For a ranger, no mountain is too high to climb

Although Ma had anticipated the challenges of living in the high-altitude areas above 2,600 meters, the harsh conditions at the resource management center where he and his colleagues were stationed still took some time getting used to.

"The infrastructure was extremely underdeveloped at that time. There was no electricity, and we relied on kerosene lamps for lighting. We had to fetch water from a river several hundred meters away, and supplies were delivered by truck only three times a month, leaving us almost completely cut off from the outside world for the rest of the time," Ma said. "There was no phone at the station, and I didn't know my eldest daughter was born until three days after her birth!"

The resource management station where Ma works covers an area of about 20,000 hectares. Each ranger is required to patrol for at least 20 days a month, engaging in forest and grassland fire prevention, wildlife and wetland resource monitoring, comprehensive forest management, and educating herders on laws and regulations.

Every detail of their patrols is meticulously recorded; over the past 26 years, Ma has filled 60 to 70 notebooks. Each patrol lasts a minimum of three hours, with the longest covering a round trip of 80 kilometers. Ma's patrol mileage in his job has exceeded 100,000 km, equivalent to circling the Earth 2.5 times. "When the unit distributes supplies, we often say that they can skip other items, just give us more shoes because they wear out so quickly," Ma said.

Being a forest ranger means facing various uncertainties and emergencies. Ma and his colleagues have trekked steep mountain paths, encountered wolves, fallen off horses during patrols, and faced extreme weather conditions: winter temperatures dropping to minus 30 C with heavy snow sealing off the mountains, and frequent summer rains posing landslide threats.

"One summer, the rain was particularly heavy. A mudslide came down the mountain, destroying the station's building. We had to take shelter in a herder's sheep pen overnight, fortunately staving off any casualties," he said.