美国的第一片防护林 First Shelterbelt in the United State, Oklahoma —— 毕业之旅第七天

First Shelterbelt in the United States, Oklahoma - The 7th Day of the Graduation Travel

在看完Garden City 附近的荒漠化农田之后，我知道我的毕业旅行快要接近尾声了。在这一周里面，基本上把很多应该看的想去看的地方都看了，想想我现在在写自己的毕业旅行，已经是旅游发生完一年之后了，觉得有点不可思议，时间就是过去这么快，有点手足无措，终于在这个7月4日美国独立日，基本把游记和思路写出来。

After visiting the desertified farmland near Garden City, I knew I was nearing the end of my graduation travel. In that single week, I basically saw a lot of places that I should have seen and wanted to see. Thinking about how I'm writing about my graduation trip now, a year after the tour took place, I find it a bit unbelievable that the time just passes by so fast, and a bit overwhelmed that I'm finally able to basically write up my travel notes and thoughts on this July 4th, Independence Day in the United States of America.

这天开始从kansas稍微往南边探索了一下，到达了德州，发现德州的北部也是如此荒芜，热浪一浪接着一浪，而且也并没有什么旅游景点，于是开始折返，开始往俄克拉荷马州去，看看美国的第一片防护林究竟是怎么回事。

The day started with exploring a little south from Kansas, reaching Texas, and realizing that the northern part of Texas was also so barren, with heat wave after heat wave, and there wasn't much in the way of tourist attractions, so I started to turn back, and started to head towards Oklahoma, to see what was going on with America's first shelterbelt forests.

一路上，天很蓝，风很热， 这几天的旅程让我明白，尽管中部大平原人少地多，但是这样的气候环境并不是所有的人和植物都能适合生存的。 万物似乎在挣扎中生存，长大，果实被收割，然后下一代，周而复始，如此循环往复。 一年又一年……

Along the way, the sky was blue, the wind was hot, and the journey made me realize that even though there are fewer people and more land in the central Great Plains, the climate is not suitable for all people and plants. Everything seems to struggle to survive and grow up, then fruit or crops are harvested, then the next generation, and so on and so on. Year after year, grow and death.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=39805

美国的第一个防护林，当时我就按照这个地址，一路前行到达，最终找到了这个防护林究竟是什么样子。

The first shelterbelt in the United States, when I followed this address and traveled all the way to arrive and eventually find out what this shelterbelt actually looked like.

在这里找到了它的里程碑。

Find its milestones here.

想要了解防护林的历史的同学可以移步阅读一下这篇文章，上面讲述了其创建到发展的过程。

For those of you who want to learn about the history of the shelterbelt, you can move over and read this article, which tells the story of its creation to its development.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20454725

总的来说，当年联邦政府希望构建一些列的防护林，以缓解Dust Bowl 事件带来的影响，整个计划非常宏大，从美国的德州一直到加拿大，都在农田之间划分出一定的空间范围出来，种树， 种植一列列树，遮挡风，减弱风力。

In short conclusion, the federal government wanted to build forests to mitigate the effects of the Dust Bowl, and the plan was so ambitious that the federal government carved out space between farmland from Texas to Canada to plant trees, rows and rows of trees, to shield them from the winds and to dampen the winds.

如今看看当时的构想效果图，会发现如此的不切实际，一列又一列， 确实这样的构想曾经持续了一段时间，也成功过一段时间，带来了很多优点，增加了生物多样性，提供了一些动物植物的栖息场所，减弱了风和雪， 给附近的住房带来了舒适，在这些树的10倍高度的范围之内，实现了农业增收，等等……

Nowadays, when you look at the rendering of the idea, you see how impractical it was, row after row, but it did go on for a while, and it was successful for a while, and it brought a lot of advantages, it increased biodiversity, it provided habitat for animals and plants, it reduced wind and snow, it brought comfort to the neighborhoods, and it increased the income of the agriculture in the area within 10 times the height of the trees, and so on and so forth. etc.

在风风火火的植树造林十几年之后，这项活动开始走向尾声， 也没有了刚开始时候的红红火火。一方面是因为1940s之后，汽车内燃机等技术的发展，促进了中心灌溉农田的发展，而有了这样的灌溉技术， 尘暴发生的可能性越来越少，反正农田有水灌溉，甚至还可以在原来干旱的地方种植玉米这种大量需要灌溉水的作物。所以防护林就逐渐被人忘记了。

After more than ten years of vigorous reforestation, this activity is coming to an end and is not as popular as it was at the beginning. On the one hand, it is because after the 1940s, the development of the automobile and internal combustion engine promoted the development of center-irrigated farmland, and with this kind of irrigation technology, the possibility of dust storms is less and less, and there is water to irrigate the farmland, and it is even possible to grow corn, a crop that needs a lot of irrigation water, in the formerly dry area. So shelterbelts were gradually forgotten.

另一方面，构建防护林少则十几二十年的时间，会占用农业土地，需要大量的人力物力去建设，后期有些防护林还会和中心灌溉系统的冲突，所以只能砍掉……各种经济利益驱动下并不划算。

On the other hand, the construction of protective forests less than ten or twenty years, will occupy agricultural land, need a lot of manpower and material resources to build, and later on some protective forests will also be and the center of the irrigation system of the conflict so can only be cut down ...... all kinds of economic interests drive is not cost-effective.

