A towering tree with a vast canopy not only provides a habitat for small animals but also forms the structural backbone of a lush forest. This year, Beijing will select 5 million large trees and seedlings with the potential to become large trees for precise cultivation, enabling them to grow healthier, more beautiful, and more functional.
Yesterday, a visit was made to the Zhangjiawan Collective Forest Farm in Tongzhou District. There, a grove of Chinese scholar trees stood proudly in the spring breeze, their trunks as thick as an adult's wrist. Not far away, one particularly robust Chinese scholar tree, though its leaves had not yet turned green, spread its dense branches like a magnificent giant umbrella—it is one of the "large trees" selected for the big tree cultivation project.
What is the big tree cultivation project? This initiative traces back to the Million-Mu Afforestation Program. Since 2012, the city has carried out two rounds of this large-scale afforestation effort, adding 2.19 million mu of green space and enveloping the capital in verdant forests. However, it is undeniable that planted forests still face certain issues, such as a high degree of uniformity, where trees in a forest are often similar in height and thickness, resembling a group of uniformly tall schoolchildren, unlike natural forests that feature multiple generations and a mix of strong and weak individuals.
"The forest at Zhangjiawan Forest Farm has gradually entered a competitive growth phase, with individual trees beginning to show differences. Our forest management aims to promote positive succession and ensure the sustainable development of the community," explained Jin Yingshan, a professor-level senior engineer at the Beijing Municipal Institute of Landscape Architecture and Forestry. Large trees play a particularly vital role in the ecosystem; for instance, a single large oak tree can provide a habitat for up to 500 organisms.
This year, the city launched the big tree cultivation project, which involves selecting 5 million large trees or potential large trees from the plain ecological forests. Each tree will be documented and receive precise management and protection measures, including the removal of competing trees, pruning, scientific watering and fertilization, and dynamic monitoring. Additionally, for each large tree, a larger tree basin will be gradually constructed to facilitate irrigation and rainwater collection. Fallen leaves and grass from the surrounding area will be gathered in the tree basin for composting, continuously enhancing soil fertility.
What qualifies as a "large tree"? According to Jin Yingshan, the trees must first be native species to Beijing, such as Chinese scholar trees, ginkgos, lacebark pines, Chinese red pines, and trident maples, and they must be situated in favorable growing conditions. Furthermore, being tall and long-lived is important, and rare tree species receive additional consideration. Of course, cultivating large trees does not mean neglecting other forest vegetation; rather, it aims to make limited nurturing methods more scientific and precise. The ultimate goal is to create a number of "beautiful forests" that are structurally stable and rich in both ecological and landscape value.
In addition to the big tree cultivation project, the city will also implement a soil enrichment program. Forests generate a large amount of litter each year, along with pruned twigs and branches. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the city will carry out the soil enrichment project, following the principles of "local processing, recycling, and self-sufficiency in fertilizer sources," by shredding and returning forest management residues to the soil or composting them. This year, one simple composting site will be established for every 1,000 mu of plain ecological forest, totaling more than 2,000 sites across the city.
Both the big tree cultivation project and the soil enrichment program require scientific and technological support. "There are 151 new collective forest farms in the city, employing 29,000 farmers in local green jobs as forestry workers responsible for caring for the plain ecological forests," said Du Jianjun, head of the Municipal Forestry Work Station. To support these two major initiatives, the city has launched the "Hundred Forests, Hundred Teams" action, which plans to assign 100 forestry expert teams to 100 collective forest farms, establishing a long-term mechanism for scientific support and talent development to comprehensively enhance the management capabilities of collective forest farms.
The Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau, in collaboration with Beijing Forestry University, the Beijing Institute of Landscape Architecture and Forestry, and other institutions, has initiated the "Hundred Forests, Hundred Teams" action. This program adopts a "two-way selection, one-on-one pairing" model between forest farms and expert teams to bridge the "last mile" in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. So far, 75 expert teams have reached cooperative intentions with forest farms, providing comprehensive support in technical guidance, talent cultivation, and model innovation to elevate the management level of the capital's plain ecological forests to new heights.