In Zhen'an County, in order to protect the green resources of his hometown, for many years, he has been with the mountains and the forest, leading a group of people to patrol the mountains and forest, investigate and study, and treat diseases... With his youth and blood, he composed a song of praise for defending the forest. He is Wang Hongkuan, director of the Forest Disease and Pest Control Center in Zhen'an County.
In December 2016, Wang Hongkuan was on his way to the countryside when he found a large area of pine trees dead in Gudaoling, Shuanglong Village, Huilong Town, and the sensitivity of his profession made him realize that these pine trees may have been infected with pests and diseases. So, despite his fatigue, he rushed into the laboratory to test and take samples. For further verification, he sent samples to Nanjing for testing. On January 2, 2017, Wang Hongkuan received a test report from Nanjing confirming that the pine trees were infected with pine wood nematode disease. At the first time, he picked up the lights for the night battle, rushed to write the pine wood nematode disease epidemic materials, and organized the re-census and sampling testing of the forestry stations and forest farms in the county that did not leak the mountains and the plots, leading the hometown people to start the Qingsong defense war in Zhen'an County.
Pine wood nematode disease is a cancer of pine trees and is a world quarantine pest. In Zhen'an County, 458,000 acres of pine forests were attacked by pine wood nematodes. As long as he found out which township had an epidemic situation, Wang Hongkuan rushed to the scene at the first time to guide the cutting, cleaning, burning, and piling of the diseased wood to ensure that the quality of each link was qualified, and not a pine forest or a dead pine tree was missed. After a long time walking through the thorny pine forest, his arms were often scratched and bloodied, and his body was full of pimples from mosquito bites.
"If a worker desires to do good, he must first use it." In the face of the epidemic of pine wood nematode disease, Wang Hongkuan based on local realities, while reporting to higher departments, striving for funds, while formulating combat strategies. After receiving the support of higher authorities, Wang Hongkuan considered how to completely eliminate diseases and insect disasters. After careful consideration, he formulated the strategy of "treating both the symptoms and the root causes", and the control mechanism of tracking guidance, supervision and constraint and assessment and incentive was unified to treat the symptoms. Three measures were taken to cure the root causes: poisoning and killing, artificial trapping, and quarantine law enforcement inspection. Under his leadership, Zhen'an County has invested a total of 44.35 million yuan in various prevention and control funds, cut down more than 600,000 pine trees that may be infected, sprayed 140,000 mu of thiamethoxam flying by helicopter, sprayed 18,000 mu by drone, and manually sprayed pesticides for other scattered pine forests to control 52,000 mu. In the end, the area of dead pine trees and the number of dead pine trees continued to decline, and the effectiveness of pine wood nematode disease prevention and control was fully affirmed by the provincial and municipal authorities, and became a model for learning and visiting in various places.
For more than 30 years, Wang Hongkuan has often mingled with foresters and farmers, constantly summarizing and updating the treatment methods and measures for forestry pests.
In 2017, 9 townships, including Yungais Temple Town, Zhen'an County, had a ginkgo silkworm moth infestation, involving an area of 2,100 mu, and walnut leaves were nibbled in a large area in a short period of time, and even on the verge of death. Farmers' complaints were incessant. Wang Hongkuan was so anxious that for 7 days in a row, he rushed to the forest areas of various towns, picking up, and destroying the insect cocoons with the local people, so that the insect pest could be controlled.
In order to further help the masses identify forest diseases and insect pests, improve the effectiveness of prevention and control, and increase the economic income of farmers, Wang Hongkuan and his colleagues often walk between alpine jungles with insect nets, magnifying glasses, axes, and specimen clips, capture specimens, and study and sort out. Nowadays, walking into the laboratory of the Forest Defense Station in Zhen'an County, the most eye-catching thing is the full house of neatly displayed specimen boxes. More than 1,600 complete and exquisite specimens of 234 species such as butterflies, moths and beetles have attracted peers from inside and outside the province to visit and learn.
"Whenever I see the joy of a harvest on the faces of farmers, it is worth it to be bitter and tired." This is Wang Hongkuan's plot against the peasants. In the middle of winter, when people were still enjoying the warm bedding, he had arrived at the pine and cypress village, more than 50 kilometers away from the county seat, to guide the peasants to cut down the branches and cultivate the chestnut demonstration garden, expand the pond and reclaim the garden; when people were still bathed in the warm spring sun, he and the masses fertilized, shaped and pruned, and grafted and transformed in the field; the scorching sun was scorching, and the heat was unbearable, so he put on his back a sprayer and shuttled through the forest to spray medicine on the chestnut trees to prevent and control diseases and insect pests.
Without bold words, in ordinary jobs, Wang Hongkuan silently practiced the concept of "green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains", and strived to be a qualified ecological guard of Qinling Mountains, leaving green to his descendants and bringing hope to tomorrow.
