China’s ambitious campaign to combat desertification with afforestation Watching a large number of poplar trees in the area slowly dying,their branches turning bare,is both worrying and heartbreaking for 59-year-old Yuan Miaozhi,a forestry official in Zhangbei County,north China’s Hebei Province,especially since she planted many of the trees herself when she was a child. China’s ambitious campaign to combat desertification with afforestation Watching a large number of poplar trees in the area slowly dying, their branches turning bare, is both worrying and heartbreaking for 59-year-old Yuan Miaozhi, a forestry official in Zhangbei County, north China’s Hebei Province, especially since she planted many of the trees herself when she was a child.