This mountain in Anhui has finally recovered

Decades ago

"When we were young, we went to the river to catch stone chicken (a local frog in Huangshan) and fish, and we brought a bag of lime powder, and we could catch a basket at will!" The lime powder was sprinkled into the stream, like a pot. The water is normal, and the animals are jumping around. "I can't finish eating one by one . "

Decades ago

The dense forest of Jiulong Peak in Hessian,

There are countless animals in the mountains;

Later, the forest became brighter and brighter,

The rumbling sound of logging is endless,

There are fewer and fewer animals.

And now,

What has become of Jiulong Peak?

Jiulongfeng Nature Reserve

Jiulongfeng Nature Reserve ,

Located on the west side of the main peak of Huangshan Mountain,

In the Huangshan-Huaiyu Mountain Protection Priority Zone,

Donglian Huangshan Scenic Area,

South to Hongcun, a World Heritage Site,

Guocun, an ancient town on the Qinghui Ancient Road to the west,

The north faces the world emerald Taiping Lake.

Now, the forest coverage rate of Jiulong Peak,

From 78% when the district was built-

This has risen to 96.7%.

And its past and present lives,

Condensed the changes of this era.

Author: Yuan Yuan

Photography: Chen Xinyu

Guocun, an ancient town on the Qinghui Ancient Road to the west of Jiulong Peak

Photo courtesy: Taohuayuan Foundation

The mountainous area of ​​southern Anhui is rainy in early summer.

In the rain,

The lush forest covered with white mist,

An Hui village with white walls and black tiles,

It looks extremely quiet.

Shangling Village, Jiaocun Town, Huangshan District, the west side of the village is the Jiulongfeng Nature Reserve.

Photo courtesy: Taohuayuan Foundation

Jiulong Peak in Memory

Dr. Dai Mengting and his wife, in their 70s, have lived at the foot of the forest on Jiulong Peak all their lives.

Dr. Dai is now over seventy years old and has lived at the foot of this mountain all his life. In his memory, Jiulong Peak was Hessian when he was a child. There were countless animals in the mountains and densely packed fish and frogs in the river. In summer, cascading trees block the scorching sun. It is the children’s favorite playground in the village——

"When we were young, we went to the river to catch rock chickens (a local frog in Huangshan) and fish, and we brought a bag of lime powder, and we could catch a basket at will!" The lime powder was spilled into the stream, and the invisible animals Jumping around, like boiling water. "I can't finish eating one by one."

That was in the 1960s ,

At that time, Jiulong Peak was not a "protection area",

People have no concept of protection,

It is a habit of the people in the village to rely on the mountain and eat the mountain.

To the 1970s ,

Deforestation is an important means of economic development,

Everything in the mountains is a usable resource.

Booming logging, hydropower, and wood processing equipment

Going into the mountains with a rush,

The Xiancun Nursery was established.

"The living conditions were also poor. Everyone had nothing to eat, so they went hunting in the mountains." At that time, Dr. Dai was just in his early 20s and was a good hunter in the village. He still remembered the surprising encounter of clouded leopards when he went hunting in the mountains. Suddenly, Hu's honeycomb moved, and suddenly a clouded leopard came down."

At that time, there was still a chance to meet the clouded leopard.

From "nursery field" to "protection area"

The predatory development behavior continued until the 1990s, when China banned logging of natural forests. At this time, part of the original forest has become artificially planted fir forest. As the call for nature protection is getting louder and louder, natural forest protection projects are spreading across China, and the concept of " nursing field " has gradually faded out of history and replaced by "protected areas."

2001,

Xiancun Nursery was approved as Jiulongfeng Nature Reserve.

Jiulongfeng Nature Reserve

Photo courtesy: Taohuayuan Foundation

Since then,

Hunting in the mountains is no longer legal,

It is possible to commit a crime by patronizing and eating mountains.

The forests and nature are slowly recovering, and this has also led to young people in the village who have lost money-making opportunities to go out to work. Chen Zhen, who lives in Jiao Village next to Shangling Village, went to work in Nanjing at that time. "Then the family's farm work can't make money, so they have to go out and make a fortune." Chen Zhen said.

Photo courtesy: Taohuayuan Foundation

But no matter how long you go out,

But always come back.

In 2017,

Chen Zhen, who has worked abroad for many years, returned to her hometown.

Chen Zhen and her husband Jiao Zongkui used the shrimp rice field model they learned in Nanjing to breed crayfish and pollution-free rice.

This decision originated from a mother’s love, “One year when I returned home for the New Year, my daughter bought ice cream to eat. A child from a poor household stretched out his hand and waited. The ice cream dropped a drop and licked it. ” She wants to do something to change the poverty in her hometown.

Chen Zhen plans to introduce the shrimp rice field model learned in Nanjing : use natural and pollution-free methods to grow rice, and crayfish can be cultivated in the paddy field. "As long as you count the time, there are harvests in the pond all year round, and you can still receive gifts from God. " Chen Zhen said with a smile. The gifts she said were loach and rice eel growing in the pond .

