Protection of ancient trees an act of pride for ranger
Shi Honglin has walked the roads lined with ancient cypress trees near his home so many times over the past 60 years that he can recount stories about them as if they were members of his own family.
The 67-year-old has spent his life in Dongqing village in Jiange county, adjacent to the main stretch of the Cuiyun Corridor in Guangyuan city, Sichuan province — the world’s largest artificial cypress forest. Lining the 151 kilometers of roads that crisscross the corridor are 7,803 ancient trees, with the oldest being over 2,300 years old.
Shi took up the post of a forest ranger in 2016, making him responsible for the care and protection of the trees in Jiange.
He said that although the government has put strict protection measures in place for the cypress trees, the lack of daily care sometimes led to incidents where the ancient trees were injured.
“Here, a passing truck scraped against this tree damaging the bark,” Shi said, patting the trunk of a 1,300year-old cypress tree as if comforting a family member who’d fallen ill.
“The Cuiyun Corridor cypress road where we are right now used to be part of National Highway 108,” he said.
The Cuiyun Corridor is a tree-lined transport route that was built during the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) for travelers and traders.
In 2009, to protect the ancient cypresses along the road, the highway was shifted more than 300 meters outside what is now the Cuiyun Corridor scenic area.
“I come here every day and feel uneasy if I miss a day,” Shi said.
He is responsible for caring for and protecting 67 ancient trees in the Jiange section of the corridor. Wildfires, pests and flooding are the three main threats to the ancient trees, according to the ranger.
In addition to clearing dead branches and trash during his routine patrols, Shi and other forest rangers look out for different threats at different times of the year. In autumn and winter, they focus on preventing fires. In spring, they focus on preventing diseases and pests, and in summer, they focus on mitigating the impact of heavy rain and flooding.
“If there is extreme weather such as heavy winds and rain, I come at least twice a day to ensure that the trees in low-lying areas are not adversely affected,” he said, pointing to a pair of ancient trees. “You can see that the branches of the tree on the right are relatively dry, and the color of the leaves is slightly pale, indicating that the tree has died.”
Shi explained that two years ago, a heavy rainstorm hit the area and swamped the two ancient trees. “Even though we dug drainage ditches and quickly drained the water, we only managed to save one of them.”
Despite years passing, the death of the tree still weighs heavy on Shi.
In the wake of the tragedy, experts from the local forestry bureau and other related departments implemented measures to improve fertilization and infusion for the surviving cypresses.
Even though that one particular tree had died, it remains precious to local people.
“We won’t cut it down,” said Yang Zubin, Party chief of Jiange county. “With it just standing there, it passes on the spirit of protecting trees.”
For the people of Jiange, the trees have stood side by side with their families for generations.
Over 60 years ago, within Shi’s patrol area, there used to be a small temple where people from surrounding villages would come to burn incense for blessings during festivals and in times of difficulty.
“In order to protect the ancient trees the temple was demolished, but occasionally, the elderly still come here to worship. Sometimes when I encounter them, I have to remind them that strict fire prevention is essential in protecting the trees,” he said.
Not far from Dongqing, Tianqiao is the closest village to the Cuiyun Corridor scenic area. Xu Xinggui, the former village Party secretary of Tianqiao, said, “We grew up listening to the stories of the ancient trees.”
Xu, who is also in his 60s, remembers vividly that when he was in elementary school, the teachers often told them the legends of the ancient trees.
“Over 1,800 years ago, Zhang Fei (a famous general) passed through here and planted a cypress tree, which grew into three trunks, supporting each other, echoing the famous story of ‘The Oath of the Peach Garden’ in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.”
The cypress mentioned by Xu is known to the locals as the Zhang Fei Cypress. Today, the Cuiyun Corridor is listed as a 5A-level scenic spot — the highest in the national scenic spot rating system. There are many such trees with legends that are cherished and respected by the locals.
“We like to tie a red string on the thick trunk of a thousand-year-old cypress tree to pray for the safety of our family,” Xu said.
Ancient trees are some of the largest living organisms on the planet, playing environmental roles that younger trees cannot fulfill. They are crucial for recycling soil nutrients and influencing the direction of river flows. With the sharp decrease in the number of large ancient trees in many parts of the world, the integrity of these ecosystems and biodiversity is seriously affected.
In recent years, regulations related to the protection of ancient trees have been introduced, and the Jiange government has included the number and growth status of cypresses as an important metric to be shared among county and township Party and government leaders to keep track of.
On the trunk of each ancient tree, there is an information plaque. In addition to basic information such as age, species and the person responsible for it, there is also a QR code that can be scanned to see more information about the tree’s health.
“Sichuan provincial and Guangyuan city forestry experts often visit to train forest rangers on improved ways of inspecting and protecting trees. Each tree has its own ID card, and both the management and protection of the trees have become more scientifically standardized,” Shi said.
Yang said, “The cypress trees are the symbol of Jiange. We must protect the world’s largest artificial cypress forest just like we protect giant pandas.”