The picture shows an area treated by the Eight-Step Sand Forest Farm in Gulang County, Wuwei City, Gansu Province. Photo by Wei Jianjun
Lanzhou, China, November 19 (Reporter Wei Jianjun) "We welcome public welfare volunteers to come to the desert for afforestation with open arms. A sentence by Guo Wangang, director of the eight-step sand forest farm in Gulang County, Wuwei City, Gansu Province, invisibly reveals the responsibility and mission of the current eight-step sand afforestation. If we want to turn sandbars into oases, we also need a new generation of afforestation people, who have culture and understand science, and carry out network sand control and scientific sand control.
"Looking back at the road of sand control that has been traveled for more than 40 years, the eight-step sand has achieved its current results, thanks to the good policies of the party and the state." This year, Guo Wangang was named the eighth national moral model honest and trustworthy model. He said that although this honor is honored, the burden on his shoulders is heavier. It is necessary to tell the story of the eight-step sand well and pass on the cause of sand control for three generations.
The picture shows Guo Wangang, the director of the eight-step sand forest farm. Photo by Ko Kandi
"Eight steps of sand is not green, I will not go anywhere"
Eight-step sand is a wind and sand mouth on the southern edge of the Tengger Desert and the northern part of Gulang County. It is said that more than 100 years ago, there was only an eight-step wide sand mouth here, so it was called "eight-step sand". There is also a saying that the sand here is thin and soft, people step on it, the feet will sink into the sand, and they can only move step by step to "trek", so it is also called "trekking sand".
In the 1970s, "riding the wall in the north wind and sand overnight, getting up in the morning and donkey going to the house" was a true portrayal of the eight-step sand at that time. In order to protect the homeland, the eight-step sand "six old men" led by Guo Wangang's father, Guo Chaoming, spontaneously organized to control sand and afforestation.
With the launch of the National Three North ShelterBelt Project, in 1981, Guo Chaoming and six other elderly people set up an eight-step sand forest farm in the form of joint household contracting, pressed bright red fingerprints on the sand control contract, and contracted to treat 75,000 mu of quicksand without hesitation, starting a long journey of fighting wind and sand and protecting their homes.
In 1983, 30-year-old Guo Wangang, at the behest and inspiration of his father, took over the baton of eight-step sand afforestation. Before entering the forest farm, he also held an "iron rice bowl" in the Gulang County Supply and Marketing Cooperative, and was not willing to be a "forest ranger", and even once looked forward to the forest farm to disperse and do business on his own.
However, a sudden sandstorm in 1993 completely changed Guo Wangang's thinking. He was patrolling the forest, and before he could react, he was blown into a "rolling gourd", and in the end, he finally escaped. Later, Guo Wangang neutralized the ambition of "eight steps of sand is not green, I will not go anywhere" in the inaugural speech of the director of the eight-step sand forest.
The picture shows the grass square of local sand control. Photo by Wei Jianjun
"Three points, seven points"
After several twists and turns, through loans to dig wells and reclaim wasteland, the sand control people of the eight-step sand finally got out of the predicament, and the desert after the treatment gradually had economic benefits. The Eight-Step Sand People firmly believe that "if you plant one tree today, you will plant thousands of trees tomorrow." Generation after generation continues to struggle, and finally turn the eight-step sand into treasure, and turn the barren land into a green home.
Guo Wangang, who is nearly 70 years old, said that in the past 40 years, three generations of the "six old men" of the eight-step sand have led the local people, one mu and one mu, one side on the other, and have turned the barren land of flying sand and stones into a vibrant "green ocean", and a total of 237,000 mu of sand control and afforestation have been completed, and the area of sealing and management has reached 430,000 mu, which is equivalent to recreating 5 eight-step sand forest areas.
According to statistics, the coverage rate of forest and grass vegetation in the eight-step sand forest farm management and protection area has increased from less than 3% before the treatment to more than 70% now, forming a green corridor of windproof sand fixation with a length of 10 kilometers from north to south and 8 kilometers wide from east to west, ensuring the smooth flow of the Ganwu Railway and the provincial highway and the main arteries of national energy construction such as the west-to-east gas transmission and the west-to-east oil transmission.
"Three points of construction, seven points of protection" is Guo Wangang often hang on the lips, although nearly half a century of afforestation work has achieved phased results, but the current management and protection task is arduous, especially in the winter grass and trees dry, forest protection is particularly important, 25 rangers stationed in 6 ranger points, per capita management and protection of 5,000 acres, motorcycle tour of about 20 kilometers per day.
Not only that, they have also implemented a ranger work system of joint household contracting, fragmentation of work, responsibility to people, and clear rewards and punishments. In terms of sand control and afforestation, it is carried out in different parts of the sub-region, such as shuttles and lemon strips planted on the sand dunes, and white elms, sand dates, red willows, etc. are planted in the interhills, and the grass square is directly sprinkled with grass seeds to form a complete windproof and sand fixing forest belt.
The desert becomes an oasis, and the oasis becomes a rich continent
"Protect the environment as much as you would life." Guo Wangang said that in recent years, the state has paid more and more attention to the ecological environment, through half a century of governance, Gulang County's 2.4 million mu of desertified land has been treated four-fifths. From the past when sand entered and people retreated, to now people entering and retreating from sand, earth-shaking changes have taken place, and I did not dare to think about it in the past.
When it comes to the third generation of eight-step sand people, it is impossible not to say Guo Wangang's son Guo Yi. The eight-step sand forest farm introduces college students and mobilizes young people to return to their hometowns to start a business; opens a forest farm, develops new products such as shuttle grafted cistanche, and uses new technologies to serve sand control and afforestation; GPS positioning, helicopter forest patrol, mechanized sand control, mechanized afforestation, etc., are all from the hands of this behind-the-scenes hero.
Guo Wangang said that in the future, it is necessary to pass on the cause of sand control for three generations of eight-step sand, continue to do a good job in ecological governance, and consolidate and expand the results of afforestation and greening of eight-step sand. Accelerate the construction of the Eight-Step Sand New Era Civilization Practice Center and the Ecological Exhibition Hall, launch the Eight-Step Sand Eco-tourism brand, tell the story of the Eight-Step Sand, and disseminate the new concept of ecological construction.
"I think of the 1950s and 1960s, when the people still didn't have enough to eat, to the present new era, there have been earth-shaking changes." Guo Wangang said that as long as we work year after year, rule from generation to generation, and continue to work like a fool moving mountains, one day, we will be able to turn the desert into an oasis, and the oasis into a rich continent. (End)
Source: China News Network