China Finally Enacts National Legislation to Protect Ancient Trees

By Windswept Wheatfields, Jointing.Media, in Shanghai, 2025-03-08

Crochet Art by Julia

At age 23, Julia Hill lived atop a 1,500-year-old redwood tree named “Luna” for 738 days to save it from logging, ultimately forcing a timber company to back down.

In 1997, Pacific Lumber Company planned to clear-cut an ancient redwood forest in California’s Headwaters Forest. Julia, reevaluating her life’s purpose after surviving a car accident, climbed Luna and built a makeshift tree platform. She relied on volunteers to deliver food and collect rainwater, powered her communications with solar panels, and endured extreme weather—from winter storms to scorching summers. Loggers harassed her with helicopter noise, nighttime climbing threats, and even forced her to defend herself with a knife.

By December 1999, Julia struck a deal: Pacific Lumber agreed to permanently protect Luna and a 60-meter buffer zone in exchange for $50,000 from her supporters. After 738 days, she descended. Her protest became a global environmental symbol, inspiring books, documentaries, and even the film Flipped.

Yet tragedy struck when vandals nearly felled Luna in 2000 with a 1.8-meter-deep chainsaw gash. Environmentalists stabilized the tree with steel cables and bark grafts, sparking public outrage that fueled legislative debates.

Reading Julia’s story 25 years later, I’m reminded of Hayao Miyazaki’s heroines—resilient, fearless, and radiant as rainbows. They are “gentle revolutionaries,” confronting the world’s harshness with quiet strength.

Ancient trees often fall victim to human shortsightedness. By the late 1800s, California’s redwood forests had been reduced to 10% of their original expanse, spurring the 1918 founding of Save the Redwoods League and later protections under the Endangered Species Act (1973) and National Forest Management Act (1976).

In China, 5.08 million ancient trees remain—over 40% of the world’s temperate ancients—but only 10,745 are millennia-old. A 2,600-year-old nanmu tree illegally cut in Guizhou (2022) epitomizes ecological and cultural loss.

Hayao Miyazaki’s animated works consistently critique industrial civilization’s destruction of ecology. Heroines like Nausicaä from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and San from Princess Mononoke reject violent confrontation, instead forging connections through empathy. Julia Hill, writing diaries and giving media interviews from her treetop perch, transformed protest into public narrative; Nausicaä, standing bodily against the rage of the Ohm swarm—both used “vulnerability” to dismantle the rigidity of power structures.

Geologists mark humanity’s dominance over Earth with the term “Anthropocene,” while the growth rings of ancient trees record climate shifts, the rise and fall of civilizations, and human awakening. The “Guardians of Ancient Trees” now write the possibilities of a “Symbiocene” through concrete action, demonstrating the symbiotic wisdom between humans and nature.

Zhao Sikong, a forest ranger in Guangyuan City, has devoted 28 years to safeguarding the millennium-old “Wu Family Cypress” in Tianzhao Mountain. He pioneered a unique tree-care method inspired by traditional Chinese medicine’s “observation, listening, inquiry, and palpation” diagnostic approach, assessing tree health through leaf patterns and bark aroma.

His innovative conservation techniques include reinforcing trunks with carbon fiber “vests,” performing “minimally invasive surgery” to remove decay, and reviving 2,478 endangered ancient cypresses. Applying TCM’s holistic philosophy, he treats trees as living organisms with vital energy flow—a perspective echoing Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of the body, where perception precedes analysis, and empathy guides action.

As a civilian forest chief in Xiangtan County, Zhao Zijun has dedicated himself to protecting a 305-year-old camphor tree without compensation. Even during National Day holidays, he forgoes rest to conduct daily patrols, clean the surrounding environment, and prevent human damage. His actions have inspired villagers to join conservation efforts, fostering a community spirit of “collective stewardship and shared benefits.”

