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Myōkō-Togakushi Renzan NP, Niigata
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During the hut’s winter closure, camera traps for a ptarmigan-predator survey filmed a marten stealing fried-chicken bait from the shower room and shoe locker. One even wriggled free after triggering a trap.
In a trial, a drone delivered 26 kg of fuel to the hut over a 9.6 km round trip in about 15 minutes; carrying supplies by foot takes roughly 5 hours round trip. A mountain porter’s slog, compressed into a quarter-hour flight.
In 2018, a helicopter made 9 round trips over 5.5 km to deliver about 8 tonnes of food and propane. Twenty-four city staff and volunteers loaded and unloaded it, with roughly 1.5 m of snow still around the hut.
The hut doubles as a field depot for ptarmigan conservation: teams store gear here, then carry cameras and stakes toward Mt. Hiuchi to monitor birds and clear tall grasses that crowd out their alpine food plants.
A local conservation plan flags a quiet change: the wetland around Koyaike and nearby Tengu-no-niwa has been shrinking year by year. It calls for surveys and conservation measures to help protect these high-mountain marshes.
