"The Forest Capital of Our Country" Plays a Green New Song of Ecology | Forest Region | Our Country

Walking in Yichun City, Heilongjiang Province, known as the "Forest Capital of the Motherland", the people of the forest area will proudly tell you that if the wood contributed by Yichun over the past 60 years is loaded onto trains and connected one by one, it can be arranged from Yichun all the way to Sanya, Hainan; If connected one by one, it can travel back and forth several times from Earth to the moon.

This is a forestry city that grows, thrives, and transforms due to forests, known as the "hometown of red pine" and "natural oxygen bar".

Heilongjiang is a key forest area in China.He went deep into the forest area of Shangganling Forestry Bureau to inspect the protection of natural forests on site; Enter the families of forest farm workers and understand their job transfer, employment, and living conditions; Visit Yichun Ecological and Economic Development Zone and Friendship Forestry Bureau Blueberry Industrial Park to learn about the development of the follow-up industry. General Secretary emphasized that ecology is resources and productivity. After the complete cessation of commercial logging in state-owned key forest areas, we should follow the idea that green mountains and clear waters are like mountains of gold and silver, and ice and snow are like mountains of gold and silver, and explore ways to continue industrial development. At the home of Liu Yangshun, an old worker in the forest farm, the General Secretary passionately said that the Party Central Committee always cares about everyone, the policies of the Party and the government will be consistent, and everyone must rely on themselves to find new ways to revitalize the old forest area in Yichun.

Today's Yichun has embarked on a high-quality transformation and development path guided by ecological priority and green development, from contributing wood to the country in the past to bringing back the green mountains.

Green mountains and green ridges have witnessed the new answer sheet of "Three Questions in Forest Areas".

In the 1950s, Yichun began to become an important timber production base for the country. Once upon a time, the sound of lumberjacks sawing, the sound of moving wood horns, and the roar of steam engines intertwined and echoed through the Xiaoxing'an Mountains.

"At that time, Yichun was a large timber processing plant. We shouted 'let go of the mountains', walked through the snow, carried axes and saws, and walked into the deep mountains to cut trees," retired forest worker Liu Yangshun, 70, told reporters.

Everyone gradually realized that due to long-term logging, the number of trees that can be felled is decreasing and becoming thinner. By the 1980s and 1990s, the vast forests and seas of Yichun were facing the risk of overdraft.

In the second year after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Yichun completely stopped commercial logging of natural forests.

No logging in the forest area, find a way out under the forest. People in Yichun Forest District have shifted from forest economy to exploring the development of understory economy. "Green mountains and clear waters are the greatest wealth of Yichun, and the development of green ecological industries is Yichun's greatest advantage. We need to transform the advantages of ecological resources into industrial and development advantages, which is a consensus formed by the people of the forest area in exploration." said Sui Hongbo, Secretary of the Yichun Municipal Party Committee.

The birch juice of Yichun is sweet and delicious, known as the "liquid of life". At present, it is the best time to collect birch juice in Xiaoxing'anling. At the birch juice production base of Yichun Jinghua Biotechnology Co., Ltd., nearly a hundred workers are collecting birch juice every day to reserve sufficient raw materials for this year's birch juice product production.

"Yichun birch forest is rich in resources, with a total area of 248700 hectares. Birch trees with a diameter of 18 centimeters can collect 10 kilograms of juice in a day and night, and mature birch forests with a diameter of 1 hectare can collect 15 tons of birch juice per year. In 2023, we plan to collect 7500 tons of birch juice, with an expected output value of 500 million yuan. We rely on biotechnology innovation, actively develop high-value added products such as birch concentrated juice, birch wine, and birch tea, and strive to make birch juice a new business card for practicing the concept of big food." Meng Guangfeng, director of the Yichun Forestry and Grassland Bureau, told reporters.

At present, the city has 293000 acres of artificial nut forests such as red pine, 30000 acres of small berries such as blueberries, 80000 acres of wild vegetables such as celery, and an annual production of 280 million bags of edible mushrooms such as black fungus. Brands such as "Yichun Zhenpin", "Yichun Blueberry", and "Yichun Black Auricularia" have gone nationwide, and characteristic breeding such as forest pigs, lake sheep, cold water fish, and forest frogs have achieved standardized and large-scale development. Small products such as North agarwood, wood collages, and walnut handicrafts have gradually formed a large industry

Yichun is the "hometown of Chinese wood art". The picture shows a carefully crafted North agarwood handicraft using the resin deposition parts such as roots, nodules, knots, and bark of red pine trees as raw materials. Image provided by the Propaganda Department of Yichun Municipal Committee

Walking along the long wooden boardwalk into the Xishui National Forest Park of Shangganling Forestry Bureau, the scenery is verdant and the air is fresh. The straight and sturdy red pine trees soar into the sky, and large areas of primitive forest come into view.

