Returning to China alone, in the desert for thirteen years
Build a seventeen-kilometer green belt
Just after planting a batch of flower sticks, Wu Xiangrong inserted a sign of Love Heart in the sand, and I went up and took a photo with him.Looking back at the photos on the camera, I suddenly realized, "Why does it look like a photo of Li Zongsheng and me?"The photos were posted on Moments and attracted a lot of likes.
Wu Xiangrong is about 1.8 meters tall. If he is fatter and has a pair of glasses, he will look more like Leehom. He said I am the second person to say he looks like Leehom.The friends who came to plant trees laughed at him: "Teacher Wu, you should carry a guitar to the base, use a shovel when planting trees, and play the guitar when taking a photo."I think if Leehom could come to the Tengger Desert, with his influence, it would be of great help to Wu Xiangrong and the locked forest that he had worked hard for thirteen years.
▲ Wu Xiangrong planted trees at the base
▲ Volunteers are planting tree sticks
In the distance are several sand dunes protruding on the Tengger Desert
The place where Wu Xiangrong planted trees is in Alaxan, on the eastern edge of the Helan Shanxi and Tengger Deserts.The desert is raging eastward. If there is no obstacle, you can reach the foot of Helan Mountain in a few kilometers. Then there is a possibility of snake walking up the mountain and looking for opportunities to cross mountains and ridges. Crossing the mountain is Yinchuan, Jiangnan, northwest, and Hetao area.
I asked Wu Xiangrong, with the height of Helan Mountain, the desert should not be able to pass through.Wu Xiangrong replied that there are several areas to the north and the desert has already climbed the mountain.He said that some of the highest sand dunes in the desert are several hundred meters high, which means that the desert has strong climbing ability, let alone sandstorms. You can easily climb over Helan Mountain and blow straight to Beijing, and even Japan across the sea can be affected.
▲Wu Xiangrong took us to see the tallest flower stick on the base
He stood down and asked me how tall I was, "It's about five meters."
Wu Xiangrong is from Alxa. After graduating from high school, he went to Japan to study and studied two undergraduate courses, studying economics and information management.As for why I finally returned to China to control the desertification, it was purely accidental.Because in Japanese schools, the credits for taking an undergraduate degree can be extended, so when you are studying for the second undergraduate degree, you will be relatively relaxed and you have time to participate in doing some extracurricular things.
I accidentally heard that someone was controlling desertification in Kenya. The old principal suddenly became enthusiastic about desertification control and even brought some seeds to Wu Xiangrong when he returned to China, but it did not germinate.Later, a few people came to Japan to guide him, but it was also a failure."That is a plant that can grow in a place with sufficient rain and grows rapidly, but when you reach the desert it is another matter."
Although they are all laymen, they are full of enthusiasm for desert control and want to do things like they do. Later, several people simply set up an association and named it "Japan National Greening World Desert Association". That was in 1997, and then they started raising funds everywhere. Unexpectedly, the fundraising was very successful and they were very enthusiastic about registering to become members. At most, a Japanese city had more than 1,700 members.
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The craziest thoughts I've ever had back then
It's about building a Las Vegas
Because of the association and funds, Wu Xiangrong returned to Alxa's desert control. The economics and information management he learned in Japan were abandoned. The layman began to grop and think about what to do and how to do it.He attracted former classmates and friends to work together. His craziest idea was the "Las Vegas" model, and now he laughs out loud.
Finally, Wu Xiangrong decided to build a forest in the desert, and the first thing he had to do was to prevent the desert from expanding eastward.
▲This is the flower stick seedlings planted for the next year, and it has become alive
Now that I am proficient in my skills, the survival rate of the flower stick reaches more than 90%.
Wu Xiangrong proposed a very important concept. Deserts do not need to be managed. Deserts themselves are part of the natural ecology. They regulate the water of the earth. They can only cause air to flow when they are dry and wet.The saying we often mentioned before, "Build the desert into an oasis" is a very wrong concept, and it is the same as building the grassland into fertile fields.