Early in the morning, Jiao Zongkui came to the shrimp paddy field to catch crayfish.

Relying on the good mountains, water and environment in the surrounding protected areas, Chen Zhen introduced new varieties, and the shrimps and rice cultivated became more delicious year after year. Now, one kilogram of her rice can sell for more than 30 yuan , which is three times the price of ordinary rice . Chen Zhen has rented more than 2,000 acres of rice fields and hired villagers, especially poor households, to help her dig ponds, plant rice seedlings, and harvest shrimps. While creating employment opportunities, Chen Zhen also has her own business.

This business also brought unexpected gains to Chen Zhen. "The professor from Anhui Agricultural University came to see that I said I built a wetland and the birds came back." Chen Zhen's tone was proud, and she was in the rice fields. There are always egrets leisurely foraging for food, almost all seasons, "When there are more than a thousand birds!"

Clouded Leopard

Countless animals in the mountains,

It is the memory of Jiulongfeng from older generations like Doctor Dai.

For Jiang Xin , born in 1997 ,

Wild animals can only circulate in the mouth of the elderly.

Jiang Xin lives in She County, 100 kilometers from Jiulong Peak. After returning from the military in 2019, he wanted to find a job close to home, so he applied for a ranger in Jiulong Peak. The old people in the village called the clouded leopard the big cat. It was a strange and beautiful animal, but Jiang Xin had never seen it before. He heard the old man say that in the 1990s, someone in the village set up a hunting kit to catch wild boars. He did not expect to catch a clouded leopard. The person skinned the clouded leopard and sold it, and was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Clouded Leopard

Photo courtesy: Taohuayuan Foundation

In Jiang Xin's view, Chang Zhaoqian is much luckier-he is a ranger who "save the leopard" in the Jiulongfeng Reserve. Chang Zhaoqian, who is in his 40s this year, first worked in the nursery of Xiancun and later became a ranger of Jiulongfeng——

in China,

Almost every elder ranger,

All have experienced a role change from logging to patrolling .

The patrolling work of the patrol team members of the Jiulongfeng Nature Reserve is not just to prevent hill fires. They patrol 50 kilometers a week.

Chang Zhaoqian rescued the clouded leopard in 2003. "The leopard got into my pigsty. I don’t know if it was hungry or injured. He was very weak. We transferred it to the protection station to be sent to the rescue center, but the leopard was there the next day. Dead." This clouded leopard was made into a specimen and became the last clouded leopard to appear on Jiulong Peak .

Around 2000, the Anhui media often reported the news of the clouded leopard going down the mountain. Some people speculate that just because the primeval forests are shrinking, wild animals and habitats are declining, and the food for clouded leopards is also decreasing. So the hungry clouded leopard took the risk and frequently entered human living areas. Later, the clouded leopard disappeared from Jiulong Peak and the entire southern Anhui mountainous area , and no one said that they had seen the clouded leopard.

↓↓Since the establishment of Jiulongfeng Nature Reserve, the ecological environment in the area has been well restored. (From top to bottom) Rare animals such as the small muntjac commonly known as the yellow muntjac, the sharp-nosed mushi, the yellow mountain macaque, and the white-necked long-tailed pheasant have become more common.

Photo courtesy: Taohuayuan Foundation

Professor Wu Hailong from Anhui Normal University has been conducting research on biodiversity conservation in southern Anhui for many years. He said in an interview that the more credible clouded leopard observation records in southern Anhui in recent years are clouded leopard feces discovered by scientific researchers in 2009 and highly suspected individuals detected by infrared cameras in 2013 and 2014 .

The forest coverage of Jiulong Peak has risen from 78% to 96.7%.

Since the establishment of Jiulongfeng Nature Reserve,

The forest coverage here ,

It has risen from 78% when the district was built to 96.7% .

Young people saw the opportunity and began to return to their hometowns, and wild animals returned to this southern Anhui mountain forest.

In 2018, the black deer photographed by an infrared camera at Jiulong Peak

Photo courtesy: Taohuayuan Foundation

These few years,

Chang Zhaoqian went up the mountain to meet the white-necked pheasant more often,

Even the "sacred beast" black muntjac appeared in front of the rangers from time to time.

Not long ago,

The village also rescued a Chinese pangolin,

Released to Jiulong Peak.

pangolin

Photo courtesy: Taohuayuan Foundation

Jiang Xin has just passed the star ranger exam these days.

Successfully became a ranger of Jiulong Peak;

Chang Zhaoqian led a patrol team to distribute leaflets in the village;

Dr. Dai is cleaning up several guest rooms on the second floor of the house;

Chen Zhen and her husband were fishing crayfish by the shrimp rice field

...

The changes of Jiulong Peak for decades,

Condensed the changes of an era.

Jiulongfeng Nature Reserve is close to Huangshan Scenic Area