Reporter: Zhang Yuan
If you have not followed "Evil Evil West Poison" to a trip to the Mu Us Desert in Yulin, you may not have a chance, because it will be wiped out by the people of northern Shaanxi. As a forbidden area of life, the Umao Desert is still quite suffocating.
The Shaanxi Provincial Forestry Bureau recently released data: the rate of desertification land management in Yulin City has reached 93.24%-this means that the Maowusu Desert is about to be "suffocated" and will "disappear" from the Shaanxi territory.
Once the aquatic plants were fat, but they were desolate
The Mu Us Desert is one of the four major deserts in China, with altitudes ranging from 1100 to 1300 meters. It is located at the intersection of several natural zones. The vegetation and soil reflect the transitional characteristics. With a total area of 42,200 square kilometers, it is located at the junction of Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia, and north of the Great Wall of Yulin City, Shaanxi Province. Half of the area is in Yulin City, Shaanxi Province. Therefore, Yulin City is also known as Camel City, meaning Desert City .
However, the Mu Us Desert is not a naturally formed desert. The place was originally beautiful and beautiful, and it is a pearl outside the fortress known for its "fatty water plants and sheep flocks." The scenery is pleasant. The Xiongnu people once settled and capitalized here. The capital of the Xiongnu Great Xia Kingdom, Wancheng, is located in Baichengze Village, Hongdunjie Township, 58 kilometers north of Jingbian County, Yulin, Shaanxi.
According to research, with the uncontrolled reclamation of land and wars, the local ecology has gradually been destroyed. From the Tang Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, after thousands of years of evolution, coupled with climate change, the Maowusu area gradually became a vast desert. Such a beautiful scene was abruptly "spoiled".
Must go from "Shajin to retreat" to "People enter into the sand"
Since modern times, the quicksands of the Mu Us Desert have gradually invaded south and have crossed the Great Wall. Up to the beginning of the founding of New China, the forest coverage rate of Yulin City was only 0.9%, 1.2 million mu of farmland and pastures were engulfed by quicksand, 6 towns and 412 villages were attacked and buried by wind and sand. , Accounted for one-third of the amount of yellow sediment into the middle and upper reaches. The desertification, salinization and severe degradation of pastures have created a passive situation of "sand advances and people retreat".
In the old Yulin, there was such a smooth talk: "Feisha went to Shijia without food, and older generations lived in blank houses", "the houses were buried and people were removed, and they shook their heads when they saw Huangsha."
Governance is urgent! After the founding of New China, local people have been fighting for decades, sand control and afforestation, gradually turning 8.6 million mu of mobile sand area into green.
In fact, the management of the Mu Us Desert has inherent natural advantages. Compared with the Taklimakan Desert, the Mu Us Desert is much more "petite". Zhu Xuyu, the leader of the Yulin City Social Forestry Engineering Project Expert Group, said that the Mu Us Desert is small in area and only one-eighth of the Taklimakan Desert. Second, the Mu Us Desert has a natural environment and a good location. It was a livestock ranch before desertification. It has relatively abundant precipitation and mild climatic conditions. There are four distinct seasons here, and the maximum temperature in summer is not more than 24 ° C, and the area with abundant precipitation, fixed and semi-fixed sand dunes is large, which is conducive to the survival of plants. The combination of these factors makes the management of the Mu Us Desert relatively easy.
However, time and place are more demanding. In this protracted desert control campaign, generation after generation of desert control people have spent their lives, allowing the locality to complete the transition from "retreating into the sand" to "retreating from the sand".
Throw a thousand drops of sweat and vow to make Shahai become an oasis
Elder Guo Chengwang, Maotuan Village, Dongkeng Town, Jingbian County, Yulin City, is nearly 100 years old this year. In his memory, there were yellow sand around the village more than 40 years ago. All the crops were buried after a wind blew. Very difficult.
In order to resist the wind and sand, Guo Chengwang contracted the sand around the village in 1985 and began to bite his teeth to plant trees. The trees slowly took root, carried the sand, and gradually became a forest.
Today, Guo Chengwang ’s sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons have taken over to continue planting trees. Desertification and afforestation have become an inherited belief in the Guo family. They turned 45,000 mu of yellow sand into forests.
"My grandfather planted poplar at that time, and now we plant Pinus sylvestris. Last year I also tried to plant apple trees, which should be able to bear fruit in a few years." Guo Chengwang's grandson, 49 years old this year Guo Jianjun said that today Maotuan Village is not only not afraid of wind and sand invasion, but also has become a well-known vegetable base in the local area.
The Yuyang District of Yulin City is the junction of the Maowusu Desert and the Loess Plateau, and the topography is "seven sands, two mountains and one field". The village of Bulanghe in Yuyang District is located on the southern edge of the Maowusu Desert. In the 1960s and 1970s, 80% of the land in the township was swallowed by barren sand. The wind and sand continued throughout the year. Thousands of mobile sand dunes were eyeing. Whenever the wind blows, the dust is rolling, covering the sky. Nearly a hundred kilometers of wind and sand line, except for the dotted camel thorns, almost no green.
When Sha grabs a good field, Sha advances and retreats. Many local people are forced to make a living and travel far away. At that time, Yuyang showed a "suffocation".
In order to realize the "green" dream, the local women's militia of Bulanghe established a sand control company in 1974. 54 female militiamen with an average age of only 18 years old set up camps in Heifengkou, Bulanghe, where local wind and sand erosion was the most severe. A century of afforestation movement. Over the past 45 years, more than 380 girls have gone on to succeed, spit youth and sweat in the vast desert.
