Have you ever caught sight of animals in a forest? Many of them are wild animals who make their habitats there. In the Materials Forests that Mitsubishi Materials owns, there are mammals such as foxes and deer, birds such as woodpeckers, and frogs and fish in the rivers.

In the past, cows, horses, and other animals were domesticated in village forests in Japan. In nearby forests, you could often see horses carrying logs. Today, most of these roles have been taken over by heavy machinery, but some of our forests have introduced wood production using horses.

Horses can’t carry a lot of logs at once compared with heavy machinery. On the other hand, they do less damage to the soil, so this method has a smaller impact on the other animals and plants that live in our forests and has a smaller environmental burden. Furthermore, the horses working in our forests also appear in local community events, and they are invaluable for making people feel at ease and putting smiles on their faces.