Decades of abuse have prompted the government to launch cleanup campaigns

CHANGSHA - Many years ago, it was almost impossible for a swan to find a place to rest in Dongting Lake, China's second-largest freshwater lake.

Mei Biqiu, a former conservation official, remembers the lake's wetlands lush with black poplars, planted for timber and papermaking, depriving migratory waterbirds of their winter habitats.

"They are like water pumps of the wetlands-where they were planted, the soil dried up, the grass wilted and the birds left," said Mei, former chief of the West Dongting Lake Nature Reserve Administration.

Apart from poplars, there were seven or eight papermaking factories that reaped reeds and more than 30 sand boats and 100,000 nets that made the lake perilous for birds and fish, added the retired official.

For thousands of years, the Dongting Lake, which is along the Yangtze River, Asia's longest river, had been a thoroughfare for migratory birds with its biologically rich wetlands, but its status was tarnished amid the anti-hunger drive and economic pursuit in the last century.

It was not until recently that birds regained interest in the lake.

In 2017, a campaign was launched to chop down invasive poplars in the lake. The West Dongting Lake Reserve alone has cleared more than 6,600 hectares of poplars and it plans to complete the eradication by next year.

Meanwhile, the reserve has shut down all the paper mills and pig farms that discharge effluent into the lake and is gearing up for a 10-year fishing moratorium-effective on Jan 1-on the Yangtze River.

"Despite the old saying: 'Rely on the water for survival when there is water,' we've come to realize that a development model that depletes nature will not last long," he said.