Thursday marks World Forest Day. China has been largely promoting tree planting and forest protection for decades, but people seldom get a closer look at the daily work of these Chinese rangers, who have devoted decades of their time and love for the nation's most pristine beauty. I got the chance to meet one of them. 

He Zhenhong, 65, is a forest ranger in Wuyanling National Nature Reserve in Taishun County of east China's Zhejiang Province. He has been working in this forest for 37 years. Actually, he started planting trees in 1982. Back then, many Chinese farmers like him planned to make money by selling the trees they planted and worked with local forest farms. But He Zhenhong said after almost two decades, the much-greener Wuyanling Forest Farm turned into a national nature reserve in 2004. The trees they planted could not be cut and sold anymore. The message is clear, this transition shows that China has taken more efforts to protect the forests. 

It is foggy at Wuyanling for more than half the year. Sometimes He Zhenhong patrols 20 or 30 kilometers a day. He said one of his major jobs is to check whether there are pest eggs on the trees. Whenever he finds these eggs, he gets rid of them. There are thousands of plants and animals in the forest. He said they need to balance the ecology when protecting the forest as these plants and animals are closely interconnected. If they can't protect the ecology, many animals will leave. There is an endangered bird species called Tragopan Caboti that can't make its own nests. Every year, He has to make more than a hundred nests for them.  

He Zhenhong told us that one of the major challenges for locals is that there are still several remote villages inside the forest. To better protect nature, these farmers are not allowed to do anything that could damage the ecology. But without proper farming, it seems hard for them to survive. He hopes that these villagers can be relocated somewhere with government support. After all, nature protection should not be sacrificed for people's quality of life.

Rangers can check some remote areas through different cameras. But He Zhenhong said the salary of this job is a little low, young people are not willing to come. From planting trees to being a forest ranger, He likes what he does and hopes more young people will join the work, which will better protect the forest.

Thanks to the work of numerous Chinese rangers, a NASA satellite now shows a much greener forest and greener China.

(Cover photo via VCG)