This is not new, but this video by ChinaGreen (link in post title above) was also shot in the Horqin Sand Land not far from my field sites at Naiman, so I thought I’d pass it on. Lovely cinematography, and great off-the-cuff comments by the ‘locals’. 

Mature trees are an important source of fuelwood and provide wind blocks in this notoriously windy region, but I wonder why no one is talking about how much water it is going to take to keep all of these trees alive to maturity. Especially when there are several viable alternatives that require much less water. Native shrubs like Caragana microphylla, early successional forbs such as Hedysarum fruticosum and the annual grass Setaria viridis do not require such intensive irrigation and they also can stabilize sand dunes. Or there is also the practice of burying of straw ‘checkerboards’, which is also very effective for dune stabilization*, and it requires no water at all.   I’d like to see more press coverage of these, admittedly less flashy, restoration methods.

*e.g. this: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140196303001484, or this: http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTOTAL-ZGSS200503005.htm