Heavy Snows May Help Reforest China's Deserts

China has been receiving record level snowfalls the past few months and much devastation as resulted; however, there is an upside to this reality, the spring melts may help reforest a hard hit region.

The snowfall in China these past months is the heaviest and the longest snowfall that has been recorded n China. The effect on many people has been tragic, however, there may be an upside in the southern edge of Takla Makan Desert, China's largest desert a China.org.can report says that the heavy snow may help forestation efforts in the region. Since mid-January the snowfall has covered an area of 750,000 square kilometres in the south of the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The benefits come from the fact that the heavy snow will help ease the spring drought in the driest area in the country, said Zhang Ximing, researcher with Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The continuous snow around Kunlun mountain will increase the amount of melting snow and following floods in summer. It is possible to channel the flood water so that it will nourish trees in the southern Takla Makan Desert. A way to channel the flood in spring and summer has been created by scientists and residents in south Xinjiang using to nourish Chinese Tamarisks, a kind of deep-rooted tree valued for their adaptability to extreme desert climates, since the 1950s. Approximately, 300,000 people around the Taklamakan Desert had been affected by the snow and 44,600 livestock had died In Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.