The most serious situation at the moment is that the artificial ecological damage is too serious, resulting in the continuous expansion of the desert.Therefore, the desert should still be a desert, but to keep the oasis in place, the purpose of building a border forest is to prevent the desert from expanding and to defend the oasis.
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Make the desert look like a desert
But we must defend the oasis and keep the oasis oasis.”
Then choose the tree species and the irrigation method.
For example, when planting trees, elm and poplar trees have been planted, and shrubs have also been tried, such as Halaxy, Xinjiang Shaguaiju and Inner Mongolia Shaguaiju, and of course, flower sticks, Yang Chai, etc.Finally, it was found that in this kind of place, trees are generally inseparable from long-term irrigation and are not suitable. Too small shrubs cannot block the desert, so larger shrubs are the most suitable, such as flower sticks and jujubes. These are almost the best partner tree species for planting edge-locked forests in Alxa.
▲There were many trees in the initial place where the base was planted, and these were Sand Date
▲In addition, there are elm, poplar, and even a few silk cotton trees
In another month, it becomes red and birds come to eat
▲From a slightly higher position, the Tengger Desert is not far ahead
Flower sticks bloom in full bloom, blocking the edge
▲The flower sticks that Wu Xiangrong planted first have become a forest, a sea of flowers
It is the most beautiful scenery by the desert
“The root system of the Shaguaijujube is shallow and horizontal, while the root system of the flower stick is drilled deeper."Wu Xiangrong's current construction of edge-lock forests is mainly based on planting flower sticks, supplemented by sand jujubes, embellishing some saxals. Different regions and directions have also changed, and some lemon pheasants will be planted in some places.In our opinion, the flower sticks are the best-looking, the jujube is like a tree that has not been planted in a living and dead, while the saxaul looks sick.
When Wu Xiangrong started planting trees on the edge of the Tengger Desert, he also made many mistakes.
For example, Shaguai dates, the early Shaguai dates were all Xinjiang Shaguai dates. At that time, the Shaguai dates that could be bought were all Xinjiang Shaguai dates. The local Inner Mongolia Shaguai dates seeds were very rare.The Xinjiang Shaguaijujube is walking to a high place, and the Inner Mongolia Shaguaijujube feels like it is independent of one plant.However, Xinjiang Shakuaijujube has a short lifespan and will age quickly. Another disadvantage is that its branches are particularly crisp. When the wind blows, the branches will break, and cattle and sheep can break the branches even if they pass by.After discovering this situation, it gradually changed into Inner Mongolia Shaguaijujube.There is a time price here. When the plant is small, there is no difference between the two types of jujubes, and they can only be distinguished when they grow up.
▲The one in the distance is Xinjiang Shaguaiju
Some of the low branches nearby, gray and white, seem to be dead, are the Inner Mongolia Shaguaijujube
The following figure explains an interesting phenomenon of Shaguaiju
▲We often see some trees in the desert
Sometimes I see a lot of woodlands with dead trees as shown above
▲But please don't be sad, there are fresh new branches at the top
It didn't kill it, it was just a survival skill for energy conservation and emission reduction
▲The flowers of Shaguaijujube are very small, and they are just white when they are full.
▲If the fruits of jujubes are more than a month earlier
The red fruits are hung on the branches, very beautiful, not inferior to the flower stick
▲The remaining old fruit of a jujube
Another thing is that the people at the base are very exciting.
The jujube they planted has erythema cinnabar, an insect of crustacean that eats the flowers, leaves and fruits of plants.It was still early in the day, and it was very difficult to plant some trees and form a forest, so I wanted to use medicine to kill the insect. After discussing it, I implemented it.
One day, a magpies flew over to the glass window of the house. After falling to the ground, they flew up and hit again. They continued to die many times until they died. Wu Xiangrong and his partner at the base felt very strange when they saw it.Later, while on the forest tour, I saw three dead magpies on the ground.Wu Xiangrong only linked several things. It should be that pesticides killed the insects. The magpie was poisoned and killed by eating the insects, causing another lucky magpie to be unable to survive alone. So that day, it hit the window because it committed suicide, or wanted to find someone to fight back and take revenge.
