Original Chinese article by: Wang Wenzhi, Li Jinhong / Economic Information Daily
Among the eight deserts in China, the Kumtag Desert, which ranks sixth in total area and first in mobility, expands to the southeast at a speed of about four meters every year, approaching the national historical and cultural city-Dunhuang. Located on the eastern edge of the desert, the state-owned Dunhuang Yangguan Forestry Site (referred to as Yangguan Forestry Site), which once owned about 20,000 mu of the "Three North" shelterbelt belt, is the first and the last one green screen to prevent sand in Dunhuang.
The Economic Information Daily reporter's investigation found that the windbreak and sand-fixing lifeline of oasis has been subjected to large-scale "head-shaving” style of logging in the past ten years, and there is little left in the logging of more than 10,000 mu of public welfare shelter forests. As a result, a 5 kilometers wide Kumtag Desert was torn open to pass through Dunhuang.
In early January, the reporter walked through the Yangguan Forest Site, and saw high winds engulfing the dust, whizzing through the sparse and broken, bare forest belt all the way, the front of the quicksand has stretched out the sand tongue and crawled eastward. The "desert is pressing" situation has emerged.
"There is no forest in the west out of Yangguan", local people and related experts exclaimed that if this Dunhuang sand blocking barrier is completely lost, the northwestern end of the Hexi Corridor will face an ecological disaster of wind and sand eroding the oasis.
The "head-shaving" style felling is shocking.
Founded in 1963, the Yangguan Forest Site is located at the foot of the ancient Yangguan Pass in Dunhuang. Since ancient times, it has been the gateway to the Western Regions and the only pass through the southern "Silk Road". According to reports, the location of the Yangguan Forest Site is just a big vent, 70 kilometers to the east is the urban area of Dunhuang, and to the west is close to the Kumtag Desert.
Due to the harshest natural conditions adjacent to the arid area in the northwest of the desert, the climate in the Yangguan Forest Site area is extremely arid. The average precipitation for many years is only 40 mm, and the evaporation is more than 80 times the precipitation.
In the dry climate with little rain and frequent strong winds, the sand dunes on the eastern edge of the Kumtag Desert advance toward Yangguan Town at a speed of about 4 meters each year. To hold Dunhuang, one must first hold Yangguan; if Yangguan is lost, the wind and sand will drive straight in, rushing eastward along the Gobi Desert for hundreds of miles, and Dunhuang is bound to be unsafe.
It is understood that the Yangguan Forest Site used to be a barren land where "the strong wind-swept white grass and the wild wolves flew through the sand nest". Through the hard work of several generations of Dunhuang people, more than 300 large and small sand dunes have been removed, more than 2 million cubic meters of sand and gravel have been moved, more than 20,000 mu of land has been prepared, and more than 4 million trees of various types have been planted in about 20,000 acres. The former continuous desert with sand dunes has become a lush green oasis, completely free from the predicament of "sands driving people away". The 17-square-kilometer green barrier of Yangguan Forest Site has largely prevented the sandstorm from spreading to Danghe Reservoir and Dunhuang City.
According to the bulletin board of the Yangguan Forest Site, its operating area is 25,700 mu. After more than 50 years of hard work, a protective forest belt about 5 kilometers long and 2 kilometers wide was finally built in the front of the desert with harsh environment. The protective forest belt guards the Dunhuang Oasis like a green Great Wall.
According to relevant information from the Dunhuang Natural Resources Bureau (Dunhuang Forestry and Grassland Bureau) of the Yangguan Forest Site, as the largest irrigated artificial forest farm in Jiuquan City, Gansu Province, the ecological forest area of the Yangguan Forest Farm in 2019 was 13,300 mu.
An authoritative forestry journal once stated that the Yangguan Forest Site, known as "a model for the construction of a national sand zone forest site", "stubbornly stands in the forefront of the Kumtag Desert without being swallowed by strong wind and sand." When the Economic Information Daily reporters visited on the spot, they saw that the 20,000 mu of shelter forest that could not be blown by the wind and the sand could not be destroyed is now basically destroyed by swords and axes, and the entire forest belt has almost been cut down.
