Forest Belts in Shannan Prefecture
Shannan has done a better job of planting trees. We went there on a May Day. As my car sped along the forest belt, which is 0.7 km wide and 150 km long and covers some 6,000 hectares, the green environment was deeply impressive.
In the depth of the tree belt were mostly poplar trees includingBeijingpoplar, Xinjiang poplar, and six introduced species. They had grown up after six years. Flanking the highway are willow trees, including red willows and weeping willows. We were told there was one kind of willow called “head chopping willow”. The locals chop its top branches as firewood, but fresh branches will grow in the following year. It is these short, thick willows that provide firewood for the locals.
TheShannanTreeSeedlingGardencovers 56hectares, with 28 hectares devoted to tree seedlings. Major tree species in the garden include cypress. Our guide told us all the trees planted in the 150-km forest belt came from the garden, which exported 300,000tree seedlings toXigazePrefecturein 1997.
InGonggarCounty, home toGonggarAirport, we were told that sands ate up 200 km of land on the yearly basis, and sandstorms lasted for months, often forcing the airport to suspend operation.
Before the Democratic Reform in 1959, only one tree survived inGyidexiuTown,GonggarCounty. In the following 30 years, trees planted in the area all died out. During the Three-River Project” in 1991, special efforts were made to plant trees, and this time the efforts were crowned with success!
The’;Three-River Project” was rounded off in 2001. In 1999,Tibet’s grain production reached 917,000 tons, an increase of 7.9 percent from the previous year and 30-fold more than in 1959, when the Democratic Reform was conducted.