The women's forest ranger team returned from patrol---- photo by Shan Xinghu
During the Spring Festival, the family gathers and ushers in the send-off, and the busiest are the mothers. But there is such a group of mothers, their busy figures are not in the kitchen, but in the deep mountains and old forests, because they are female forest rangers.
Who doesn't want to spend a happy year at home, but the Spring Festival is a period of high incidence of forest fires, and every year from the Chinese New Year's Eve, the rangers in the Qilian Mountain National Park creation area must stick to the forest area, go deep into the key areas of fire prevention duty, set up inspections, collect fires, distribute leaflets, carry patrols, and deal with emergencies.
There are a total of 8 forest rangers at the Qilian Resource Management and Protection Station in the Qilian Mountain National Nature Reserve in Gansu Province, 6 of whom are women, who do not let their eyebrows go, and carefully interpret the dedication and responsibility of the forestry "night watchman" with tenacious perseverance and women's unique patience.
Give up the small family to take care of everyone, and the women do not let the eyebrows
A patrol suit, a pair of labor protection shoes, a sun hat, and a pot of boiled water...... After packing up the belongings she carried, Wang Lanmei and her teammates went into the mountains and began a day of patrolling and foresting work.
The Qilian Resource Management and Protection Station covers 9 forest classes and 211 small classes, with a total area of more than 110,000 mu. Most of the forest edge areas are bordered by villages, farmlands and pastures, and the woodlands are intricately distributed with grave beaches, Obo and grasslands, so the responsibility and pressure of forest management and protection are very great.
The women's forest ranger team crosses the icy road---- photo by Shan Xinghu
Wang Lanmei opened the patrol terminal, went to the management and protection responsibility area to carry out patrols, walked through the dense forests, climbed the rugged mountain roads, carefully observed the grass and trees in the mountains, and filled in the patrol records rigorously and carefully......
The ultraviolet rays of the plateau carve the faces of Wang Lanmei and her teammates day after day. Even though they wore hats and scarves, each of them had their faces and hands black and red from the wind, and their faces were freckled. How can a woman not love beauty, but in the face of responsibility, they can't care about this.
From October 1 to May 30 of the following year, it is an important fire prevention period. For many years, female rangers have long since lost the concept of holidays. It is their important and arduous mission to take turns on duty at the fire prevention duty point, to do a good job in the registration of information of vehicles and personnel entering and leaving the mountain, to keep watch and inspect in high-fire risk areas such as graves and Obo, to detect and quickly deal with abnormal situations in forest areas, and to prevent illegal fire use in the wild, indiscriminate felling of trees and other illegal behaviors.
The daily patrol journey is as short as more than ten kilometers and as long as twenty or thirty kilometers, and at the end of the day, my legs are swollen and my feet are blistered. Despite this, they still sang cheerful songs from time to time during the patrol.
"In the past, there was Mulan in the army, and now there is a 'women's army' to protect the forest, they 'give up their small family and take care of everyone', and dedicate themselves to the green forest with their perseverance day after day. Sun He, the head of the Qilian Resource Management and Protection Station, said that the female rangers are all good, heroic and heroic, not inferior to men, and use women's carefulness and patience to guard the reckless forest sea of Qilian Mountain.
Forest protection and fire prevention is to protect the beautiful homeland
"Watching the mountains grow greener and the grass grow more lush year by year, I feel a sense of accomplishment. Wang Lanmei, who has been fighting in the management station for 32 years, said affectionately that this woodland is like her own child, every grass and tree has grown up under her own witness, and as long as she is still in this post for a day, she must continue to manage and protect it.
At lunchtime, find a sunny slope with a good sun, a piece of cake, a ham sausage, an egg, and a bottle of mineral water for each person, and eat it standing up. It's simple, but because of hunger, everyone eats deliciously. In other seasons, they would take a break after lunch, but it was too cold in winter, and it was easy to catch a cold after stopping for a long time, so everyone quickly finished lunch and set off.
In recent years, the publicity of civilized sacrifices and forest protection and fire prevention in the forest area has been particularly strong, and the ideological awareness of the masses has gradually improved. Wang Hongying said that because the forest land under management is close to the urban area, and the New Year festival is ready for sacrifice, more and more people come to visit and sightsee in spring, summer and autumn, and the management and control of wild fire sources are becoming more and more complicated, and the management and protection are becoming more and more difficult.
"Especially on holidays, weekends and tourist seasons, we are basically stationed on the mountain every day, and we don't dare to be sloppy for a minute, for fear that if we are not careful, an unpredictable accident will occur. Wang Fuxian added.
The average age of female rangers is 43 years old. Over the years, they have done their best to ensure that there is no forest fire in the vast forest area in terms of daily patrol, forest fire prevention, illegal logging, law popularization, resource investigation, pest control, and ecological protection, and have been commended and rewarded by the superior departments many times.
The beautiful Qilian Mountain, the trees grow taller and taller, the river water becomes clearer and clearer, and there are more and more wild animals in the forest.
女子护林员在巡护中吃午餐----单兴虎摄
The national park will be better tomorrow
Female rangers give several times as much as gay men.
Wang Lanmei, 50, has been fighting in the forestry system for 32 years and is a mother of two. She was diligent and studious, and was rated as a deputy senior engineer in forestry, but she was not satisfied, and still squeezed out time to recharge her batteries.
45-year-old Wang Hongying, mother of two children, was appointed as the deputy director of the resource management and protection station in 2021 due to her outstanding work, and in 2022, she was awarded the "Advanced Individual in Forest Fire Prevention in the Management and Protection Center".
37-year-old Wang Fuxian, whose husband works at the Qilian Nature Conservation Station, takes care of most of her two children on weekdays. 38-year-old Li Dongmei, who has a good voice, won the second prize of the collective at the Gansu Provincial Forestry and Grassland System "Striving for a New Era, Singing Voice of Forestry and Grass" singing contest.
50-year-old Yao Haiying, who was transferred from the enterprise to the Qilian Nature Conservation Station in 2009, rushed home when she was on vacation, and poured all her love into her 83-year-old mother-in-law.
37-year-old Deng Zhangli came to the forestry system as soon as she was recruited, her husband worked at the highway toll booth, and her son, who was in the third grade of primary school, could only be taken care of at the "small dinner table...... As a daughter, wife, and mother, the most unbearable thing is to worry about your family. When her daughter was about to take the college entrance examination, Yao Haiying kept her mobile phone outside the window every night, for fear that there would be no signal in the house when her daughter called.
Although the work is hard and the days are difficult, the 'women's army' of the management team is all optimistic. "In recent years, the state has paid more and more attention to the protected area, the forest area has been upgraded to the Qilian Mountain National Park, the living conditions such as housing and heating have been greatly improved, and the treatment has also been significantly improved. Wang Hongying said with confidence. (Jiao Fangning)