On the map of China's desertification prevention and control operations, the location of Dengkou County in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is very eye-catching: it is located on the boundary between the arid and semi-arid regions of the mainland, the core area of the eight deserts and the central part of the four sandy lands in the Sanbei region, and the "elbow" of the Yellow River, which is the forefront of China's desertification prevention and control.
Known as the "sand fortress", the west is the Ulan Bu and the desert that are "eyeing the tiger", and the east is the Hetao Plain where "the Yellow River in the world, only one set of wealth" is located.
In the past 75 years, this small county city has been "hard fighting" with desertification since its birth, and has been unswerving, rolling stones up the mountain, and working for a long time, breaking out an effective and successful road, and contributing to the world's desertification prevention and control The Dengkou model of "system protection, global governance, science and technology empowerment, and industrial support" has been contributed.
As a child, Tian Jinyuan, secretary of the party branch of Jiudi Village in Bayangol Township, played in the forest in front of his home, which was a paradise for him and his friends. His father told him that the forest was actually a forest belt 308 miles long and 100 meters wide, which was built by Yang Lisheng, the first secretary of the county party committee, in order to resist the continuous eastward invasion of Ulan Bu and the desert.
Ulan Buhe, which means "red bull" in Mongolian. In the past 100 years, under the influence of natural and man-made factors, the "bull" has invaded eastward, swallowed up fertile land, destroyed houses, created sandstorms, and injected more than 70 million tons of sediment into the Yellow River every year, threatening Anlan.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the people of Dengkou fought hard for 10 years and built the 308 anti-sand forest belt at the edge of the desert, which was like a green barrier to block the eastward advance of sand and the entry of sand into the river, and thus gave birth to the 308 spirit of "not afraid of difficulties, moving forward with heavy burdens, uniting and fighting, daring to win, carrying forward the past and forging ahead into the future, and never stopping".
"These trees were planted at that time, I was born in 1957, and they are older than me. Tian Jinyuan pointed to the thick willows at the head of the village and said emotionally. Not far behind him, a tall poplar tree planted 20 years ago is in its youth, and beside him, a small sapling that has just been planted is endless.
The 308 anti-sand forest belt is the starting point of the Dengkou model. It is like a green fire, constantly extending to the depths of the desert, and like a spiritual flag, it is passed in the hands of generations of Dengkou people.
"Along the 308 sand control forest belt, grass squares were laid and shrubs were planted, and the tenacious people of Dengkou continued to push the green deeper into the desert. He Wenqiang, deputy director of the Forestry Management and Protection Center of Dengkou County, said. Over the years, Dengkou County has taken the overall situation with ecological construction, fully implemented the strategy of "ecological county", and the implementation of major ecological projects such as the national "Three Norths" project and the Beijing-Tianjin sand source control project has become an "accelerator" for desert governance.
Today, the desert area is as high as 77% of the mouth, the "bull" stops, and the desert is dyed green. From the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were only more than 50,000 little old man trees to 2.1 million acres of desert clothed in green, from less than 100 catties of grain per mu to 10,000 hectares of fertile land and the land of melons and fruits, from "the eyes of the small wind are difficult to open, and the strong wind buries people alive" to the wind that cannot afford the sand, Dengkou ushered in the miracle of changing the world and opened a new narrative chapter.
Han Rui, deputy county magistrate of Dengkou County, said that in the past 75 years, through the unremitting efforts of the people of Dengkou, Ulan Bu and the eastern edge of the desert have retreated 15 to 25 kilometers to the west, truly realizing the historic transformation from "sand entering and people retreating" to "green entering and sand retreating".
Green, advance and advance, sand, retreat and retreat. The contest between man and sand is not only a confrontation of space, but also a confrontation of spirit.
Xie Gongde, the "foolish man of sand control," led the villagers to afforestation and land reclamation in the sand nest to increase grain production, and contracted more than 5,000 acres of desert to turn it into an oasis in the year of Huajia; Wang Yuehu, a model worker, took the lead in controlling sand and afforestation, and for 25 years he was like protecting forests one day, completely changing the old appearance of his hometown in which ten kinds of nine emptiness and sand forced people to retreat; Han Yinglian, a forestry pacesetter, spends two-thirds of his time in the desert every year, doing project research and afforestation technology research, and providing a large amount of first-hand information for desert ecological management......
In Dengkou, everyone is a sand control person, and sand prevention and control has long been deeply engraved in the genes of their lives.
In the spring of 2024, the east wind is gusting, and the red flag is hunting. In the eastern edge of the new Ulan Bu and the desert formed by the "green into the sand and retreat", a "new 308 border forest belt" combining trees, shrubs and grasses is being intensified, and it will become another "green Great Wall" standing in the desert in the future.
In the middle of spring, in the squares, rivers and lakes, and fields of Dengkou County, the peach blossoms are in full bloom and pink and white, and the germinating greenery is about to erupt. This is a color that did not exist more than 70 years ago.
In Dengkou County, where there is farmland, there must be shelter forests around it, and tall arbor forests are born around a square farmland, which tightly protects 1.65 million acres of cultivated land.
"The farmland shelterbelt network is the core of the sand prevention and control system in Dengkou, and it is also the last line of defense to protect farmland, infrastructure and towns. Zhang Jingbo, deputy director of the Desert Forestry Experimental Center of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, introduced. "The biggest feature of the Dengkou model is the close integration of scientific and technological support and local production practices. Equivalent to 'front shop and back factory', Dengkou is a huge testing ground, and the experimental results are shared across the country. ”
In the past 75 years, the forest and grass coverage of Dengkou County has increased from 0.04% to more than 37%, the severely desertified land has decreased by 78%, and the annual sediment transport to the Yellow River has decreased by 94.7%.
"The Dengkou model has achieved the perfect integration of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands and sands, and has become a typical case of systematic governance in the Hetao Plain. Lu Qi, chief scientist of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, commented.
Today, Dengkou has planted more than 97 million sand trees in the hinterland of the desert, transformed 230,000 acres of desert into excellent grassland, and more than 200 square kilometers of desert are covered with green, forming an integrated circular industrial chain of planting, breeding and processing.
"Sand damage" becomes "sand treasure", and "sand nest" becomes "golden nest" to expand the ecological value space. 91 enterprises "rushed to land" in Ulan Bu and the desert, and industries such as organic breeding industry, characteristic forest and fruit industry, and Chinese herbal medicine materials were booming. Up to now, the annual output value of the county's sand industry has exceeded 1 billion yuan, attracted a total of 7.55 billion yuan of social funds, and completed the ecological management area of more than 800,000 mu, creating a desert sample of "sand prevention and control + sand industry".
In the past 75 years, several generations of Dengkou people have persevered and worked for a long time to turn the "sand guarding fortress" into a "green barrier", effectively blocking the passage of Ulan Bu and the desert to the "granary" of the Yellow River and Hetao, and even North China.
(Wang Yutian, Xu Xiaolan, Huo Xiaoqing, Xue Lai)
People's Daily Overseas Edition (2024-04-24 Edition 05)
Source: People's Daily Online
Editor: Hu Mengying
Editor: Zhao Zongjie
Final review: Li Enguang
Director: Zhao Huiru