someone falls while climbing a tree in the forest, does it make a sound? Fortunately, no one in Nagoya International School’s grade 5 class found out while on their tree-climbing field trip in the mountains. Only the whoops of excitement and hollers of encouragement from students were heard throughout the forest on a spectacularly beautiful day in late May.
While dangling from rope suspended 10–15 metres in the air, grade 5 students swung, grabbed, pulled, pushed, and mostly smiled while taking in a bird’s-eye view and listening to the instructions of one Dr. John Gathright of Tree Climbing Japan (http://www.treeclimbing.jp/).
Although it sounds dangerous, a handful of climbing instructors and Dr. Gathright—an NIS parent as well as a professor, media personality, and dedicated naturalist—fitted each student with a helmet, specially padded pant-covers, and a rope- management system that allow climbers the freedom to move up and down their rope at their own pace.
Dr. Gathright talked about his background with nature and trees as a boy and how that transformed into a life’s work. His non-profit organization, Tree Climbing Japan, started out ten years ago with the purpose of “bringing people of all ages and physical abilities into the forest to climb trees and enjoy nature.” Since then, the organisation has helped over 150,000 people climb trees and allowed many dreams to come true.
The NIS students recently finished a Biomes unit of study in their Primary Years Programme, and travelled about 20 minutes from NIS to the mountains of Seto for this exploration. They went on a nature walk, learned about sustainable forestry, tried to spot any of the boars and foxes that roam the area (they found only footprints), absorbed key principles of camouflage, reviewed historical aspects of the Tokugawa land they were exploring, and were amazed by the huge miso barrel tree house nearby that had been built by Dr.Gathright and friends.
Dr. Gathright certainly planted a few seeds of thought in these students for career possibilities as conservationists, ecologists, or arborists. Much detail and many vivid descriptions were scattered throughout the students’ reflection journals about the importance of the forest and why we need to protect it.
— BRIAN WEBB
