Historically, the Loess Plateau in China was once a "wild disaster with dense forests".

Since Qin and Han Dynasties, the Loess Plateau has experienced three climaxes of deforestation and land reclamation. The first time was a large-scale "reclamation" (organized reclamation by border guards) and "immigration" reclamation in the Qin and Han Dynasties. This large-scale "reclamation" has caused large-scale destruction of forests in northern Shanxi and northern Shaanxi. The second time was a large-scale "reclamation" in the Ming Dynasty, which caused unprecedented havoc to the ecological environment in the northern part of the Loess Plateau. According to textual research, in the early Ming Dynasty, the system of "ploughing fields" was vigorously promoted in northern Shaanxi (Yan 'an, Suide and Yulin areas) and northern Shanxi on the Loess Plateau, and the task of destroying forests and reclaiming land was imposed on every border guard. From here, we can easily see that the system of "reclaiming wasteland" implemented in the Ming Dynasty caused serious damage to the environment. The third reclamation was in the Qing dynasty, and the system of rewarding reclamation was implemented. The scope of reclamation moved from northern Shaanxi and northern Shanxi to southern Inner Mongolia, and millions of acres of grassland in the northern Loess Plateau and Ordos Plateau were reclaimed as farmland, which made the land desertification and soil erosion intensified.