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Overview

Surrounded by a desolate desert living in a mud cave, Yin Yuzhen took it herself to singlehandedly plant trees rehabilitation the desolate environment in the Uxin Banner of China’s Semi-Arid Western landscape. As an expert by no means coming from humble beginnings, she initially began her botany excursion as experimentation with various vegetation in her backyard in 1985. Producing food for her family, she looked to fight the soil erosion present in her backyard, which quickly transformed into something entirely new. Through trial-and-error, Yin found success and attracted the eye of neighbors around her, who quickly looked to her to rehabilitate their family plots in the effort of reforestation. As the years went on, she continued to plant her trees, deciding she would rather have her back broken than be bullied into submission by the sandy desert. In 2005, her efforts were recognized when a local party secretary discovered her vegetation in the otherwise barren desert and was labeled a model worker, also known as a laomo. As a result of this, the state quickly lent her support by paving roads, installing power grids, and supplying her with saplings that grew her project from her backyard to spanning fifteen miles.

Early Life

Yin Yuzhen, born in Jingbian County, Shaanxi Province, in a small village. Housework was no stranger to her as her being the fifth of the seven siblings she had helping out and doing her part came to her by nature. Not attending school at nineteen, her parents wished for her to be married, and she was arranged to be to Bai Wanxiang living in the Mu Us Desert in relatively poor conditions. Starting life in a desert may deter some from living there but not to Yin, living quite literally in an underground cave the ground she lived in was covered with firewood and dry deadwood. The use of her living quarters requiring her to bend down to get inside her home and curl up into a ball to sleep. The desolate environment of the Mu Us Desert, spanning 16,300 miles, is described as a sterile environment with one wind per year traveling from the spring till winter. These winds made it difficult for outsiders to enter the village, which let Yin essentially cut off from the rest of the country. Frustrated from living in these conditions, Yin came to a critical decision that would change her life forever. She would rather wear herself down by planting trees to combat the desert than being beaten by the environment.

Planter of Trees

Yin quickly set out on her quest to change the environment she was living in for the better and selling her family’s livestock in exchange for 600 saplings planting the first ones in front of her home. She became adamant about changing the desert she inhabited into a lush forest teeming with life. Her husband joining her neither knew much about forestation nor planting trees went through significant trial and error. The harsh desert climate combated the initial saplings through powerful winds and significant drought. Out of the 600 saplings planted, only twelve survived. Determined not to die in a desolate desert Yin pressed on using the surviving twelve to propel her journey forward. To purchase more saplings, the two worked building houses and doing farm work in exchange for saplings. For thirty years Yin learned, how to change a barren desert into a lush forest teeming with life that had not lived in the land in decades. Discovering that water sources in the desert were exceedingly deep (390 feet), predicting the weather became increasingly important based on the last snowfall. Severalsaplings were prepared in advance.

Initially planting trees such as willows and poplars, Yin discovered that the lifespan of said trees only lasted several decades and found an alternative in pine trees that can last several thousands of years. As a result of her actions in 2005, Yin was recognized as an ideal worker in China that safeguards the environment and quickly gained government support. (2) With the government supporting her and its agenda, the afforestation effort exploded eventually. Yin was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize from the Chinese Government. Funding these efforts, the Chinese Government quickly realized that this desert could be tamed by the efforts of those such as Yin and promptly looked to achieve their goals there with the creation of a monocultural forest.

Concerns for Trees

Yin has expressed her concerns for the forest, including the relative lack of ecological balance resulting from the mass planting of trees. Previously poplar trees were planted in mass amounts, quickly growing and thriving on deep groundwater. She has noted that her trees are deprived of topsoil and do require constant watering for the moment as a result of this. With her experience with trial and error for an ecosystem to be self-sufficient, a diversification of various factors such as animal and fungal species and trees exist alongside each other. These poplar trees can be quite profitable as the cutting and selling of these quick-growing trees make up 57.9% of the Uxin Banner in 2019

Today

As a result of her overall success, Yin has gained significant government support and has been able to plant not just pine trees but watermelons, pear trees, peach trees, apricot trees, and other different variations of wildlife to boot. Her once backyard experiment has now been built into an ecological park that is bursting with life. Its production can generate considerable revenue for Yin and her family. Her environment is only in constant expansion due to outside investment attempting to meet China’s afforestation efforts. She has left her old hobbit dwelling behind for a modern house and has four children and six grandchildren among them. Even in her later years, Yin is still constantly looking to grow her in many aspects of her life quite literally as she now has an ecological friendly restaurant, office building, and a patriotism education base in her vicinity. She has inspired others in her village to fight back against the sand and have similar planting trees to control the sand. Yin’s afforestation efforts have been recognized by individuals such as Chinese President Xi Jinping, who, during the 2020 National People’s Congress, described the actions of those such as Yin as a remarkable achievement and an overall improvement of the ecology in China.

References:

(Yifei Li, Judith Shapiro, China Goes Green: Coercive Environmentalism for a Troubled Planet, Chapter 2 (”Green” China Pacifies its Boarders))

(SHUANGSHUANG, YANG. Green Dream Comes True, 27 Nov. 2020, www.chinatoday.com.cn/ctenglish/2018/sl/202011/t20201127_800228323.html.)