"When I was young, the sand was relatively big. The sand hit my face and it hurt so much that my eyes couldn't be opened, and now Bulanghe is already shaded by trees." Xi Cai'e, the 14th company commander of the Sandang Company of the Women's Militia in Bulanghe, said Many of the trees planted by the old company commander and old militia were older than themselves.
According to He Li'e, the third company commander of the Shalang Company of the Bulanghe Women's Militia, there was a large desert at the time, and no firewood could be found within a few miles. When we started governance, we could say that we had nothing and started from scratch. The sisters built their own houses, planted trees and raised seedlings, vowing to manage the desert.
Speaking of the hardships of sand control in those days, He Lie still has a fresh memory. "At that time, everyone was wondering whether this tree could be planted. On one occasion, the saplings that had just been planted in the afternoon were subjected to strong winds at night, and the next day the wind blew nothing. The sisters were crying anxiously. Go to the planer, your hands are bleeding. "He Lie said, now every time you return to Zhishalian, it is like returning to your mother's house. Seeing the tree we planted, like my own child, wanted to love it.
"In the first ten years, we struggled hard, fighting against the sky, fighting against the earth, and fighting against various natural disasters. From literacy under the kerosene lamp to night school under the horse lantern; from more than 60 people in the company, there are only more than 20 yuan a year. Money for medical expenses, to grow a variety of Chinese herbal medicine to cure the disease. We are a concentric circle, born to cure sand. "He Shalian, the first generation of the old militia, recalled.
Under the leadership of 14 company commanders, the Bulanghe Women's Militia Sand Control Company evened out more than 800 sand dunes and created 35 windbreak and sand fixation forest belts. Shi Guangyin, a nationwide hero of desert control, is still fighting in Dingbian County, Yulin. A history of ecological construction is a history of tree planting and afforestation and sand prevention and control. Generations of forestry people have worked hard, sweat and even life to build an indestructible green corridor in the Maowusu desert.
Jiang Zhaotang, director of Daotu Village, Xiaohaotu Township, Yuyang District, said that Daotu Village used to have a few large sands and was very famous. The wind and sand were so violent that nothing could be seen when the wind blew a little. At the time of governance, every household carried baskets to pull carts and planted trees in this place. "In the past few years, this piece of Pinus sylvestris has grown really well, and the entire ecology is just fine. The ecology is good, people's mentality is good, life is good, and the development of our village will be up."
Now, Xiaotutu Township has established the "Yuyang District Xiaohaotu Mu Forestation Demonstration Base". The base is located 8 kilometers southeast of Xiaohaotu, 5 kilometers wide from east to west, and 6 kilometers long from north to south. The planned afforestation area is 45,000 acres, where the sand dunes are undulating and the amount of quicksands is large. Before the 1980s, there was no one to enter the Mingsha . In recent years, after man-made afforestation and sand seal silviculture management and protection, 23,300 acres have been completed in this area, while grid barriers have been erected to 8,600 acres, the forest and grass coverage has reached about 40%, and the ecological environment has initially improved.
The desert camel trail will never stop
According to the latest monitoring by the Shaanxi Meteorological Bureau on the ecological function of the sandstorm area along the Great Wall on the southern edge of the Maowusu Desert, since 1980, the local windproof and sand-fixing capacity has improved significantly. The vegetation coverage in the windproof and sand-fixing area has increased significantly, the area of the sand and dust-prone area has decreased overall, and the measured maximum wind speed has decreased significantly.
Since 2000, the vegetation in the aeolian sand area along the southern edge of the Maowusu Desert has become better, and the vegetation coverage has shown a significant upward trend. In 2000, the vegetation coverage in this area was only 9.9%, and the ecological environment was poor. Through the development of a series of sand control projects, the vegetation coverage of the wind and sand area along the Great Wall on the southern edge of the Maowusu Desert in Shaanxi reached 38.03% in 2018, and the maximum wind speed in the area decreased significantly, with Jingbian County being the most significant.
Over the years, Yulin has continuously reduced the area of the Maowusu desert at a rate of 1.62% annual desertification reversal. The area of tree preservation and forest coverage has increased from 600,000 mu and 0.9% at the beginning of the founding of New China to the current 22.48 million mu and 34.8, respectively. %, Shaanxi ’s green territory has moved more than 400 kilometers north.
Today, greenhouses, greenhouse farming, seedling raising, and desert tourism are booming in the sand area of Yulin. There are more than 150 enterprises and institutions engaged in the sand industry in the city, with an annual output value of 480 million yuan and more than 100,000 employees. The 1.5 million mu of farmland that was hit by wind and sand in the past has changed from barren land with three crops and five species to nine crops in ten years, which has now become a stable and high-yield farmland. Under the protection of the protective forest barrier, Yulin became the province's largest potato city and the second largest "granary"; the number of sheep breeding reached 10 million, becoming the province's largest sheep breeding city; "Development and prosperity", social and economic development in an all-round way.
At present, a batch of agricultural products named "Yulin", such as Yulin potatoes and Yulin red dates, are sold to the whole country through various channels, and even cross the ocean to the west. "Yu" brand agricultural products are moving towards a broader market with a new attitude.
Finally, in the forbidden life zone, the Maowusu Desert was about to be suffocated.
Finally, I recommend a good place for desert travel for friends: Hongjiannao. Hongjiannao is located in Erlintu Town, Shenmu City, Shaanxi. It is located in the hinterland of the Mu Us Desert and is the largest desert freshwater lake in China. The scenic area is rich in water and grass, the lake is vast, the surrounding environment is pleasant, and the scenery is spectacular. It provides an ideal habitat for more than 30 species of wild migratory birds in China. Red Rock Island at the heart of the lake has become the largest breeding and habitat for relic gulls in China.