The forest

What grows on Palcall Tsumagoi Resort

This mountain has both, in separate patches. The deciduous stands drop their leaves and open up for the winter; the conifer stands stay closed.

Read from the national vegetation survey. The survey records the cut pistes as open ground, so the ski area shows up on its own.

Plan view of the forest around Palcall Tsumagoi Resort. Bare deciduous woods pale, evergreen conifer dark, open ground lightest.
Plan view, about 7.6 km across, faintly shaded by the mountain's own relief. The pale threads are the pistes, which the survey records as open ground.
Darker ink is denser forest: evergreen conifer that stays closed through the winter. Paler ink is deciduous forest, bare from November, which you can see a long way into. The palest ink is ground with no forest on it. Every bar below uses the same three inks.
Forest cover
85%
of the ground this map covers
Bare in winter
61%
of that forest loses its leaves in winter
Planted stands
21%
of the classified ground, planted in rows of one age
Natural forest
46%
of the classified ground, level 9 of 10 on the survey’s naturalness scale
Most open at
1,314–1,443m
the height you can see furthest into the trees at
Commonest stand
カラマツ植林
20% of the ground the survey classified
Plant communities
44
distinct types on this mountain
Surveyed
2013
fieldwork years, not the 2024 edition

Where this mountain sits among the others on JapowDB

least bare 35%94% most bare

Its forest stands barer in winter than 3 of the 37 mountains on JapowDB.

01

Sight range, level by level

This is the mountain seen from the side. How far you can see into the trees changes with height.

Height What you can see through Bare
2,219–2,348 m
24%
2,090–2,219 m
9%
1,960–2,089 m
11%
1,831–1,960 m
17%
1,702–1,831 m
38%
1,573–1,702 m
75%
1,443–1,572 m
95%
1,314–1,443 m
98%
1,185–1,314 m
95%
1,056–1,185 m
96%
closed 50% 100%
A section through the mountain, base to summit.

Each reading is a share of that band's own forest, not of the mountain, and a band holding too little forest to state one is left blank. The pale bar behind the section is how much ground sits at that height, so a swing over a sliver of mountain does not read as a headline. No treeline is drawn — the survey describes stands, not a line.

02

What stands beside each run

Each run is scored on the band 35 to 90 m either side of its centre line, which is the forest you look at from the piste. Runs are ordered by how much of that band you can see through in winter.

Run The band either side See-through
A-2 Course 1,298 m 65%
A-3 Course 244 m 65%
A-1 Course 1,235 m 64%
B-5 Course 681 m 64%
C-3 Course 813 m 57%
A-4 Course 212 m 52%
B-3 Course 729 m 50%
B-6 Course 214 m 45%
The other 14 runs
Run The band either side See-through
B-4 Course 610 m 32%
C-1 Course 1,202 m 26%
C-5 Course 201 m 25%
D-4 Course 295 m 24%
C-2 Course 818 m 21%
D-3 Course 829 m 17%
D-1 Course 919 m 16%
D-7 Course 826 m 12%
D-5 Course 463 m 11%
C-4 Course 738 m 6%
D-2 Course 305 m 4%
D-9 Course 769 m 2%
D-8 Course 241 m 2%
D-6 Course 615 m 0%

Each figure is a share of the surveyed ground in a band 35–90 m either side of the run. The run itself and the rest of the mountain are outside it. The survey resolves about 17 m on the ground and the band is only a few cells wide, so the figure covers what the band is made of and cannot single out one tree, gap or line of sight. Runs the survey barely covers are left out. The survey has no treeline and no stem-density data.

03

What actually grows here

The survey sorts every polygon into one of its vegetation zones, then names the stand within it. A mountain usually falls into five or six zones, each holding many named stands.