After retirement, Cao Yunquan surveyed over 350 ancient trees in Nantong, compiling the Nantong Ancient and Notable Trees compendium to promote the restoration of endangered specimens. Traveling on foot and by bicycle to remote locations, he applied agricultural techniques to improve tree habitats—remediating soil, controlling pests, and even developing a new cotton cultivar “Tongjian No.1″ to bridge ecological preservation and farming. His vigorous advocacy saved a 1,500-year-old “Nantong Tree King” ginkgo from fatal trunk fissures, earning him the title of the city’s “foremost civilian tree guardian.”

Guangzhou’s “Plant Doctor” Bi Keke successfully revived over 20 ancient trees toppled by Typhoon Meranti in Xiamen, including a 4,000-year-old giant cypress. She developed customized “one-tree-one-solution” conservation plans and established a digital management platform. Pioneering biological pest control with the “using insects to combat insects” technique, she reduced pesticide use while developing 12 species of natural predator insects now deployed across Guangzhou’s parks. Her expertise contributed to the Tibet Giant Cypress Conservation Project, helping establish the World Cypress King Garden scenic area to promote ecotourism of endangered species.

Wang Kang, Director of the National Botanical Garden’s Science Education Center, has dedicated 27 years to ancient tree conservation. He created China’s first archival system for ancient trees in botanical gardens and spearheaded the national census of notable trees that informed the Regulations on Ancient and Notable Tree Protection. Advocating “long-term monitoring and perpetual care,” he warns against the risks of transplanting ancient trees during urbanization. His research on extracting ecological value from ancient tree genetics—such as cold-resistant genes from northern elms—could revolutionize frost-resistant urban greening projects.

In Zhejiang’s Shaoxing, 78,000 ancient Torreya trees have become “prosperity trees,” generating ¥2.66 billion in 2024. This proves conservation and development can coexist—ancient trees aren’t obstacles to progress, but rather the root system of a sustainable economy. Their knotted trunks now bear witness to an economic model where cultural heritage and green GDP intertwine like symbiotic mycorrhizal networks.

Legally, China’s journey mirrors this shift. The Regulations on the Protection of Ancient and Famous Trees, effective March 15, 2025, mandates decadal surveys, upgrading localized rules into national law. Meanwhile, Shaoxing’s 78,000 ancient torreya trees now yield $2.66 billion annually, proving conservation and prosperity can coexist.

A 2,300-year-old cypress in Sichuan’s Jiange has witnessed empires rise and fall. Humanity’s 300-year industrial spree now threatens civilizations built over millennia. As philosopher Alfred North Whitehead observed: “The advancement of civilization lies in the continual expansion of the range of thingswe ought not to destroy.” Protecting ancients isn’t just ecology—it’s safeguarding the roots of our shared future.

In 2001, the National Greening Commission conducted China’s first comprehensive census of ancient and notable trees, systematically documenting these living relics for the first time. The 2019 Forestry Law broke new ground by incorporating specific provisions for ancient tree protection. On January 27 this year, a watershed moment arrived as the State Council promulgated the Regulations on the Protection of Ancient and Notable Trees, set to take effect on March 15, 2025. The legislation mandates decennial national surveys, marking the evolution from regional ordinances (already adopted by 17 provinces) to unified national statutes—China’s first legal framework specifically designed to safeguard its arboreal heritage.

This legislative milestone embodies both sober reckoning with past ecological damage and aspirational vision for harmonious coexistence. Consider the 2,300-year-old cypress in Sichuan’s Jiange County: this silent witness to the rise and fall of Qin and Han dynasties has endured millennia, while humanity’s industrial revolution spans a mere three centuries. Our civilization, having exploited nature in the name of “progress,” now faces the paradoxical truth that destroying our natural foundations ultimately undermines our own survival. Protecting ancient trees transcends environmental duty—it represents nothing less than safeguarding the very roots of human continuity.

（DeepSeek also contributed to this article)

中文原文

Edited by Jas

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