Editor's note: Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Hunan forestry people have actively participated in ecological construction, and used wisdom and sweat to depict colorful and beautiful pictures, turning green waters and green mountains into a beautiful business card for Hunan. Recently, the grassroots forestry workers of Red Net Moment News have visited forests, wetlands, and grasslands to visit state-owned forest farms and nature reserves, depicting the development of the forest area, and presenting the vivid practice of Xi Jinping's ecological civilization thought in Hunan forestry through the pen and through the screen. Red Net is always launching a series of reports on "Looking at Xianglin Together", so stay tuned.
Chen Zhenfa.
Rare plants in the hospital of the Hupingshan National Nature Reserve Administration of Hunan Province, Davidia involuli .
Red Net Moment News Reporter Li Lu Comprehensive Report
Wearing a straw hat and holding a scimitar, while driving forward, leaning over to check the growth status of the marked plants; discovering new plants that have never been seen before, and the image records are immediately retained... Walking into Huping Mountain, Changde City, Hunan Province, 60-year-old Chen Zhenfa is like a bird returning to the forest, and the years seem to have left no trace on him.
"I am just an ordinary farmer, a rough man." Chen Zhenfa introduced himself in this way. But it was this "big man" who used his spare time to learn botany knowledge and could distinguish more than 3,000 plants. During the four years of work, he discovered 16 new records of Hupingshan and 2 new records of Hunan. He also published "New Records of the Orchid Plants in Hunan Province - Tianfu Shrimp Rib Orchid" as the first author, becoming a real local plant expert.
30 years ago, Chen Zhenfa was just a forest ranger at the Dingping Post of the Hupingshan National Nature Reserve Administration (hereinafter referred to as Hupingshan Administration). Dingping Post is the highest forest outpost in Hunan Province and is known as the "No. 1 outpost in Hunan". The Hupingshan Reserve where it is located is preserved by more than 60% of the province's species with a land area of 3‰ of the province. It is known as " 's precious species gene bank in central China", " Eurasian 's most complete species lineage in the same latitude zone", and "one of the 200 key ecological regions in the world".
Long-term patrol work made Chen Zhenfa realize that only by learning and mastering a certain basic knowledge of wild animals and plants can we better protect this ecological fertile soil. In 2006, Chen Zhenfa began to use his patrol to learn various botanical knowledge by himself, and according to the contents recorded in the "Hupingshan Botanical Chronicle" and related specimens, he searched for comparison and identification in the mountains and forests one by one.
In 2008, the Hupingshan Management Bureau organized a comprehensive inspection of plant resources and required outpost personnel to assist in collecting plant specimens in order to improve the work level of the patrol staff. Although every specimen taken can get a subsidy of 1 yuan (RMB, the same below), patrol work is no longer easy and no one is willing to spend too much energy on it. Chen Zhenfa joked that in this year alone, he earned 2,100 yuan more than his other colleagues.
Chen Zhenfa said that he has witnessed the huge change in the Hupingshan plant species from 2836 species in 2004 to 3121 species in 2021.
In order to make full use of people's talents, in 2018, Chen Zhenfa was transferred to the Research Institute of the Administration for Plant Research. Since then, Chen Zhenfa spent one-third of his annual time on the mountain. The dedicated study and research have made Chen Zhenfa a "living map" of the distribution of plants in Huping Mountain.
Chen Zhenfa sighed that when he first arrived at Dingping to patrol, the loess was exposed and almost all were low shrubs. Nowadays, the mountains are covered with green forests, birds return to the forest, and all kinds of people are competing for growth.
"Thanks to the recovery of the ecological environment, the new species picture books of Hupingshan and Hunan are also constantly expanding." Chen Zhenfa introduced that over the past decade, with the improvement of the ecological protection and scientific research monitoring level of Hupingshan, he and his colleagues have successively discovered 151 new plant species, 12 new species, 10 new genera, and 1 new record family in Hunan. Now, the protected area has a specimen storage room, and there are 43,037 animal and plant specimens in the room. This is not only among the top protected areas in Hunan Province, but also listed as the "Chinese Plant Specimens Index" by Chinese Academy of Sciences .
Cangshan is covered with green and the shadows of trees are swaying. At the end of the interview, the reporter asked Chen Zhenfa’s plans after retirement. He said he still wanted to stay in Huping Mountain and witness the emergence of more new species.
