Saving trees with technology

CHONGQING－Southwest China's Chongqing rescued more than 700 ancient and precious trees last year, according to the local authority.

The city has adopted a raft of measures since it launched a tree-protection campaign in 2018, including treating tree cavities, installing protective fences and trunk supports, improving their living environments, and handling threats involving insects and diseases to the trees' health, says the municipal forestry bureau.

Meanwhile, Chongqing has strengthened tree protection through technologies. It created cards with QR codes for some ancient trees. Sensors also monitor the displacement, lodging and growing of several significant trees.

Chongqing is home to more than 25,500 ancient and precious trees, of which 510 are more than 500 years old.

In recent years, Chinese cities have launched various campaigns to strengthen the protection and improve the management of ancient and rare trees nationwide.

In March 2021, the local government revived a 406-year-old dying tree in Nanning, South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, after years of hard work, such as setting up hoses next to it and watering it twice a week during the dry season.

In December 2020, Taishan Mountain, a popular UNESCO World Heritage Site in Shandong province, encouraged the public to adopt more than 200 ancient and precious trees growing on the mountain.

Xinhua