Wild spotted deer can be seen once again in the hinterland of Heilongjiang Province, northeast China, thanks to local forestation and ecological conservation efforts.

Eighteen spotted deer were found looking for food by a veteran forest ranger on the No. 859 Farm of the land reclamation region of the province.

Wild spotted deer had disappeared from the area for almost two decades, the ranger and his fellows recall.

Located in the hinterland of the Beidahuang (Great Wilderness) area in the province, the farm is bestowed with abundant resources of wild animals and plants. But over the past several decades, the ecological environment was devastated gradually because of undue land reclamation.

To restore its ecological environment, the farm has made efforts to conserve its natural forests and planted over 1,340 hectares of trees since 1998, bringing its total area of forests to 36,850 hectares and its forest coverage to 40 percent.

Besides the forestation efforts, the farm has adopted a series of measures to ensure a delightful environment for wildlife, including the establishment of nature preservation zones and a ban on hunting wild animals.

(People's Daily March 11, 2004)