Jinan ramps up efforts to protect ancient trees

Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong province, is putting in continuous efforts to protect its ancient trees and promote greenery in the city.

One example is the cypress tree in Shiduzhuang village of the city's Changqing district, which is well protected despite being located in a veritable construction zone.

This cypress tree dates back over 1,000 years. The city and the district have been taking measures to protect it, such as using GPS data to mark it out as a controlled area, and mapping out other special schemes with experts, said Wang Shunping, Party secretary of the village.

Currently, the city has identified and listed 4,532 first-, second-, and third-level ancient trees, and undertaken work to salvage and restore over 260 of them.

In recent years, the protection of ancient trees has been officially listed in Jinan's government work report. Investing over 10 million yuan ($1.36 million) in this area, the city has developed a smart online platform and an app to protect and restore its ancient trees using innovative technology.

"Utilizing a wide-area network and internet of things technology, the platform can monitor the growth status of ancient trees in real time, and enable dynamic supervision," said Han Bo, a senior engineer at the Jinan Academy of Landscape and Forestry Sciences.

"Through the platform, we can access the archives, geographic location and other information about these ancient trees at any time. Moreover, for those that need extra protection, we can carry out real-time monitoring in various areas such as the moisture and nutrients in the soil, in order to better protect them," he added.

Jinan has also established a raft of technical standards and systems, aiming to standardize the conservation and management of its ancient trees.

Making the most of those still standing in the city, Jinan has created a number of green areas, parks and forest recreation demonstration bases, to promote its urban greenery construction, said Zhou Jianguo, head of the Jinan City Garden and Forestry Greening Bureau.