The reporter walked through part of the woodland in the Yangguan Forest Site, and trees of all sizes were sawed neatly from the roots everywhere. Every few meters, there are tree stumps left behind after felling, and occasionally there are chopped logs lying in the woodland. Judging from the size of the stumps, some trees have a thick bowl and many larger stumps and trunk diameters as 30 cm, the scattered branches are as thick as the arms of an adult. An employee of the forest site pointed to these stumps and told reporters that the cortex of the cut trees was full of moisture, and there were very few hollows. The branches and tops of the trees were fresh in color. Most of them were once well-living and robust trees.
Local insiders pointed out to the reporter one by one that the surviving trees are distributed in two small forest lands on the west and southwest corner of the forest site, as well as street trees on both sides of the main and secondary roads of the forest site, and spacer trees in some plots. Two employees who have worked in Yangguan Forest Site for more than 20 years told reporters that they had seen Populus alba, tamarix chinensis, Populus diversifolia and other tree species that were chopped down in pieces. There are only a small proportion of aging and dead "old trees" and disease-dead trees. A large number of young and mature trees have been knocked down without leaving any land, and tens of thousands of acres of forest have been shaved bald.
"We used to sweat for the forests, but now we shed tears for them." The above-mentioned employees told reporters. Back then, the sandy soil layer was full of gravel. To plant trees, they had to smash the rock layer with steel hammer and dig out a one-meter square and 80 cm deep tree hole to ensure that the saplings are not rooted. Then pick mature soil from a few kilometers away to backfill the bottom and pull in spring water for watering. "Every piece of woodland is snatched from the ‘sand tiger'. Planting a tree is as difficult as raising a child."
Ten thousand acres of shelter forests turned into "green deserts”.
The reporters of Economic Information Daily found that the protected forest land cut down in Yangguan Forest Site was used to grow grapes that consume a lot of water and frequently disturb the surface soil layer. It is understood that since 2000, contractors from other places have swarmed into Yangguan Forest Site and leased a large area of forest land to develop and build vineyards. Vineyards occupies a large area of ecological forest land, and even tend to completely replace forest land. According to the information from Yangguan Forest Site, grape production has become the pillar industry of the forest farm.
Data from the Gansu Desert Control Research Institute show that the water consumption of grapes during the whole growth period is 11.9 times, 6.72 times, 4.05 times and 12.74 times that of the artificial Haloxylon forest, Tamarix forest, C. mongolicum forest and scoparium forest of 4 years old.
A former forest ranger at the Yangguan Forest Site, now a vineyard contractor said that the watering cycle of shelter forests is generally once every two months, while the vineyards are flooded with watering once every half month.
And according to the reporter's investigation, in order to prevent the protection forest from competing with the grapes for water and nutrients in the soil, many grape growers do not hesitate to compete to kill the shelterbelts and remove their roots near the contracted land. The reporter learned that in order to create the illusion of the death of ecological forests, many thick Populus euphratica were stripped of the bark, and even the bottom of the trunk was set on fire and burned. When they died, they were felled and dried before being burned to destroy the traces. In the low-lying area near the desert side at the western end of the forest site, the reporter saw seven or eight Populus euphratica tree trunks as thick as adult thighs being burnt.
According to reports, after the humus of the original tall trees and litters of the Yangguan Forest Site, organic matter has accumulated for many years, which has promoted the formation of fine sand into soil, changed the nature of sandy land, and fixed the tendency of quicksand. To plant grapes locally, the branches and trunks need to be buried in soil to prevent the cold. When buried in the soil in autumn and winter, and unearthed in spring, the soil must be shaken twice. The artificial effect makes the surface sand loose and forms flowing sand. From November of that year to April of the following year, the soil on the surface of the vineyard was exposed for half a year, and the frequent windy weather in winter and spring not only created a large area of sand and dust sources, but also aggravated the wind erosion of the forest land.
(Photo credit: CBCGDF Media)
Original Chinese article:
http://www.jjckb.cn/2021-01/20/c_139682235.htm
(To be continued.)
By / Maggie, Gu Siyu
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