"In 1953, the good news of the Battle of Shangganling came from the Korean War, and the whole country celebrated. To celebrate this great victory, the forestry bureau was specifically named Shangganling Forestry Bureau." Qin Ruiliang, the party branch secretary of the Xishui Forest Farm Branch of Shangganling Forestry Bureau, told the research team.

When General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected the Xushui National Forest Park of the Shangganling Forestry Bureau, he inspected the primitive red pine forest and other precious trees along the plank road, listened to the introduction of the construction of ecological civilization in the forest area, and urged the forest farm staff to protect the forest resources.

The picture shows the beautiful scenery in Xishui National Forest Park. Huang Xiaoguang from Yichun Forest Industry Group Federation of Literary and Art Circles/Photo taken

60% of the world's Korean pine is in China, and more than half of China's Korean pine is in the Xiaoxing'an Mountains.

In the light matrix container production workshop of the Xishui Forest Farm Branch of Shangganling Forestry Bureau Company, the light matrix container jars are neatly stacked and rich in nutrients that nourish the growth of Korean pine seedlings. The workers are watering the newly cultivated red pine seedlings.

"If traditional seedling cultivation techniques are used to cultivate afforestation Pinus koraiensis seedlings, it takes 4 years, and the golden period for afforestation is only limited to more than 20 days in spring, with a survival rate of about 80%. However, using light substrate seedling cultivation techniques, Pinus koraiensis seedlings can be cultivated on the seedbed for two years, and then grown in light substrate container tanks for two months, and can be used for afforestation or grafting. They can be planted in spring, summer, and autumn, with a survival rate of over 95%." Wang Lixin, Deputy Minister of Forest Ecological Construction of Shangganling Forestry Bureau, introduced.

"In the past six years, Yichun has initially set an ecological protection red line of 15400 square kilometers, with 23 nature reserves at all levels and types, and 4 nature reserves promoted to national level. The average annual net increase in forest volume is over 10 million cubic meters, with a forest coverage rate of 83.8%, making it the only city in Northeast China and the first 'China Natural Oxygen Bar' city in northern China." said Xiao Shuang, member of the Standing Committee of the Yichun Municipal Party Committee and Minister of the Propaganda Department.

In order to effectively shoulder the political responsibility of maintaining national ecological security, in December 2021, the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Yichun City decided to establish May 23rd as "Yichun Ecological Day" every year.

Green mountains and clear waters are not only natural and ecological wealth, but also social and economic wealth. The people of Yichun deeply feel this.

Entering the Yangshun Farmhouse, the couplet at the entrance is particularly prominent. The upper couplet reads "Diligence builds a moderately prosperous road", the lower couplet reads "Entrepreneurship opens the door to wealth", and the horizontal banner reads "Happy family.". "After General Secretary's inspection and research, there were a lot of tourists who came from afar. We relied on the tourism resources of Xishui National Forest Park to establish this farmhouse, and the signature dishes were braised fish, pork ribs stewed with beans, and pancakes, which were surprisingly popular. Our farmhouse now has 15 tables and an annual income of over 100000 yuan. In addition, my spouse and I each have a retirement pension of over 3000 yuan. After working as a lumberjack for decades, we never dreamed of opening a farmhouse and eating 'ecological rice', and 'eating' has become famous and 'eating' has found a new way." Speaking of these, Liu Yangshun couldn't help but laugh.

From one farmhouse to 28 homestays now, the "Xishui Farmhouse Street" has formed a homestay cluster and is well-known far and wide. Featured homestays, red travel, and ice and snow experiences are becoming increasingly popular. In 2022, the Xishui Forest Farm Branch of Yichun Forest Industry Group Shangganling Forestry Bureau received more than 140000 tourists and achieved a tourism revenue of 4.2 million yuan; Yichun City has received a total of 10.12 million tourists and achieved a tourism revenue of 6.96 billion yuan.

The good days of people in the forest area are written stroke by stroke in the forest sea of Xiaoxing'an Ridge.