Xishan state-owned forest farm, with an area of 180,000 mu (12,000 hectares) and an average altitude of more than 800 meters, is a natural oxygen bar for the county. There are more than 4,000 hectares of natural secondary forests that are preserved well. In the forest farm, more than a dozen staff are busy cultivating Chinese firs. 

 

Gao Dongwen, a forestry engineer of Xishan forest farm, said that in the past, the forest farm mainly planted a kind of pine in a mountain. Since 2014, Xishan forest farm has transformed the traditional Chinese fir forests and historical coniferous forests into precious trees such as Chinese yew and Nanmu, eliminated poor trees by means of auxiliary cultivation and thinning, and fully utilized the skylight to plant high-quality trees.

 

Up to now, 15,000 mu (1,000 hectares) of reforestation have been completed, 1,500 mu (100 hectares) of forest transformation has been implemented, 2.5 mu (0.167 hectares) of medium and young forests have been completed, and the forest coverage rate has reached 84.47%. 

 

Now, there are 1,730 species of plants and 323 species of animals in the farm, including three species of national first-class protected plants and 33 species of key protected animals. 

 

At the same time, the forest farm increased efforts on forest fire prevention, hiring 14 forest fire prevention informants in the forest area, and establishing an emergency fire-fighting team of 30 people. There has been no forest fire for 40 consecutive years.

 

Gao Dongwen said that at present, precious tree species, local tree species and wetland tree species are mainly planted under big trees to restore the original plant diversity.

 

In 2009, Xishan forest farm made full use of the reform of state-owned forest farm to develop Xiyao Green Valley National Forest Park. The park covers five types of biological landscape, geographical landscape and hydrological landscape, attracting a large number of tourists.