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A magpies flew to hit the glass window of the base
Until you land and die, or for revenge
This incident happened in 2007 and touched Wu Xiangrong a lot.Unexpectedly, magpies had attracted in the small woodland built by the desert.What's so sad is that they actually poisoned them to death."Worms appear in the forest. As long as they are within a controllable range, they will not actually affect the growth of plants. It is precisely because of the appearance of insects that provide food to magpies, which shows that the ecological chain of the forest land we afforested is being established.”
After this, Wu Xiangrong decided to build a piece of forest land initially and that after the trees basically survived, they would no longer intervene.
The locked forest built by Wu Xiangrong and his team is now 500-1,000 meters wide and 17 kilometers long, with a very good ecological environment.They have conducted a vegetation survey on the base and found that there are more than 100 plants.
▲A magpies nest on a flower stick
▲The pheasant seen at the Loongbian Ecological Charity Base
I got up early in the morning and walked around the woodland beside the base. It was on the edge of the desert. Standing on a higher slope, you could see the desert. But in this woodland, I saw five or six pheasants wandering in the grass. I walked forward a few steps to take pictures, but a gray rabbit suddenly jumped out of my feet, scaring me to death.I also saw a taller flower stick tree with a huge magpies nest.
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Fox, Badger Pig, Weasel
There are also snakes, cuckoos, wild pigeons, sand chickens
Falcons and eagles come often.”
There are many animals that I didn't have the chance to see.I asked Wu Xiangrong that he had common animals. He said there were foxes, badger pigs, weasels, snakes, cuckoos, wild pigs, sand chickens, and falcons and eagles.
▲The collected artemisia hay is used to make grass grids in the desert as a sand barrier
But the wormwood is flammable and starts to ignite as soon as you see the fire
This is what Wu Xiangrong is most worried about at the moment
Wu Xiangrong has been planting trees on the edge of this desert for thirteen years. His wife and children are both in Japan and they are separated.He only went back to Japan to reunite every winter when there was less work at the base.His wife is from northern Shaanxi and met on a train when she returned to China. After he returned to Japan, he wrote a letter to the girl and started a long-distance relationship."Later, she was fooled to go to Japan, but just settled in Japan, I ran to China to plant trees again.”
Now, even during his time back to Japan, he has no free time and needs to make a full year of afforestation plans for the coming year.Another thing that made him particularly panicked was the "fire". "The locked forest is getting longer and longer, and the ecology is getting better and better. There are various wild animals in the forest now, and I am afraid that someone will come to hunt. Once there is a spark, the whole area will be over.”
Because in the forest, in addition to shrubs such as flower sticks, jujubes and saxony, there are also many annual herbs such as wormwood and saxophone. They wither in winter and have dry climate, which are very dangerous.
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What I fear most is fire, someone comes to hunt
A spark landed and it was all over
So, this is what Wu Xiangrong emphasizes every day at the base.When I returned to Japan, I would be particularly anxious during that period because I was not there.He plans to build an organic fertilizer treatment plant at the base, which of course requires a lot of money, but it is still an urgent task.
He hopes to collect the flammable hay every fall and winter to make organic fertilizer.There are also those flower sticks that require cutting and pruning to grow better, and the cut branches can also be made of organic fertilizer.I planted some jujube trees in the woodland last year, and in the future, some other fruit trees or medicinal plants will be planted. These organic fertilizers can be fertilized and everything can be circulated.
This is a good cause to rebuild the old with the land, but for Wu Xiangrong, the greatest significance of planting trees is to plant the heart. We must plant trees in everyone's heart and rebuild the old with the land around us.
▲The jujube is about to be ripe
▲Wu Xiangrong and China Greening Foundation-Million Forest Project Leader Luo Jiajia
Since 2007, China Greening Foundation has begun to support Wu Xiangrong's team
Plant a clavicle forest on the eastern edge of the Tengger Desert
