Over the past five decades, China has planted 66 billion trees in a massive wall that spans the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts. This reforestation effort intended to stop the deserts’ spread is working — but, it turns out, with a surprising twist.

In a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, researchers found that the trees planted in the so-called “Great Green Wall” appear to grow faster than trees in natural forests, possibly because they respond to the rising CO2 levels in our atmosphere better.

The Great Green Wall project began in 1978 and is expected to be completed by 2050. The original intent was to slow the desertification of the country’s grasslands, of which the Gobi devours over a thousand square miles every year. In its early stages, the initiative struggled to get off the ground, as some of the trees chosen for their quick growth turned out to be poorly suited for the environment and died off.

But Chinese scientists pushed on. In a monumental feat of planning and perseverance, the verdant barrier has continued to grow instead of dying off — a fate that commonly befalls other green wall initiatives that learned that you can’t brute force your way into planting as many trees as possible. Forest cover in the regions the wall touches has ballooned from 5 percent in 1978 to 14 percent in 2023, according to a Nature article, which has helped cut down on dust storms and improve the air quality in downwind cities, including Beijing.

Something weird is going on with the 66 billion trees China planted in a huge wall