Wetland blaze threatens red-crested cranes
By Liu Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-03-28 06:09

A week-long fire in Zhalong Nature Reserve in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province that has threatened a extremely rare species of bird was finally put out on Saturday night, local sources confirmed yesterday.

The fire has drawn wide concern about the fate of the red-crested crane, some of which find seasonal homes in the area's reed groves.

The blaze is believed to have been started by farmers illegally burning reeds on the wetland.

A number of dam projects that have cut off water to the reserve have also been blamed for making the area susceptible to fires.

No casualties were reported. The damage is still being assessed, said a source with the forest anti-fire office.

The fire started on the border of Duerbote County and Lindian County at about 1 pm on March 20. It spread to Qiqihar shortly afterwards and burnt for three days over some 320,000 mu (21,333 hectares) of wetland.

"Thick smoke could be seen about 30 kilometres away," Wang Hongzhang, with Zhalong township government, told China Daily.

Zhalong Nature Reserve consists of land from Duerbote and Lindian counties, and from Qiqihar municipal district. It covers 210,000 hectares.

The fire was almost brought under control on Wednesday, but it reignited on Friday before being put out on Saturday.

The fire has left a vast blackened area on the reserve.

"I'm afraid we might not see the migrant red-crested cranes fly over to Zhalong this spring," said Ma Lin, a worker at the reserve.

The rare species flies from Qinghai Lake, in Northwest China's Qinghai Province, to Zhalong every spring.

The local reed-growing wetland provides an ideal habitat for the birds, which have stopped off at the reserve for many years, staying from spring to autumn.

The red-crested crane likes to nest among the reeds above the wetland.

However, the wetland reeds have been on the decrease due to serious lack of water.

The wetlands are turning dry, said Wang.

"If the reeds have an ample water supply, fire cannot be easily triggered," he added.

Wang said the fire was probably started by local farmers, who are used to burning withered reeds in spring to encourage better growth in later months.

This method has been adopted by farmers for centuries in China.

However, such a practice is dangerous on dry areas, as a tiny spark can cause a large-scale and uncontrollable fire.

"Similar fires kindled by reeds burning have occured frequently in recent years," said a local resident, who declined to be named.

Wang said reeds burning had been banned for two years in the area.

But local farmers, who rely on the reeds as a major income source, continue to burn them so it is easier to collect others later on in the year.

The plant is considered as a high-quality material for paper-making and hand crafts.

"People are grabbing food from the red-crested cranes," said Ma Jianzhang, an expert at the Northeast Forestry University.

The drying wetlands and the fire have further threatened the birds' survival.

The Shuangyang River and the Wuyuer River are the two major water sources for the reserve. The rivers are tributaries of the Nenjiang River, a major river in Northeast China.

However, the establishment of a series of reservoirs in the upper reaches of the rivers has reduced the flow of water in the rivers.

The minimum water needed for the reserve to qualify as a wetland is about 100 million cubic metres each year. Some five million yuan (US$609,000) is needed to divert water from other areas into the reserve.

Set up in 1979, the area was designed as a State-level nature reserve for the red-crested crane.

The red-crested crane is an endangered species with the highest category of protection in China.

There are only 1,000 such birds in the world living in Japan, Russia, and the Republic of Korea. More than 220 of them are found in Zhalong alone.

(China Daily 03/28/2005 page3)

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