In winter, the eight-step sand forest field is full of slaughter, and the eyes are full of yellow in the distance. The cold wind that blew on his face like a knife cut made the people in it always shiver involuntarily, and Guo Wangang, who was nearly ancient, had long been accustomed to all this. In the weather of more than ten degrees Celsius below zero, Guo Wangang went to the management and protection station dozens of kilometers away from the forest farm early in the morning to check the situation, and then pressed the grass square with the forest farm staff, and Ma Li's action often made people forget his age.
Guo Wangang was busy at the sand control site. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Doree
Guo Wangang is the director of the eight-step sand forest farm in Gulang County, Wuwei City, Gansu Province. Not long ago, he was awarded the honorary title of the Eighth National Model of Ethics and was one of the 13 national models of honesty and trustworthiness. The day after receiving the award, Guo Wangang embarked on the way home. What he couldn't let go of in his heart was this sand nest that he had fought against, but had also been with him for decades—the eight-step sand. His "fate" with Eight Steps Sand stemmed from a promise he made nearly forty years ago.
A promise
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Guo Wangang's hometown, Gulang County, is located at the eastern end of the Hexi Corridor and adjacent to the Tengger Desert in the north, and is one of the key desertification monitoring counties in the country, with a desertified land area of 2.398 million mu and a wind and sand line of 132 kilometers.
"One night the north wind and sand ride the wall, and get up in the morning to donkey to the house." People living here struggle to survive the wind and sand. By the 1980s, desertification intensified. A "black storm" in spring often causes the year's crops to fail.
Located on the southern edge of the Tengger Desert, Babusha is at the forefront of the struggle of the people of Gulang County against the desert, and was also the largest wind and sand mouth in the area. "In order to keep his family's farmland from being buried in the sand, my father has been treating sand on a piece of land in front of his house since the 1960s." Guo Wangang said.
In 1981, Guo Wangang's father, Guo Chaoming, he Falin, Shi Man, Luo Yuankui, Cheng Hai, and Zhang Runyuan, six elderly people, responded to the call of the state, solemnly pressed their fingerprints on the contract book, and established the eight-step sand collective forest farm in the form of joint household contracting.
Shi Man (left) and He Falin (right) of Gulang County, Wuwei City, Gansu Province, and six other elderly people, who do not enjoy the blessing of their children's knees, roll up and cover the eight-step sand camp located on the front edge of the Tengger Desert, control sand and afforestation for decades, and make 4,000 acres of sand dunes covered with green clothing. Photo by Li Shengcai, Xinhua News Agency (File photo, March 6, 1991)
In line with the simple belief in protecting their homeland, several elderly people stubbornly fought against nature. The saplings are planted, blown away by the wind and sand, planted again... Gradually, they found that the saplings of grass around them could be saved. So they buried wheatgrass around the den to ward off the wind and sand. Slowly, the trees of the eight-step sand gradually increased. In order to let the sand control be followed, Guo Chaoming mobilized his son Guo Wangang to take over his class. For the succession, Guo Wangang, who was holding an "iron rice bowl" at the supply and marketing cooperative at the time, was reluctant.
At that time, the conditions of the eight-step sand were extremely difficult, and the control of sand was all based on "a pair of hands", and once it was agreed, it meant that it was around in the sand nest all year round.
"At that time, my father repeatedly told me that no matter how hard and tired we were, we must not let the sand bury our ground." Guo Wangang looked at the saplings that were hard to plant and thought of his father's years of hard work, as the eldest son in the family, he had to promise his father to "guard the eight steps of sand" for him.
Forty years of perseverance
At that time, although Guo Wangang came, he did not make up his mind to dedicate his life to the eight-step sand, and he was actually very confused about the future. "At that time, I thought that a peasant's source of livelihood cannot be guaranteed, and who has the ability to control sand all the time." I didn't expect to work for 40 years, which is also the fate of me and Eight Steps! ”
What made Guo Wangang make up his mind to stick to the eight-step sand? Guo Wangang recalled a huge sandstorm he had experienced.
On the afternoon of May 5, 1993, when a sandstorm known locally as the "Black Storm" struck, Guo Wangang and the elderly Luo Yuankui, the first generation of sand controlrs, were patrolling the desert. They rushed left and right in the dark desert and turned for six or seven hours before they came out of the desert. Wherever the sandstorm went, the newly sprouted crops were badly damaged, and the villagers had no harvest that year. After returning home, they heard that more than 20 students in Gulang County had lost their lives because of the huge sandstorm.
