Up the river

Moving away from Iya just a bit,

This is a picture taken on the way to Kochi, south of Iya.  It is the Yoshino river so far up the river that there is not enough water for rafting, but definitely good for other small river recreations.  The river goes on like this for a while along the road.  A scenery that made me want to go all the way to the source of the river.  Unfortunately the road veers off from the river before it reaches the source.  I wonder what the source area of the Yoshino river looks like?

When I was a child, I once visited, with my family and friends, a wetland near the source of a river that was running near my home back then.  Catching small aquatic animals, insects, and small fishes at that wetland is still a good memory for me.  From what I heard, that wetland no longer exists.  It makes me very sad that place in my memory, and it makes me just as sad to know that younger generations have no opportunity to experience what I have experienced back then.

Even though people's view toward the environment and ecosystems have changed, rivers like this will most likely keep on disappearing.  I hope we can somehow keep these rivers.

I almost forgot, I did see the source of the Iya river.  Maybe not quite what I have expected....

On the side note, supposedly a grassland retains water better than a forest.  Another reason to protect and maintain thatch fields.