[Explanation] Baicheng City, located in the west of Jilin Province, was called the "Eight Baili Hanhai" due to its severe desertification and salinization. The harsh natural conditions not only restricted the local economic development, but also made it an ecologically fragile piece of northeast China. Area.
Recently, the reporter drove across this land and found that the environment has been very different.
In early winter, the Xianghai Wetland in Tongyu County, Baicheng City has plenty of water. The Xinglong fishery downstream has not been frozen. The fishery farm Chang Qi Chunsheng dispatched three fishing boats early in the morning to catch another month or two before catching the winter.
With the open water and fishing boats in front of you, it is hard to imagine that it used to be a piece of farmland.
[Concurrent] Qi Chunsheng, head of Xinglong Fishery
Our Xinglong Reservoir was in a dry state from 2003 to 2013. When there was no water, the employees were all farming.
[Explanation] The "resurrection" of Xinglong Fishery is due to a super project implemented in Jilin Province in 2013-river and lake connectivity. This project uses the original large-scale water conservancy project in the west as the "aorta" to dredge the lake and foam. The "capillaries" of the United States have introduced floods and transit water into 203 lakes and wetlands in an area of 44,600 square kilometers, forming a large water network of rivers and lakes.
[Concurrent] Qi Chunsheng, head of Xinglong Fishery
The connection of rivers and lakes allows the previous floods and transit water to enter our reservoirs through channels, leaving all our transit waters behind and replenishing our groundwater.
[Explanation] Another important wetland in Baicheng is Momoge. In the past, the wetland area was less than 30,000 hectares when the drought and degradation were the most serious. Now, the wetland area has been restored to 80,000 hectares through water diversion projects.
At present, the Momoge wetland has 298 species of birds in 17 orders, 55 families, of which 10 species are nationally protected.
Especially in spring and autumn, there are hundreds of thousands of migratory birds foraging for food, and this is why it is called the "five-star station" for migratory birds.
[Concurrent] Pan Shengyu, Standing Committee Member of the Scientific Investigation Committee of China Wildlife Conservation Association
I started to pay attention to white cranes in 2007, tracking the migration of white cranes, and then I also witnessed other waterbirds from less to more, from few species to many species, like this year in Zhenlai County (only) cranes we saw more than 5,000. .
[Explanation] Baicheng was originally an important grain production area in Jilin Province. However, under the condition that the annual average evaporation is three times the rainfall, the paddy fields gradually turned into dry fields, and the dry fields gradually became salinized. After the devastating flood in 1998, A large number of rural populations are exodus.
Li Guang of Chuangye Village, Gashigen Township, Zhenlai County is one of them.
[Concurrent] Li Guang, a villager in Chuangye Village
At that time, it was all dry land. The dry land relied on the sky for food. A little rain would cause waterlogging, and no crops were harvested.
[Explanation] Another major role of the river-lake connection project is to add more than 1 million mu of paddy fields to Baicheng. The city's current paddy field area has reached 3.15 million mu, making it the largest paddy field city in Jilin Province.
Today, Li Guang has returned to his hometown and has become a major agricultural farmer circulating more than 700 mu of paddy fields.
[Concurrent] Li Guang, a villager in Chuangye Village
With this project, the drainage and water inflow are very convenient and smooth, and the output has also increased. (Based on) the current output (calculated), the price of rice per acre, as far as I can grow it, can reach 27.8 Around one hundred yuan.
[Explanation] In the past seven years, Baicheng's grain output has continued to grow, and high-quality rice has been sold nationwide.
Young people who went out to work like Li Guang back then returned to their hometowns to develop, and the population exodus that had lasted for many years was eased to some extent.
This year is the closing year of the river-lake connection project.
Data show that this project has raised the groundwater level of Baicheng by about 1 meter, directly reducing the desertification land by about 6 million mu, and the aquaculture area has reached 1.38 million mu, returning to the best level in history.
Reporter Guo Jia Liu Dong reports from Baicheng, Jilin
Editor in charge: [Li Ji]