When one tree proved vital to Beijing’s well-being
Print Edition
ABOUT 400 kilometers north of Beijing a large swathe of trees acts as an environmental shield which reduces sandstorms and is critically important to the capital’s water and air quality.
The Saihanba forest purifies 137 million cubic meters of water for the Beijing-Tianjin area and can deliver half a million tons of oxygen. But more than 50 years ago it was nothing more than barren land.
Zhao Yunguo, director of the forest management office, points toward a 20-meter tree, calling it “a tree of merit.”
“Fifty-six years ago, there was only one tree, this one. Without it, there would have been no Saihanba.”
Until the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Saihanba was a royal hunting land.
When the dynasty was on its last legs, Emperor Tongzhi opened the land for lumber to make up for a state deficit. The area quickly turned into sterile land on the verge of a Mongolian desert.
Efforts to rehabilitate the land began in the 1960s when six arboriculturalists visited the area to examine the possibility of planting trees.
“They found this one tree, standing alone in the vast land. They literally went to hug the tree, and every one was in tears,” said Zhao. If one tree can survive here, so can millions of trees — that was the hope with Saihanba. Some 56 years later, hope has turned into reality. The barren wasteland is now a vast forest of 5,000 hectares.
Planting trees at Saihanba, where temperatures could drop to minus 43 degrees Celsius, was a tricky proposition.
In the 1960s, 427 hectares of larch were planted, but less than 8 percent survived. “We used to truck in seedlings from northeastern China, and from the south, but it was hard for them to survive the local climate,” said Yi Guizhi, a retired tree-planter.
Later, seeds were sown in early spring and cared for throughout the summer and autumn and the properly protected through winter. “The seedlings grew to have strong roots, and they were not tall, but rather stout,” said Yi.
Over the years, Saihanba’s trees have survived some of the worst drought, frosts and pests. “We used almost every known technique to keep the trees alive,” said Wang Jianfeng, another veteran tree-planter. “For some plants, we grow them on the land for two years, and put them in jars for two years for them to become strong enough, and then transplant them back to the land,” he said.
In the past five years, trees have been planted on 83 percent of the land. The rest the planting will be finished next year, said Liu.
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