芝生化奮闘記

訪問者の間では私が代表である校庭・空き地芝生化に取り組んでいるNPOの活動が思うように進展していないという印象を持っている人が少なくないでしょう。

それもそうでしょう。だって、僕が日本での芝生に対する誤認識ばかりを指摘し、文句ばかり言っているからです。

でも、昨日、もうすぐ2年目を迎えるこの事業の進行状況をリストアップしてみたら、現在芝生化が実現している事例が15件あり、来年から始まる可能性のある事例が５件で、その他、視察や講習会等を通じて、取り組む可能性があるのが10数件です。

すでに始まった15件の面積をみたら、小さいのが200平米（小学校の中庭で、来年から校庭の全面芝生化のきっかけとなり得る）、広いのが6,500平米で、来年4月に開校する中高一貫学校の校庭全面芝生化、また、総面積３万平米のある総合運動公園ではまず今年は1,000平米を芝生化し、成功したら来年から段階的に全部芝生化をする事例もあります。

来年予定している場所で目を引くのは国交省から直接依頼されている河川敷の芝生化です。一部は苗を植付けてのきれいな「芝生広場」ですが、その他の部分は苗と種を使わずに20数回の芝刈りだけで使い勝手の良い河川敷を作る実験として、上手くいったら、相当広い範囲で適用される可能生があります。

また、底辺で十分通用する芝生が大変安く、且つ間単に出来るとのメッセージを訴えたスポーツクラブサミットでの基調講演をきっかけに自分のクラブの用地を芝生化しようと真剣に考えているクラブが少なくありません。これも非常に明るい兆しです。

地域でいうと、中国地方、九州、四国、遠くは岐阜や静岡まで興味を示しているクラブもあります。

大変残念に思うのは我がふるさとの鳥取市では市役所の対応が悪くて、直接市と協働で出来る場所はやっと1か所しかないことです。他の地元事業が全て県行政もしくは中央省庁の鳥取支局です。

市の対応次第でこのわずか1件もだめになるかも知れません。

Many visitors to my blog probably have the impression that my NPO is making little progress in its efforts to promote grass playing fields in schools and grassed local parks.

Hardly surprising, as I seem to spend most of my time complaining about the false understanding of grass that is common in Japan.

But yesterday, as we approach the end of the first year of this project, I decided to make a list of our projects. There are 15 actually underway at present, five more in the pipeline for 2006 onwards, and the possibility of ten or more as a result of speeches I have made at various events.

A look at the 15 underway reveals the smallest one as only 200sqm (a courtyard at a local primary school, success to lead to serious consideration of converting the entire school grounds to grass from next year) and the largest at 6,500sqm, this being the entire grounds of a junior high-high school due to open in April 2006. Then there is the large sports facility in North Hiroshima that we helped the local staff convert 1,000sqm to grass this year. They are deadly serious about embarking on a 2-3 year project to convert the entire playing area to grass from 2006.

One scheduled project for 2006 worth special notice is a riverbank park project that we will do on direct contract with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. In addition to a top-quality turf area, we plan to convert a large portion of the available area to more-than-adequate quality grass merely by mowing it 20 or more times a year. If this succeeds, it could be applied to riverbanks nationwide.

My keynote speech to a national sports club summit arguing that grass playing surfaces perfectly adequate for the promotion of grass roots sport (pun intended) can be provided quite easily and at a surprisingly low cost struck a genuine cord with many participants, many of whom plan to visit Tottori early next year to see our efforts at first-hand with a view to converting their own playing fields to grass. This is also incredibly encouraging news. These sports clubs are located in places as close as Shimane and as far as Kyushu, Shikoku, Gifu, and Shizuoka.

One very sad point is that here in our home base of Tottori, there is only one project in which we are working directly with the local City administration. Other local projects entail co-operation with the prefectural government and the local branch of the central ministry mentioned above.

Yet, this one project could yet fail due to the poor response from the City administration.