Poplars axed to rejuvenate wetland ecosystem of Dongting Lake
More than 3,000 hectares of Euramerican poplar trees were cut down on Zhongwei Island in the western area of Dongting Lake this winter.
However, this was by no means illegal logging.
On the contrary, the trees were removed to aid a campaign of ecological recovery for the Dongting Lake region in the north of Hunan province.
The Euramerican poplar is an alien species introduced to the region in the 1970s as a resource for its papermaking industry, and played an important role in helping boost the earnings of locals for four decades.
By the end of 2010, the planting area of the trees surpassed 10,000 hectares in the Western Dongting Lake Reserve, according to the forestry bureau of Hanshou county, where the reserve is located.
However, the trees have caused a disaster in the local wetland ecology because of its rampant-growing roots which make it impossible for other plant species to grow, according to Peng Pingbo, an official at the Western Dongting Lake Reserve.
“Before the introduction of this alien species, the western Dongting Lake was a paradise for birds, fish and other animals,” Peng said.
“However, the local wetland system was gradually transformed into a landscape of forest after the trees came,” said the official, who added that the change had destroyed the habitat of fish and birds and led to a drastic decrease of their numbers.
The provincial government of Hunan realized the harm these trees were doing and ordered their plantations removed in 2016.
According to Peng, Hanshou county has faced a lot of pressure over this campaign.
It has more than 3,300 hectares of Euramerican polar trees in the core of the Western Dongting Lake Reserve, and roughly 30 percent of them are seedlings and young trees that cannot be sold to pulp factories.
For the smooth implementation of the campaign, the county government of Hanshou set aside more than 70 million yuan ($10.9 million) to compensate local plantation owners for logging the trees.
Yu Qingshan was the owner of the largest Euramerican poplar plantation in the county.
After getting his compensation, he immediately hired more than 5,000 workers to cut down all the 1,650 hectares of the trees in 10 days.
By Nov 16 all the 3,300 hectares of Euramerican poplars in the reserve were cut down.
“We can see the obvious improvement of wetland ecology one month after the logging,” Peng said. “More migrant birds are coming back because they can easily identify suitable habitats.”