"If our land can't be saved, and our children can't be saved, what hope do we have!" Since then, I have made up my mind to do the work of controlling sand to the end in this life. Since then, Guo Wan has just truly realized the weight of the promise he made to his father.
Between sand treatments, Guo Wangang (second from left) rests in the desert with his colleagues in the forest farm. Courtesy of respondents
In the spring and autumn, sand control afforestation, winter forest protection and fire prevention, pruning of trees, these eight-step sand farmers are accompanied by grass squares all year round, there is no "agricultural leisure". Faced with a glimpse of yellow sand, they repeat the boring and arduous sand control life year after year.
Five of the six old men who had pressed their handprints on the contract had already passed away. Shi Yinshan, Wang Zhipeng, Cheng Shengxue, Luo Xingquan, He Zhongqiang and other second-generation sand control people continued to struggle and shouldered the heavy responsibility of sand control.
A handful of grass, a tree... Gradually, the eight-step sand became green. According to estimates, the vegetation coverage rate of forest and grass in the eight-step sand forest farm management and protection area has increased from less than 3% before 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.
"The state's sand control and afforestation project has subsidized us with seedling fees and labor costs, farmland and villages have been preserved, and everyone's hearts are warm and dry." Guo Wangang said.
After eight steps of sand control, the second generation of sand control people looked up deeper into the desert. Their pace of sand control is moving towards places with greater distances and harsher conditions.
Because the new sand control point is far away from the forest farm, they are like their fathers, rolling up the covers and sleeping in the sand nests. Dig a pit in the sand and set up a simple tent on it, such a "home" they live for more than ten years. In the past 40 years, the eight-step sand forest farm has completed a total of 252,000 mu of sand control and afforestation, and the area of sealing and breeding management and protection has reached 430,000 mu.
The new aspiration of the sand control people
Cold and summer, spring and autumn, shuttle, flower sticks, sand dates, lemon strips have taken root in eight steps of sand. In recent years, through the support of national policies and the persistence of sand control people, the ecological environment of Gulang County has been significantly improved.
"From the 1990s to the present, from the past 'sand into the people retreating' to the current 'people into the sand retreat', we have a lot less wind and sand weather here. Whether it is the number of wind days, wind level, or rainy days, it can reflect the obvious changes in the ecological environment. Guo Wangang said.
In recent years, the eight-step sand forest farm has developed from the original "six old men" joint household contract to a collective forest farm with more than 20 employees. In order to realize the market-oriented operation of the forest farm, the eight-step sand forest farm has also set up a company to carry out diversified operations, develop the under-forest economy, and contract various greening projects. Every year, more than 300 people participate in the contracted greening project.
The eight-step sand forest farm led the surrounding masses to control the sand. Courtesy of respondents
The degree of socialization of sand control and afforestation is getting higher and higher. "We need more young people to participate in the use of good methods such as scientific sand control and engineering sand control to properly manage the desertified land in Gulang County." Guo Wangang said.
In 2017, Guo Chaoming's grandson Guo Xi joined the forest farm and became the third generation of sand control people in Eight Steps Sand. In the past two years, several college students have come to the forest farm. The addition of the new forces has brought new vitality to the eight-step sand. At present, the eight-step sand forest farm completes nearly 30,000 mu of sand control and afforestation every year, of which about 20,000 mu is completed through the "ant forest" project led by young people.
Starting in 2018, they tried to graft cistanche on shuttles. This will both control sand and economic income. This was something that Guo Wangang's fathers did not dare to think about. Now the eight-step sand will bloom with all kinds of small flowers every spring. Guo Wangang, who likes flowers, smells the faint fragrance of flowers and savors the satisfaction of harvesting after cultivation. He firmly believed that the eight-step sand would be able to hold on.
Chief planner: Zhao Danping
Producer: Min Jie
Coordinator: Wei Tiemin, Liu Kai
Reporter: Doree
Video: Doree
Editor: Jie Min
Xinhua News Agency to the outside Xinhua News Agency Gansu Branch co-produced
Produced by China Story Workshop