Sichuan Baishuihe National Nature Reserve, 70 kilometers away from Chengdu, possesses a total area of 301.5square kilometers, lying on the northwest edge of Sichuan Basin within the border of Pengzhou City. Being the closest Nature Reserve to the provincial capital, it is a national nature reserve dedicated to the conservation of rare wildlife like giant pandas and species diversity.
The 8.0-magnitude earthquake in Wenchuan County of Sichuan Province at 14:28 on May 12th resulted in exclusive interruption of telecommunication, electricity and transportation in Pengzhou City while 4 reservoirs were endangered, 55 bridges damaged and 1 bridge collapsed. And numerous mountain massifs crumbled. 98% of houses in 6 towns in the mountain area were seriously damaged while 14 other towns were differentially afflicted with a large number of villages razed to the ground. Of these, Pengzhou City is one of the major disaster areas. Up to May 28, there were 897 people dead, 5,753 injured, 214 missing, 76,888 houses collapsed and 610,948 afflicted. And the direct financial loss reached 22,814 billion yuan.
Baishuihe National Nature Reserve is situated at the central southern sector of Longmen Mountain folded belt which belongs geographically to the eastern Hengduan Mountain, separated only by a mountain from Wenchuan and Dujiangyan. Most protection stations and the equipments were at Longmen mountain and Xiaoyudong area, the closest sector of the epicenter.Wenchuan earthquake brought about destructive damage to the Reserve and caused huge losses. Forturnately, none of the Reserve staff was killed. Protection stations of both Donglin Temple at Longmenshan town and Wangjiaping and the Publicity and Education Center were all declared unsafe for habitation, whereas Daping Protection Station at Longmenshan town and its watchtowers were completely shattered. Within this region, exclusive collapses were made and the ecological environment of Giant Panda Habitat was badly destroyed with vegetation loss of 3,300 hectares. The disaster damaged 150-kilometer patrol and inspection walking trails, 158 boundary posts and signboards, 6-kilometer plumbing pipelines and 12-kilometer transmission lines. The monitoring devices originally equipped like GPS, elevation meters, box compasses, cameras, telescopes, computers, printers and other devices were all buried and damaged by the ruins. Consequently, the Reserve requires funds of over 20 million yuan to get reconstructed.
Highway bridges to the Nature Reserve were all broken and their surrounding communities and schools were suffered from the great havoc.
Pre-earthquake: dense vegetation and rich natural resources in the Reserve
Post-earthquake: extensive crumbled mountain massif and destroyed vegetation
Pre-earthquake: Daping Protection Station
Post-earthquake: Daping Nature Protection Station
Post-earthquake: Reserve staff handling office business and sticking to their posts at canvas offices
Pre-earthquake: Wangjiaping Publicity and Education Centre
Post-earthquake: Wangjiaping Publicity and Education Centre
Pre-earthquake: Donglin Temple Protection Station
Post-earthquake: Donglin Temple Protection Station
Pre-earthquake: Xiaoyudong mid-dam Protection Station
Post-earthquake: Xiaoyudong mid-dam Protection Station
Post-earthquake: local residences leveled
School resumption ceremony amidst the ruins
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