Septuagenarian man in N China’s Hebei plants 11 million trees on barren hills in 12 years

Along a slope on a barren hill in Houqingyu village in north China’s Hebei Province, Hao Jingxiang, a 72-year-old man, led dozens of workers with pick mattocks to dig pits in rocky soil in preparation for tree planting on Dec. 23.

Members of Hao Jingxiang’s afforestation volunteer team dig pits on rocky soil in preparation for tree planting. (Chinanews.com/Wang Jufen)

The man and his team have been planting more than 11 million trees on the slopes of a barren hilly area that covers an area of 100,000 mu (about 6,666 hectares) over the course of 12 years in Xindu district, Xingtai city of the province, turning barren hills into green forests.

The man set up an afforestation volunteer team to plant saplings to transform the rocky terrain in the Taihang Mountains after he retired as a forestry worker in 2009.

It was a tough job to plant trees on a barren land with rocks. At the beginning, Hao lived in a tent in the hills to collect data such as the soil moisture status. He also went to other places to learn from successful greening experiences and tried to find out better methods for planting trees on the barren hilly areas.

Hao Jingxiang and his son check on the growth of a sapling. (Chinanews.com/Wang Jufen)

Despite initial setbacks, Hao eventually figured out a way to prevent water and the soil from draining away, including an approach that could preserve soil moisture. He placed humidity control packs and corncobs in each tree pit to preserve soil moisture, covering them with thin stone slabs, which could easily collect water on the hillsides over each tree pit, in this way reducing water evaporation. He also fenced each tree with a biodegradable board that is about 1 meter wide and 0.3 meters high, which was used to store rainwater and reflect sunshine, in addition to reducing soil temperatures near the tree’s roots.

In 2013, Hao and his team used this novel method to plant saplings on 400 mu of land atop barren hills. During the springtime in 2014, more than 95 percent of the trees they planted had survived.

“That was the most exciting time of my life,” Hao recalled.

Photo shows Hao Jingxiang standing on a slope. (Chinanews.com/Wang Jufen)