On July 4, Rachelwu, a netizen in Huludao City, Liaoning, made a public announcement on Weibo, reflecting that around the area from Wulihe River Bridge to Haixiang Bridge near her neighborhood, an excavator was cleaning up reeds and sludge massively. As usual, the reeds were uprooted where the excavator went, and both sides of the original green & dense river channel were suddenly messy. The reeds were gone, the homes of frogs and waterfowl were gone. There were only a few “lucky” birds who escaped to the surface from the destroyed home, looking at the water aimlessly.
“Is such a large-scale dredging, ecological restoration, or ecological destruction?” Rachelwu came across a toad on a rainy day a few days ago. At that time, the reed wetland on the riverbank was still intact, and the toad was not afraid to see people, but slowly entered the wetland to hide. “If this scene was put ten years ago, I can’t even think about it. Now that I can see the toad by the river, is the environment better? Yesterday, I went to (the riverbank) and saw nothing. It was just at a large construction site; the sound of frogs is gone. Is toad still alive? Will it come back?” Rachelwu asked on Weibo, her heartache was unobstructed.
Reports similar to the dredging of river channels in Huludao City, Liaoning Province, and the destruction of river ecosystems massively do not happen once or twice, but a lot in recent years. At the end of this June, the wetland of Beijing Olympic Forest Park also appeared to be stopped by bird observing enthusiasts due to dredging the river when uprooted reeds and destroying the ecology of the wetland. At that time, birdwatchers in Beijing observed in the area of the Daishuihuatai in the Olympic Forest Park: because the reeds were cut down roughly, the Eastern Great Reed Warbler was reluctant to face the suddenly collapsed bird nest; the yellow reeds in the breeding period fell apart, and the eggs were washed away. Even the hatched young birds did not know where they were taken by the rough harvest of the reeds; the big cuckoo could only scream as their eggs were destroyed.
For birds, frogs, dragonflies, and other creatures that live by riverbank reeds, such “demolition” dredging can be called a home-breaking bird and insects-displaced project, which is completely an ecological disaster. After more than 10 eco-lovers and media’s boycott in Beijing, the reed uprooting of the Olympic Forest Park has been suspended.
In this regard, Huang Yue, lecturer of urban biodiversity and ecological restoration at China Agricultural University, said that from the perspective of the “demolition of home” of the large reed warbler and a yellow reed in the Olympic Forest Park, it is clear that “the park’s protection of wild animals is not careful enough. They did not do research on the ecological status of this water area in detail in advance and did not stop immediately when bird’s nets were found. All of the work went roughly.” Professor Huang Yue suggested that the Olympic Forest Park to further improve the relevant biological background survey data as soon as possible, including the use of public bird watching data, to carry out biodiversity and habitat quality assessment of the park, and on this basis, to refine the functional differentiation and management standards, to do fine management.
After the dredging of the Huludao River in Liaoning happened, Li Dihua, an associate professor at the School of Architecture and Landscape Design of Peking University, also publicly supported the Huludao netizens for their voices through various channels, complaining about the similar destruction of ecological river dredging, and suggesting that netizens cooperate with CBCGDF and Friends of Nature and other social organizations to protect biodiversity and those habitats. If there is local misuse of financial funds or illegal project procedures, they are supposed to actively report it as well. Regarding this kind of rough dredging of the river channel, Mr. Li Dihua believes that there are mainly the following five evils, compared with the original intention of the original river dredging project design:
The first one is to accelerate the flood discharge, which may protect the upstream, but it will bring downstream greater risks and damages; second, destroying aquatic plant communities and animal habitats; third, stirring up sediments to release pollutants, resulting in deterioration of water quality; fourth, improper use and waste of financial resources; fifth, homogenization, Simplification and roughness are beautiful, (destroy the natural beauty of rivers).
For the practice of municipal engineering such as dredging and dredging of rough rivers, the CBCGDF Research Department has also been paying close attention to and intervening, including the protection of Yashayan in Yuanshi County, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, and the Kuitun River in Wusu City, Xinjiang. CBCGDF Research Department finally successfully protected these precious species and their habitats in the river channel project through volunteer site surveys, expert seminars, and sending notices. An ecosystem is complex with delicate and intricate relationships between them. It not only includes inorganic environments such as water, soil, and gas, but also includes various plants and animals (including birds, beasts, insects, fish, etc.), Organic organisms such as microbes are interrelated and symbiotic with each other, and only to dredge the river channel to destroy the entire wetland ecosystem. It is too much to pay for? Similar mistakes from Beijing Yuanmingyuan, Olympic Forest Park to Huludao, do we have to continue to pay for the similar ecological costs?
At the end of June, in order to protect biodiversity as much as possible in all large-scale construction projects including river dredging and other municipal projects, the CBCGDF Research Department specially sent a notice to the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and recommended that national construction projects Strengthen biodiversity protection in the general contract (see “Construction Project Engineering General Contract should add biodiversity protection clauses, strengthen ecological protection”), hope that the Liaoning Huludao River Department will stop such rough river construction as soon as possible, firstly to clarify the background of the biodiversity of the local wetlands, then to protect the ecological environment as much as possible based on biological habits and natural laws, rather than simply destroying it.
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/13042.html
By / Yao Jiahui (Intern)
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