Vegetation zone Share of classified ground Share
Natural subalpine conifer forest コケモモ-トウヒクラス域自然植生 47%
Plantation and farmland 植林地・耕作地植生 28%
Beech-zone regrowth ブナクラス域代償植生 17%
Subalpine conifer-zone regrowth コケモモ-トウヒクラス域代償植生 4%
Other その他 2%
Natural beech-zone forest ブナクラス域自然植生 2%
Riverside, wetland, salt marsh and dune 河辺・湿原・塩沼地・砂丘植生 1%
Alpine natural vegetation 高山帯自然植生域 0%

The named stands underneath

The survey’s own community names, largest first. These are proper names for stand types, and the survey publishes them only in Japanese.

  • カラマツ植林 20%
  • シラビソ-オオシラビソ群集 17%
  • コメツガ群落 15%
  • ササ-ダケカンバ群落 13%
  • 畑雑草群落 5%
  • ミヤコザサ-ミズナラ群集 5%
The other 38 communities
  • フクオウソウ-ミズナラ群集 4%
  • レンゲツツジ-シラカンバ群集 4%
  • ダケカンバ群落(III) 3%
  • ササ群落(II) 2%
  • ススキ群団(V) 2%
  • 放棄畑雑草群落 1%
  • ササ群落(III) 1%
  • オオバクロモジ-ミズナラ群集 1%
  • ダケカンバ群落(V) 1%
  • チシマザサ-ブナ群団 1%
  • ササ群落(V) 1%
  • ヤマタイミンガサ-サワグルミ群集 1%
  • ヌマガヤオーダー 0%
  • ゴルフ場・芝地 0%
  • 自然裸地 0%
  • アカマツ植林 0%
  • 緑の多い住宅地 0%
  • 造成地 0%
  • ウラジロモミ植林 0%
  • 開放水域 0%
  • 高山ハイデ及び風衝草原 0%
  • 牧草地 0%
  • アカマツ群落(V) 0%
  • 硫気孔原植生 0%
  • 残存・植栽樹群をもった公園、墓地等 0%
  • 市街地 0%
  • 伐採跡地群落(V) 0%
  • ウラジロモミ群落 0%
  • ササ群落(IV) 0%
  • 果樹園 0%
  • アカミノイヌツゲ-クロベ群集 0%
  • シナノキンバイ-ミヤマキンポウゲ群団 0%
  • オニヒョウタンボク-ハルニレ群集 0%
  • その他植林(常緑針葉樹) 0%
  • ヤナギ低木群落(IV) 0%
  • 路傍・空地雑草群落 0%
  • カラマツ群落 0%
  • ミヤマハンノキ群落 0%

Every share is of the ground the survey classified on this mountain, which is more than the forest and more than the ski area. The zones are the survey’s own; the English is a gloss and the Japanese is the source term. Zones are ordered by area, and area has no bearing on how well a zone skis.

04

How natural this vegetation is

The survey grades every polygon on a ten-point scale of how little people have changed it. Level 1 is made ground with almost nothing growing on it; level 10 is natural grassland and alpine heath. The scale measures human interference only. Natural fir sits at 9 and is a wall you cannot see through; a larch plantation sits at 6, evenly spaced and good to ski.

Level Share of classified ground Share
10 Natural grassland and alpine heath 4%
9 Natural forest 46%
8 Regrowth close to natural forest 3%
7 Secondary forest 15%
6 Plantation 21%
5 Tall secondary grassland 3%
4 Short secondary grassland 2%
3 Orchard, tea and mulberry field 0%
2 Farmland and green residential land 6%
1 Built-up and made ground 0%

1% of the classified ground carries a code outside the ten levels. It is left out of the rows above.

Every share is of the ground the survey classified on this mountain. The scale records human interference only; a higher level does not mean better skiing. Levels this mountain does not have are left out.

National vegetation survey, 2024 edition, Biodiversity Center, Ministry of the Environment, Japan. Processed by JapowDB; the Ministry did not produce this version.

This mountain's polygons were walked in 2013. The edition is dated 2024; the fieldwork is older.

Each cell is about 17 m across, roughly the size of a small clearing.