Japan’s winter has ushered in the return of Mount Zao’s juhyo, or “snow monsters.”
Near-constant blizzard conditions prevail on Zao’s slopes, applying layer upon layer of snow and ice that yield legions of “eerily biomorphic” frost-covered fir trees, The Asahi Shimbun wrote.
The monsters appear to be slimming down, however, as temperatures rise and the forest is thinned by predatory bark beetles, threatening a tourism-dependent economy.
Locals are now springing into action with fir transplantations underway, but the trees take 50 to 70 years to mature, meaning restoration will be an intergenerational project requiring “patience and continuity,” a conservation specialist told the BBC.