6/24/13

6/24/13

Today we went to the West Dongting Lake Wetland Conservation Park and went boating on the lake. It didn’t feel very sustainable because we could smell the gas that the boat was burning. It was really great to see the wetlands though, we ran up stairs in the rain to get to this platform where we could see really far out. It was a lot of fun and a bit crazy. We learned about how much the lake shrunk. A lot of the lakes have shrunk drastically in China. They now grow crops on the edges, which is great for migratory birds. It also helps with flood control (a problem sometimes caused from deforestation), which decreases soil erosion. We learned about how they plant a specific type of tree on the sides of the lake that can go weeks without sunlight and still be okay. These trees can handle water very well, so when the area floods and there is not a lot of sunlight they will still survive. I didn’t catch the name of the trees, however.