Wetlands of Shihe South Island. Photo courtesy of Qinhuangdao Guan (Love) Bird Association
Hebei News Network News (reporter Song Baisong) March 22 is the World Water Day, the much-concerned "China Coastal Wetland Protection Green Paper (2019)" project "the most noteworthy ten coastal wetlands" list was released in Guangzhou, Qinhuangdao Guan (Love) Bird Association recommended Shihenan Island wetland was successfully selected.
At present, China's coastal wetlands are under the dual pressure of population growth and economic development, and it is very difficult to carry out comprehensive protection. At the same time, the importance of some coastal wetlands has not received enough attention. To this end, the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Alxa See Foundation, and the Mangrove Foundation jointly launched the "Ten Most Noteworthy Coastal Wetlands" recommendation and selection activity. The event focused on the attention of the community, the public and the government to the coastal wetlands, hoping to promote wetland conservation and restoration actions. This is the second time that this event has been held after the selection of "Ten Most Noteworthy Coastal Wetlands" in 2017.
Located in the southeast of Shanhaiguan District, Qinhuangdao City, Shihenan Island Wetland is a natural shoreline island formed by the hedging of floods and sea tides. The land area is 82 hectares, the coastal wetland area is more than 120 hectares, the river wetland area is more than 60 hectares, the length of the coastline in the south is 4 kilometers, the east and west banks are the passage of the Shihe River into the sea, and the north is less than 10 kilometers away from the Yanshan Remnant, which is an important node in the most important Chinese-Australian bird passage in the eight bird migration routes in the world. By the end of 2018, a total of more than 300 species of birds had been recorded, accounting for nearly 20% of the number of bird species in China and 52% of the number of bird species in Hebei Province (including Beijing and Tianjin).
Shihenan Island wetland has coastal wetlands, river wetlands, constructed wetlands (former breeding ponds), tidal flats and other complementary and integrated wetland attributes, and the soil is dominated by sea sand, gravel, fluvo-aquic soil and meadows, which have the characteristics of typical coastal wetlands. Wild vegetation is abundant and has typical marine vegetation characteristics. There are many kinds of wild vegetation, such as coral vegetables, acacia, tamarind, Chinese blood tonic grass, seaside sweet peas, coastal astragalus, Cangshu, palm-and-palmed eye-cutting, rainy long-flowered, ephedra, etc. are national and provincial protected plants or plants on the Red List of Biodiversity of China. Marine biological resources include more than 100 species of algae, more than 80 species of plankton, more than 20 species of jellyfish, more than 100 species of shallow seafloor animals, nearly 30 species of fish, and its Chinese Chang fish, Bohai shrimp, three-warty pike crab, green clam, yellow clam, etc. are all important landmark organisms of Bohai Bay. The wetlands of Shihe South Island are also home to snakes, hares, rats, frogs and other wildlife.
From 2010 to 2018, the Qinhuangdao Guan (Love) Bird Association conducted a comprehensive survey of the bird resources of the wetland of Shihenan Island, and recorded more than 300 species of birds, of which 8 species of national first-level protected birds include the Oriental White Stork, the Black Stork, the White-tailed Seabird, the White-headed Crane, the Red-crowned Crane, the White Crane, the Great Bustard and the Widowed Gull. There are 45 species of birds protected by the national second level, and the distribution of china's endemic bird species are brown-headed plover, Baoxing songbird, mountain stork, mountain noisy stork, yellow-bellied and Yunnan willow warbler, of which brown-headed grebe and Yunnan willow warbler are the current northernmost latitude records of this species. At the same time, some birds recorded in the wetlands of Shihenan Island have also broken many domestic records.
The wetland of Shihenan Island is the most densely populated area of bird species found in northern China, where water birds, forest birds and birds of prey are highly integrated, which is the critical point for the distribution of many bird species, with typical diversity characteristics.
Shihe south island wetland is an important part of the national important wetland - Beidaihe wetland, which has aroused great concern from the international biological community, especially the ornithological community, and ornithologists from more than 20 countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Denmark, Belgium, Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, Italy and other countries have come to investigate here, and have published a number of articles or monographs on bird watching along the Shihe wetland. Every year, birdwatchers from all over the world come to see the birds regularly.
In recent years, the Qinhuangdao Municipal Party Committee, the Municipal Government, the Shanhaiguan District Committee and the District Government have attached great importance to the protection of the Shihe Wetland, emphasizing that "the Shihe River is the mother river of the people of Qinhuangdao", which is the most important flood discharge channel of Shanhaiguan, and also the life protection river of the people of Shanhaiguan District, which has extremely important scientific value, ecological value, social value and economic value for the purification of seawater water bodies, climate regulation, maintenance of biodiversity, and maintenance of regional ecological balance in Qinhuangdao City.
In 2017, under the joint promotion of the State Oceanic Administration, Qinhuangdao City, Shanhaiguan District Government, Qinhuangdao Guan (Love) Bird Association, Peking University Institute of Landscape ecological protection, Alxa Foundation, Ren Bird Fly Project Group and other units, departments and social welfare organizations, Shihe Wetland held an expert seminar on "protection and restoration" and a demonstration meeting on the truth plan for protection and restoration, dismissed temporary residents in the wetland, demolished related facilities, increased fire prevention, controlled personnel entering the wetland, and enhanced birds. Survey and monitoring of marine life and vegetation, and construction projects with the responsibility of conservation and restoration as the goal.