还有就是，经历了这么七八十年的防护林，很多树已经很老，在这种艰苦环境生长的很多防护林，它们的树基本上都已经有了一定的岁数，已经很难再继续坚持下去，有些就会死掉，而种植新的又需要时间也需要人力和金钱，渐渐被放弃，被遗忘。很多历史上花了大价钱大力气的防护林，现在就这样渐渐地消失在历史的长河中。

There is also the fact that after so many seventy to eighty years of protective forests, many trees have been very old, many protective forests grown in this difficult environment, their trees have basically had a certain age, and it has been difficult to continue to hold on, some will die, and planting a new one will take time as well as manpower and money, and gradually be abandoned and forgotten. A lot of protective forests that have cost a lot of money and effort in history are now just gradually disappearing into the river of history.

现在看看这个第一个防护林的建设思路，基本上保留着原来应该有的样子，在两边种植松树pine等这些常绿针叶林，中间种植落叶阔叶林。至于为什么，一方面这些针叶林相对来说生长比较缓慢，相对来说也比较低矮一点，但是它能够给中间的那些生长得比较快的落叶阔叶林提供一定的保护作用。另一方面有了这些针叶林的存在，其在冬天，或者落叶树没有叶子的季节，依然能够提供很好的防护作用。同时也保护了相对来说更为脆弱的落叶林的成长。

Now take a look at the construction of this first protective forest idea, basically retained the original should have the appearance of the two sides of the planting of pine pine pine and other evergreen coniferous forests, the middle of the planting of deciduous broad-leaved forests. Why, on the one hand, these coniferous forests are relatively slow-growing and relatively low, but it can give the middle of those fast-growing deciduous broad-leaved forests a certain degree of protection. On the other hand, these conifers provide good protection in winter, when the deciduous trees are leafless. It also protects the growth of the relatively more vulnerable deciduous forests.

所有这些树都生长得不高，边缘的树，甚至被吹得七零八落。

All these trees do not grow very tall, and those on the edges, are even blown to pieces.

毕竟从1935年到现在，这片防护林在这里已经快百年历史了，至今尽管还野蛮生长着，但是怎么的也需要一些打理和和维护吧。而这个第一个防护林的农场，也并没有种植任何庄稼。

After all, this shelterbelt has been here for almost a hundred years, from 1935 to the present, and so far, despite the wild growth, it needs some tending and maintenance anyhow, doesn't it? And this first farm of the forest did not plant any crops.

从侧面看，有些树已经快要被吹落。

From the side, some of the trees are about to be blown down.

如果需要给出什么样的评价，构想和建设一系列防护林的想法确实有点过于宏大，整体上说那时候的考虑更多的只考虑到了怎么防止沙尘暴，怎么减弱dust bowl，而实际上这些shelter belt又不是建设在dust bowl 最严重的区域，而是离开核心区域远远的，只为了防止这些沙尘暴会吹到东部沿海城市。但是构建这些防护林的时候却没有加入一些社会性，和怎么和人活动结合的想法。甚至是商业活动，自行车绿廊等等的可以构想的想法，甚至是苗木怎么样卖掉的计划，如果不只是单单的构想成为功能性的防风林，而是这些防风林之间会有一些林中步道，会通向某一个节点，会到达城市，会和农田中的牛牛羊羊所联系……或许将会有更多潜在的发展可能吧。

If you want me to give any kind of comment, the idea of conceiving and building a series of shelterbelts was a little bit too grandiose, and on the whole, it was more about how to prevent dust storms and how to weaken the dust bowl, and in fact, these shelter belts were not constructed in the areas where the dust bowl was the most severe, but far away from the core area, just to prevent these dust storms from blowing into the eastern part of the country. these dust storms from blowing into the eastern seaboard cities. However, the forests were built without any idea of the social aspects and how to integrate them with human activities. Even commercial activities, bicycle corridors, etc. can be conceived ideas, and even seedlings how to sell the plan, if not only conceived as a functional windbreak, but these windbreaks will have some forest trails between the forests, will lead to a node, will reach the city, will be connected with the cattle and sheep in the farmland ...... Perhaps there will be more potential development possibilities.

这个willow town目前存在的防护林，总的来说已经算得上是保存完好。整个中部大平原里， 这些防护林都一个个零散地分布在整个中部大平原中，现在大多已经年久失修有点退化，有的因为和农业灌溉系统矛盾被移除，有点逐渐死掉，后一代人也未必会珍惜这一片又一片的森林。或许防护林的体系需要更系统化的研究和思考，才能很好地设计和构建，甚至最后能够减少中部大平原这些时常发生龙卷风之地带来的损害。而土地的状态也需要常年的检测，必须防止荒漠化的情况出现，如果出现了要立即追究责任并看看接下来的补救措施。各种防护林有没有可能和光伏，以及风力发电系统等等的构建在一起，以形成更高的效率，在整个大的系统之下，还有待更深入的研究。

The forests that currently exist in Willow Town are generally well-preserved. In the entire Central Great Plains, these forests are scattered one by one, most of them have been degraded, some of them have been removed because of the conflict with the agricultural irrigation system, and some of them are dying, and the next generation may not treasure these forests one after another. Perhaps the system of protective forests needs more systematic research and thinking to be well designed and constructed, and even finally to be able to reduce the damage caused by these places in the Central Great Plains where tornadoes occur from time to time. And the state of the land needs to be tested year-round; desertification must be prevented, and if it occurs it must be immediately held accountable and looked at for the next remedies. Whether or not it is possible to construct various kinds of protective forests together with photovoltaic and wind power generation systems, etc., to create a higher efficiency under the overall system, has yet to be studied in depth.