Straw checkerboards help with sand control in China's Ulan Buh Desert

STORY: Straw checkerboards help with sand control in China's Ulan Buh Desert DATELINE: April 4, 2022 LENGTH: 00:02:59 LOCATION: HOHHOT, China CATEGORY: ENVIRONMENT SHOTLIST: 1. various of Ulan Buh Desert 2. SOUNDBITE (Chinese): HE WENQIANG, Staff of sand prevention and control bureau of Dengkou County, Inner Mongolia 3. various of the desert STORYLINE: In the heart of Ulan Buh Desert, China's eighth largest desert in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, straw checkerboards are playing a key role in sand control work. SOUNDBITE (Chinese): HE WENQIANG, Staff of sand prevention and control bureau of Dengkou County, Inner Mongolia "We usually use straws of 30 to 40 centimeters to pave a square of 1 meter by 1 meter. These straw checkerboards have three advantages. The first is to reduce wind speed; the second is that it enables us to plant sacsaouls in it and provide them with fertilizers; the third is it can hold water so that the sacsaouls can have enough water to grow." Ulan Buh Desert covers an area of a