2019 Regular General Meeting

2019 Regular General Meeting　　Translated by Mike Eabry

Kushiro City Red-crowned Crane Protection Society Chairman, Morihito Yoshida

I would like to extend a warm welcome and good health to all members.

I would like to express my sincere thanks for association membership fees and donations received.

The Regular General Meeting concluded with a discussion of the Association’s planned activities for the 2019-2020 fiscal year, which have already commenced.

The other day, we just finished mowing the undergrowth around the evergreen trees growing in the nursery.

In addition, the number of applications has been increasing every year for the “Crane Quiz”, which asks participants to predict how many birds fly into the Red-crowned Crane Village at 1 pm on January 1; also, the “Illustration Exhibition”, in which kindergarten and elementary school children draw red-crowned cranes continues to be popular and for this reason, both activities will be continued.

Moreover, I would like to continue hosting at the Red-crowned Crane Village Millennium Festival both weddings and the “Crane Sake Tasting Meeting” at which is gathered “Crane” brands of sake from across the nation.

The live cameras which provides pictures to the website of the Red-crowned Crane Protection Society will be relocated to deliver better video images.

The boiler used for heating the observation centre broke down and views from the camera could not be seen due to the glass becoming fogged up; a petition was made to Kushiro City to repair or replace the boiler, but due to budgetary issues, the problem couldn’t be resolved immediately and other solutions will be devised in order to continue providing pictures.

With the aquifer having become depleted and groundwater pumped up from the biotope being insufficient, it was considered whether if water was pumped in from a stream it might be sufficient to fill the pond so that the cranes might be tempted to approach, or whether sinking a bore with a larger, specialized groundwater pump may be required; however, this is difficult to budget for.

This year, there will soon be an investigation into feeding by the Ministry of the Environment and it is likely that the amount of feeding using corn will be further reduced.

We are working towards creating a comfortable environment for the Red-crowned crane.

The work is steadily progressing, but I would like to ask for your support as we strive to create an environment that loves, and is loved by, Red-crowned cranes.