Desertification control in Youyu County, Shanxi Province

Youyu County covers 1969km 2 in Shanxi Province with an average altitude of 1400m, where belongs to a cold and arid zone. It lies in the northwest of Shanxi Province with worse natural conditions, the average annual temperature is 4.2 ℃℃, and the lowest extreme temperature is 40.14 The climate is dry with little rain in normal year, and the average annual rainfall is less than 400mm. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were only 8,000 mu of remnant forest in the county Desertification land account s for 76% of the area. Ecologic al environment was harsh and frequent natural disasters occurred After the founding of new China, especially the state key forestry ecological projects (“Three North Shelterbelt” and “Grain for Green Project”), which have been implemented since then. Under the successive leadership of Youyu County Party Committee and County Government presidents, Youyu people promote the spirit of respecting science, perseverance and hard struggle. They threw themselves into the afforestation and the improvement of the ecological environment by persistence in the last 70 years, who created an amazing ecological construction miracle.