While the inspirational “miracle” pine tree of Rikuzentakata cannot be saved, its legacy will live on due to the efforts of concerned foresters.
While the inspirational “miracle” pine tree of Rikuzentakata cannot be saved, its legacy will live on due to the efforts of concerned foresters. Sumitomo Forestry Co. has grown 18 seedlings from the seeds of the famed pine tree, the sole survivor among tens of thousands of pines in the once scenic Takata-Matsubara forest of Iwate Prefecture’s Rikuzentakata, the company said Dec. 14. The entire forest of some 70,000 pine trees was uprooted by the March 11 tsunami, save one. Although efforts to revive the remaining tree were officially abandoned on Dec. 13, due to high levels of salinity in the groundwater, its seedlings have grown to about 4 centimeters. Sumitomo Forestry, a leading housing company, plans to use the seedlings for the possible revival of the forest area in the future.Sumitomo Forestry collected 25 seeds off the tree from its pine cones in April, one month after the Great East Japan Earthquake, according to the company. The housing firm started planting the seeds on absorbent cotton in September after cryogenically treating them, resulting in their sprouting shortly after planting. The company will continue to cultivate the seedlings in a greenhouse and field, with the ultimate goal of growing them to about 50 cm in 10 years and planting them as saplings. Cloned seedlings of the tree--created by grafting its branches--have been developed by the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute and other organizations, but this is believed to be the first reported case where “offspring” of the tree have been grown from its own seed. In the meantime, Sumitomo Forestry has also cultivated three cloned seedlings from the tree.“These seedlings are the ‘children’ of the tree that survived a massive tsunami,” said Kentaro Nakamura, chief researcher of Sumitomo’s Tsukuba Research Institute. “They are still just a tiny source of hope, but we expect they will help Rikuzentakata in some way recover from the disaster.”The Japan Greenery Research and Development Center, an organization working to preserve the tree, announced Dec. 13 its decision to cease efforts to save the tree. For the past nine months since the March 11 disaster, the lone tree has served as a beacon of hope for tsunami victims in the area.