Wednesday, November 25, 2020

65 Woody Plants Common to the Kanto Area

 


Link: 69 Woody Plants of the Kanto Area, Descriptions and Illustrations by Julie Fukuda

After taking a course in Scouting's College of Commissioner Science, I taught the course the following year and was presented with a "Master's" degree. Then I was given the challenge to do the PHD.

For that, I selected several one-year projects to present to the committee and this was the one selected. I had a year to complete it and thought it would be helpful to scouts of the BSA here in Japan where there is almost no information on native plants in English. There are many requirements involving nature at each level of scouting and most of the leaders have no knowledge of plants to share. 

The illustrations were drawn in pen and ink and the words were added with a word processor. The scout groups could print the book out on A4 paper, fold each page in half, and staple along the open side to make a book

Now we have moved to the age of computers and one of my scouting friends, as one of his Woodbadge requirements, turned the book into a pdf, making it easier for scouts to access.  

Some of the maps need makeovers, as trees come and go, are cut down or replaced. Still, the leader can stand in a spot and read the description to the youth and they can try to find the tree or plant and check it against the map and picture. 

This weekend I will be working on outdoor leader training, and the timing is just right as the nature segment is one on my list.

Many thanks to my son, Jon, for jumping through the final hoops to make this version more accessible.

11 comments:

  1. Awesome resource mom, I love the illustrations! Maybe a few Eagle Scouts can make projects out of “updating the maps”! Seems like something that should go digital with gps markers on a map. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congratulations! A very impressive accomplishment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Many thanks to you and Jon! I agree with him - Awesome resource! I love the illustrations, too! I just downloaded it - and read through the table of contents - and scanned the first couple of pages. It is VERY thorough - and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it. I have little to no knowledge of plants - but that will soon change. And - although I don't live in Japan - it will let me follow along with you on one of your nature walks. Thanks for sharing - ;))

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congratulations Julie. Your book is very informative and easy to read. I have started to go through and identify which plants in the book I am familiar with here in New Zealand. I think I will go on and do some research on some of the others that are possibly here but unknown to me. In our 1 acre garden we have a Ginko about 9 metres wide and 9 Metres tall.Among other trees we also have Azalea, Gardenia and Maple trees that I can see at first glancd
    .

    ReplyDelete
  5. How wonderful and I wonder where the young scouts' early explorations in nature will lead. Perhaps for some a lifelong passion and deeper appreciation of nature.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great book. I liked the illustrations. I can't even draw stick people. Nice dedication, too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a wonderful accomplishment your book is, congratulations, Julie.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Congratulations! Impressive accomplishment! Of course, the license renewal in the previous post was quite an accomplishment, too!

    ReplyDelete
  9. SUGOSUGI!!!!! It is just wonderful!!! What a treasure and work of love and dedication!!! How great that your son could get it into PDF form to share with the world. I love the dedication to the two Pauls in your life!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for sharing Mom! YOu don't mention the year you completed this. If I go upstairs to find my copy, I'm sure it is in the book somewhere. I remember sharing this with colleagues throughout the years, and I probably even showed it to my botany teacher when I was in university. That was a long time ago! You could probably update the map by making a google map with an aerial photo overlay adding symbols and labels and putting printing the link to the map in the book. Thanks again, nice to see this is still being used by your scouts!

    ReplyDelete