Source: People's Daily client Xinjiang Channel
In early autumn, walking on the shores of Ulungu Lake, the sky is high and the clouds are talking, the blue waves are rippling, the reed pond is lush, the nine-curved ileum; the wetlands on both sides of the lake road, the water birds are laughing and swimming freely, attracting tourists to stop and take pictures; everywhere is full of a vibrant scene.
"For several consecutive years, the observation of white-headed hard-tailed ducks and their young birds in Lake Ulungu indicates that they have settled here, which further confirms that Lake Ulungu has the largest breeding population of white-headed hard-tailed ducks in the country." On August 18, Gou Jun, chairman of the Xinjiang Bird Watching Association, said that since 2007, bird watching will continue to pay attention to the distribution of the world's endangered species, the white-headed hard-tailed duck, including breeding, migration and wintering populations, and more than 160 have been observed in Ulungu Lake this spring, which is the largest population found so far.
It is understood that the white-headed hard-tailed duck is extremely rare and is the prototype of the "Donald Duck", with a global number of about 7,000 to 13,100. In 1996, it was included in the world-class Red Book of Endangered Animals of China and is a global endangered animal.
Why did the white-headed hard-tailed duck choose to "settle down" in Ulungu Lake, "In fact, whether the environment is good or not, whether the ecology is good or not, we say it or not, the birds have the final say." Gou Jun said.
How to protect this side of the water and soil? For a long time, Fuhai County attaches great importance to the ecological environmental protection of Ulungu Lake, and actively declared the Ulungu Lake National Wetland Park in 2010, and officially became a national wetland park in December 2017.
The park is composed of two parts, the Brento Sea and Jili Lake, with an area of more than 120,000 hectares, which is one of the few existing natural wetlands in the arid plains of northwest China, located on the migration routes of global migratory birds in Central Asia and East Africa-West Asia, and is an important node in the global biological chain and an "energy replenishment station" for migratory birds to fly over the Tianshan Mountains and Altai Mountains.
In accordance with the general idea of "prevention and control, protection first", Fuhai County adheres to the ecological environmental protection of the lake area as an important starting point for improving the regional ecological environment, comprehensively implements the "river (lake) length system", and continues to promote the implementation of the ecological restoration project of landscape, forest, field, lake and grass.
It has successively implemented the pilot project of ecological environmental protection of Ulungu Lake, with a total investment of 189.04 million yuan in treatment funds, effectively rectifying the environment of the lake area and reducing the impact on the water quality of the lake; carrying out ecological restoration work such as vegetation sealing and protection around Ulungu Lake, restoration of wetland reeds and restoration of waterbird habitats, and strengthening the basic conditions for the protection of Ulungu Lake Invested 348 million yuan in the project to implement the ecological water replenishment project of Ulungu River and Ulungu Lake, which improved the water ecology of Ulungu Lake, improved the water quality of Ulungu Lake, and made the ecological environment of Ulungu Lake tend to develop benignly.
At the same time, the Ulungu Lake National Wetland Park Administration has further expanded the wetland patrol team, established 7 management and protection stations around the wetland, and taken the bird habitat and breeding sites such as the camel neck, Swan Lake and Jili Lake of Ulungu Lake as the key patrol points, improved the patrol supervision mechanism, and institutionalized and normalized the patrol work in the jurisdiction. Use activities such as World Wetland Day, Bird Love Week, and Wetland Protection Publicity Day of the Autonomous Region to explain wetland protection knowledge and related laws and regulations to the people of all ethnic groups, organize wetland protection volunteer teams to clean up garbage in the lake area, and establish a wetland park education base to show the rich animal and plant resources of wetlands to the society, and cultivate young people's awareness of protecting the wetland and protecting the environment.
It is reported that in the future, with the increase of protection efforts, Ulungu Lake National Wetland Park will be built into a national demonstration site with outstanding overall image, complete infrastructure, unique wetland landscape, outstanding main functions of wetland conservation and science popularization, and valuable large-scale freshwater lakes and wetland resources in the Altai region of northern Xinjiang in China; (Text/Photo: Zhuang Xiaopo Zhang Yihai)