Staff of the Zhangye Heihe Wetland National Nature Reserve patrol the area during a search for black storks in Gaotai in July. JIANG YONGHONG / FOR CHINA DAILY

Daily vigilance

For Jiang, protecting that progress is part of his daily work. His patrols take him along the Heihe River and through the Zhengyi Gorge area every other day. He checks for fires, tree cutting, sand and gravel extraction and damage to the riverbank, while also observing wildlife.

"The wetland is our neighbor," he said, describing how settlements and wetlands exist alongside each other.

The reserve is part of a broader wetland protection network in Zhangye, which has 230,300 hectares of wetlands. The city has established a four-level protection system involving a national nature reserve, national wetland parks, wetland conservation areas and villages jointly involved in wetland protection and management.

Technology is also expanding the reach of that protection. The city has added remote monitoring points, drone patrol systems and monitoring equipment, integrating them with satellite remote sensing and the city's ecological monitoring network.

On the ground, people continue to deal with the everyday challenges of sharing the landscape with birds.