Let Montenegro be "green" and "heal" the mines. The environmental protection cloud tour shows the results of ecological restoration

The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) closed today. Since the opening of the conference, it has attracted widespread attention from the public to biodiversity conservation. Taking this as an opportunity, the Beijing Ecological Environment Protection Publicity Center launched the "Ecological Restoration Draws a New Picture of Beautiful Beijing" environmental science cloud tour and exploration activity based on the vivid case of the successful transformation of the Caojiafang mining area into the Bairui Valley tourist attraction, showing the whole society the achievements made by Beijing in ecological civilization construction and ecological restoration.

At 10 a.m. on October 15, the cloud tour was broadcast live on Xinhuanet, Baidu, Yizhibo, Science Plus, Beijing Environmental Voice Weibo and other online platforms, attracting enthusiastic attention from netizens and reaching more than 1.2 million visits.

Biodiversity: Flowers fill the river like a sea, Beijing West Baicao Garden After years of ecological environment restoration, Caojiafang mining area in Shijiaying Township, Fangshan District has been successfully transformed into Bairui Valley Tourist Scenic Area. The scenic area is located in the southwest of Beijing and the eastern foot of Baihua Mountain. It is adjacent to the two well-known scenic spots of Baihua Mountain and Shenglian Mountain. It is 100 kilometers away from Beijing city and is a part of China Fangshan World Geopark.

In the golden autumn of October, the sky is high and the air is refreshing. Follow the cloud tour camera and walk into the Bairui Valley Scenic Area. The lush forests and ecologically rich natural landscapes of flora and fauna will make you feel relaxed and happy.

▲The Bairui Valley scenic area has a beautiful environment and rich biodiversity.

Dr. Pei Xia from Beijing Eco-Environmental Protection Science Research Institute said that as an important part of the eastern foot of Baihua Mountain, Bairui Valley has an altitude transition from 700 meters to 1,800 meters, and is a paradise for animals and plants. From low to high, there are vitex, sour jujube bushes, cork oak forests, temperate forest Mongolian oak forests, birch forests, red birch forests and subalpine meadows with blooming mountain flowers.

"There are 654 species of plants belonging to 100 families and 370 genera, and 134 species of wild animals belonging to 19 orders and 53 families. Because of the good ecological environment, some less common wild animals such as egrets, wild ducks, roe deer, etc. also come here to forage and live," said Pei Xia.

When you arrive at the Baihua Mountain Spring scenic spot, you can hear the sound of gurgling water from afar. Baihua Mountain Spring is the highest spring in Beijing and the source of the Dashi River system. It gushes out from the cracks in the rocks all year round. It can be said that "after the flowers that are conceived become water, a mouthful of spring water will make you smile for a hundred years."

Ecological restoration: "Greening" Montenegro and "healing" the mines. It is hard to imagine that such high-quality spring water and natural resources have "disappeared" in the past due to ecological environmental pollution.

▲Comparison of Caojiafang (Bairi Valley Scenic Area) before and after restoration

Zhang Deqiang, director of the Tourism Office of Shijiaying Township Government, introduced that as part of the western Beijing coal mining area, in the past hundred years, especially in recent decades, the Caojiafang mining area has suffered from prominent problems such as forest vegetation damage and soil erosion due to coal mining, which has affected the number of wild animals and plants, seriously degraded the natural ecology, and affected the sustainable development of the region.

At that time, the area was shrouded in a thick black. According to villagers’ recollections, “the leaves were black” and “there was coal slag when you opened the window.” Natural water sources were also affected by artificial coal mining, and the entire area was in a state of dryness.

▲Bai Rui Valley Baihua Mountain Spring

Under the general background of ecological priority, between 2006 and 2010, Shijiaying Township closed all 142 coal mines, ending the local thousand-year history of coal mining; starting from 2010, Caojiafang adapted to local conditions, closed coal mines, and actively carried out ecological restoration, which promoted the improvement of the ecological environment and drove high-quality green development in the region.

The ecological restoration of the Caojiafang mining area mainly took measures such as backfilling the mine pit with imported soil, slope repair, and fish scale pit cofferdam. More than 4,000 meters of flood channels were built to ensure regional safety. The vitality of springs in the area was restored through measures such as soil and water conservation and natural purification. Fruit trees such as walnuts, hawthorns, crabapples, and wild apricots were planted.

▲At the online tour, a staff member of the scenic spot who used to work in the mining area (first from the right) told the audience about the changes that ecological restoration has brought to their lives

"After the coal mine was closed and the ecology was restored, the groundwater level in the area has increased year by year; through measures such as soil and water conservation and natural purification, the spring water has become increasingly abundant." Zhang Deqiang said that this will restore the natural environment of mountain springs flowing freely and rivers flowing naturally.

Green water and green mountains: the black industry is exiting and the green industry is taking over. Follow the camera to the observation deck and overlook the restored ecological environment of the Caojiafang mining area. You can still see some exposed ore on the mountain and the remains of the former mine pits. Near the entrance of the mine, the former cave entrance has been transformed into a sculpture attraction, and the house where workers take over shifts has also been transformed into a mining heritage exhibition hall, reminding tourists who come to visit to "protect the ecology and don't forget history."

▲The sculpture in the mining heritage exhibition area transformed from the mine entrance

In fact, the ecological restoration process is not smooth sailing, and there are many difficult problems to face: Dr. Liu Xiaona from the Beijing Institute of Eco-Environmental Protection Science said that the leveled slag is too permeable to water, making it difficult to retain moisture and unable to guarantee the survival rate of plants. In order to restore vegetation better and faster, the restoration adopted the method of backfilling soil and increasing the area of ​​the tree pit, so that each tree reached 1 cubic meter of backfill soil to conserve moisture and improve the survival rate of vegetation, achieving gratifying results.

After nearly ten years of ecological restoration, the forest coverage rate of Caojiafang has increased from 46.9% in 2009 to 69.6% in 2019. The formerly devastated mining area has regained its green mountains and clear waters.

Ecological restoration not only turned Caojiafang's "coal mine" into "green mountains and clear waters", but also achieved industrial transformation and turned it into a "gold mountain and silver mountain": by 2018, after completing ecological restoration, the Caojiafang mining area was successfully transformed into the Bairui Valley Tourist Scenic Area, with comprehensive tourism income growing steadily, successfully transforming ecological advantages into economic advantages.

▲Mining model displayed in the mining heritage exhibition hall

This year, the "Caojiafang Abandoned Mine Ecological Restoration and Value Realization Case" in Shijiaying Township, Fangshan District was listed as one of the second batch of 10 typical cases of ecological product value realization in the country by the Ministry of Natural Resources, completing a textbook transformation from "coal mountain mine" to "green water and green mountains" and then to "gold mountain and silver mountain".

Zheng Lei, deputy director of the Fangshan District Ecological Environment Bureau, said that today's Fangshan District has completely bid farewell to the history of mineral mining, and has taken the beautiful landscape as a "golden business card" for transformation and development, embarking on a new path of green economic development. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the district will continue to carry out ecological construction and improve ecological quality around the functional positioning of the new Fangshan as "one district and one city", especially in terms of ecological restoration. It will continue to carry out ecological problem assessment and ecological restoration work around key areas such as ecological protection red lines and nature reserves, and give full play to the role of Fangshan District as the capital's ecological conservation area and the southwestern ecological barrier.

Written by reporter Zhao Tianyu

Produced by: Science Central Kitchen

Produced by: Beijing Science and Technology News | Science Plus Client

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