Afforestation and Desertification in Northwest Shanxi Province

Experts pointed out that restoring ecology and preventing sandstorms are urgent tasks in northwest Shanxi. Since the early morning of March 20, Shanxi Province, which has been hit by sandstorms repeatedly, has ushered in the largest intensity and scope of floating dust weather since the spring of this year. The raging dust once again sounded the alarm of preventing sandstorm, conserving soil and water, and restoring ecology. Miao Aimei, a senior engineer of Shanxi Meteorological Observatory, said that in the past 20 years, the sandstorm weather process in Shanxi Province has been decreasing year by year, with a slight rebound in 2000, and there were 8 large-scale sandstorms. From last year to now, the influence of sandstorms in Shanxi has also shown signs of weakening, but the situation is still not optimistic, especially in northwest Shanxi, where desertification is serious and the ecology is fragile. Shanxi is located in the front of desertification expansion, and the land desertification in northwest Shanxi is becoming more and more serious, which belongs to the high incidence area of sandstorm. Known as "there is a wind every year, from spring to winter, there is no wind and three feet of soil, and the wind is full of soil". These are mainly distributed in 16 counties (districts) in Datong, Shuozhou and Xinzhou, and the area of land desertification is increasing every year. The old city of Youyu County 12 meter high wall has now been buried by yellow sand, and people can directly climb the wall along the slope; Many villages in Wuzhai County were forced to move every twenty or thirty years because of sandstorms, which became the biggest enemy of local people. Due to the harsh climate and scarce vegetation, the strong monsoon from Siberia blew the local chestnut soil into the air through Datong and Shuozhou areas, and blew it to Hebei Plain and Beijing-Tianjin areas. Cao Zhensheng, director of Shanxi Forestry Department, said in an interview recently that the ecological environment in Shanxi Province, especially in the northwest of Shanxi Province, is more serious because of too many "debts". Although the ecological environment in some areas has improved obviously in recent years, the situation of soil erosion and overall deterioration of the ecological environment has not been fundamentally reversed, and there are still 40 million mu of barren hills and wasteland suitable for afforestation in Shanxi Province. Since the previous year, the work of returning farmland to forests and grasslands in Shanxi Province has been fully carried out. As the first batch of pilot projects in China, six counties in northwest Shanxi 16 signed a "responsibility certificate" with the provincial government, and some areas have achieved initial results in returning farmland to forests and grasslands. In recent years, with the support of the state, Shanxi Province has taken a series of measures to prevent and control desertification in the surrounding areas of Beijing. First, hire a professional team for centralized management to ensure the survival rate and preservation rate of afforestation; Second, auction, household contract and joint-stock cooperation have been adopted, which has changed the previous situation of only planting but not living; Third, protect the existing vegetation, combine the natural forest protection project, extensively carry out afforestation and returning farmland to grassland, stop deforestation and overgrazing, and let cattle and sheep go down the mountain to be kept in captivity, thus effectively protecting the vegetation; Fourth, a large area of sand closure for afforestation and grass planting, aerial seeding and artificial seeding in rainy season in areas with poor vegetation. Tang Zhichang, a forestry expert in Datong City and deputy director of the Municipal Forestry Bureau, told the reporter that the sand prevention and afforestation in Yanbei and Datong areas has gone through three periods: in the 1950s, 65.438+0.2 million mu of Populus simonii was planted, which should have been used as timber in the 1970s, but now it has grown into an "old tree" due to the local special geographical climate, and 700,000 mu is on the verge of death; From 1980s to the end of 1990s, the state implemented afforestation projects, and Datong afforestation project was incorporated into the construction of "Three North" shelterbelt system. In 2000, Datong was included in the greening project around Beijing, and 7 counties in the whole city 1 1 were included in the master plan. At present, Datong has formulated a master plan for comprehensive management of the ecological environment, mainly building "seven forest belts" with three vertical and four horizontal lines, mainly the Great Wall and the Sanggan River outside the ring, with a total length of 700 kilometers and a width of 3- 10 kilometers, with a total control area of 3.36 million mu. At the same time, we will build "five areas" such as desertification closed areas, returning farmland to forests and grasslands, basic farmland areas, apricot economic forest areas and tourist attractions. Pianguan County, located in the hilly and mountainous area of northwest Shanxi, adjacent to the Mu Us Desert, is dry and rainy, and it is full of wind and sand all day long. In order to change this situation, the county began to vigorously develop hilly forestry and formulated a series of policies to benefit the people: through the auction of "four shortages", the right to issue certificates will remain unchanged for 20 years, and forestry development is closely linked to the interests of the masses, giving the people a "reassurance"; In terms of financial support, some preferential policies have also been given. For farmers with financial difficulties, the forestry department provides some seedlings and seeds free of charge, and the awards are used to help. For large households planting economic forests, the county is responsible for supporting seedlings, recycling them regularly, and helping them through loans. These policies have greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of the broad masses of cadres and people, who are gradually stepping out of the "strange circle" and making forestry development enter a virtuous circle. Although the problems of desertification and soil erosion in some areas have been partially alleviated, Shanxi Province, especially northwest Shanxi, as a barrier between Beijing and Tianjin, still has a long way to go to control desertification. The area of returning farmland to forest in Datong City is only 2.3 million mu, of which 80% has been desertified to varying degrees and 300,000 mu has been seriously desertified. As the first line of defense against sandstorms and floods in Beijing and Tianjin, Datong's ecological environment is very bad. Experts said that due to historical debts and natural factors, Shanxi, as a region with serious land desertification in China, still has a long way to go to fundamentally curb the ravages of sandstorms. At present, Shanxi Province has listed sandstorm control as a breakthrough to improve the ecology and adjust the agricultural industrial structure, and has adhered to the principle of "grain flowing under the river and trees on the mountain" to prevent wind and sand, restore the ecology and build a green home with beautiful mountains and rivers. The landlord chose me.