Land desertification phenomenon and plant afforestation status in northwestern Shanxi.

Desertification phenomenon and afforestation status in northwest Shanxi, my country

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Experts point out that it is urgent to restore ecological restoration and control sandstorms in northwest Shanxi

From Starting in the early morning of March 20, Shanxi Province, which has been repeatedly attacked by sand and dust, ushered in the most intense and extensive sand and dust weather since the beginning of spring this year. The raging sand and dust once again sounded the alarm for wind prevention and sand control, soil and water conservation, and ecological restoration.

Miao Aimei, a senior engineer at the Shanxi Provincial Meteorological Observatory, said that in the past 20 years, sandstorm weather processes in Shanxi Province have shown a decreasing trend year by year, with a slight rebound in 2000, and 8 large-scale sandstorms occurred in the country; From last year to now, the impact of sandstorms in Shanxi has shown signs of weakening, but the situation is still not optimistic. Especially in the northwestern Shanxi region where desertification is severe and the ecosystem is fragile, it is urgent to prevent wind and sandstorms and restore the ecology.

Shanxi is located at the forefront of the expansion of desertification, and the land in northwestern Shanxi is becoming more and more desertified. It is an area with high incidence of sandstorms. It is known as "one wind a year, from spring to winter, there is no wind, three feet of soil, and the wind blows up the soil." The sky is full of”. These are mainly distributed in the windy sand belts of 16 counties (districts) in Datong, Shuozhou and Xinzhou cities, and the land desertification area is increasing every year. The 12-meter-high city wall of the old city of Youyu County has now been buried by yellow sand. People can go up the slope directly to the city wall. Many villages in Wuzhai County are forced to relocate every twenty years due to wind and sand damage. Sand has become a The worst enemy of the local people. Due to the harsh climate and sparse vegetation, the strong monsoon blowing from Siberia swept the local light-grained chestnut soil high into the sky through the Datong and Shuozhou areas and blew it to the Hebei Plain and the Beijing-Tianjin area.

Cao Zhensheng, director of the Shanxi Provincial Forestry Department, said in an interview with reporters a few days ago that the ecological environment in Shanxi Province, especially in northern Shanxi, is due to too many "debts" and the phenomena of indiscriminate deforestation, indiscriminate logging and overgrazing are relatively serious. Seriously, although the ecological environment in some areas has improved significantly in recent years, the situation of increasing water and soil erosion areas and overall deterioration of the ecological environment has not yet been fundamentally reversed. There are still 40 million acres of barren hills and wasteland suitable for forestation in Shanxi Province that are in urgent need of greening. Since the year before last, the work of returning farmland to forest and grassland has been fully launched in Shanxi Province. As the first batch of national pilot projects, 16 counties in northwestern Shanxi have signed a "responsibility letter" with the provincial government to return farmland to forest and grassland. In some areas, the return of farmland to forest and grassland has been completed. Initial results have been achieved.

In recent years, Shanxi Province has adopted a series of measures to prevent and control desertification in the Beijing-ring area with the support of the state. First, a professional team was hired for centralized management to ensure the survival rate and preservation rate of afforestation; second, various methods such as auctioning the "four wastelands", household contracting, and joint-stock cooperation were adopted to change the previous situation of just planting and neglecting and activating the system; The third is to protect the existing vegetation, combine with the natural forest protection project, carry out extensive afforestation and return farmland to grassland, stop deforestation and excessive grazing, and let cattle and sheep go down the mountain to be raised in captivity, which effectively protects the vegetation; the fourth is to seal off large areas of sand to cultivate forests. Grass, aerial seeding and artificial spreading are carried out in areas with poor vegetation during the rainy season.