Kushiro River Meanders was added to Your Favorites!
Kushiro Shitsugen NP, Hokkaido
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
At Kayanuma, workers reconnected an abandoned bend and filled its straight shortcut: a 1.6-km channel became a 2.4-km meander. The restoration was completed in March 2011. ([hokudai.ac.jp](https://www.hokudai.ac.jp/news/140515_pr_agr.pdf))
Kayanuma lies in Shibecha, whose Ainu-derived name, Shipecha, means “edge of the great river”—the Kushiro. Historic Ainu kotan stood along this river reach, and people traveled it by dugout canoe. ([town.shibecha.hokkaido.jp](https://town.shibecha.hokkaido.jp/gyousei/shibecha_gaiyou/rekishi/shibechanohajimari.html))
Project monitors caught Itō fish about 60–90 cm long in the restored channel; they thought these might be breeding adults, though their ages were not measured. Itō is Japan’s largest freshwater fish. ([hkd.mlit.go.jp](https://www.hkd.mlit.go.jp/ks/tisui/b0sadt0000009nqg-att/NL_rest21.pdf))
After reconnection, fish and aquatic-invertebrate abundance and species richness increased. Slow-water species had survived in pools of the cutoff channel; current-loving species recolonized from nearby river reaches. ([onlinelibrary.wiley.com](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec.12101))
Monitoring at Kayanuma found wetland vegetation grew from about 40 ha before restoration to 70 ha afterward—a 30-ha gain alongside higher groundwater and more frequent flooding. ([hkd.mlit.go.jp](https://www.hkd.mlit.go.jp/ks/tisui/b0sadt0000009nqg-att/NL_rest21.pdf))
Research found that wetland vegetation along the restored meander trapped about 80–90% of the fine sediment carried by floodwater, keeping much of it from traveling farther downstream. ([onlinelibrary.wiley.com](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec.12101))
The Kushiro River begins at Lake Kussharo, winds through Kushiro Shitsugen and reaches the Pacific. Along its 154-km course, it is one of Japan’s uncommon rivers without artificial dams or weirs. ([mlit.go.jp](https://www.mlit.go.jp/river/toukei_chousa/kasen/jiten/nihon_kawa/0105_kushiro/0105_kushiro_00.html))
After the 1931 flood-control channel was built, the shortcut was called the Kushiro River and the former course the Old Kushiro River. In 2000, the names changed: the shortcut became the New Kushiro River. ([hkd.mlit.go.jp](https://www.hkd.mlit.go.jp/ks/tisui/obpsos00000008kp.html))
Kayanuma’s 540-m boardwalk lets people observe the restored river without trampling the wetland; it was built for environmental surveys as well as viewing. Local citizens help track aquatic life, plants, sediment and scenery. ([hkd.mlit.go.jp](https://www.hkd.mlit.go.jp/ks/tisui/qgmend00000052pi.pdf))
