The local population of red-necked cranes also dropped dramatically from 309 in 1984 to just 65 in 1995. In December 1998, a new provincial administration reversed its predecessor's decision reclaim the Beidahuang wilderness. It also decreed that the wetlands were in need of protection. At the same time, the provincial bureau has set up 16 nature reserves, covering 6.1 percent of Beidahuang. Scattered in between the farms here, the reserves are aimed at protecting swamps and their inhabitants - from microbes, to fish, to birds.
Some conservationists say such moves are coming in too little, and perhaps a bit late.
But they concede that, nevertheless, they are steps in the right direction, at last. Indications are that sufficient supply of food, at an annual increase of 1 billion kilograms, has made it possible to reconvert farmland to its original forested, pastured or wetland state. Advances in science and technology has also enabled farmers here to make an operational shift from quantity to quality farming, thereby also making the need for more reclaimed land less pressing. But some of those who participated in the transformation of Beidahuang decades ago cannot help but recall what they had to put up with to tame the Great Wilderness. Life was hard.