Abstract:Heihe River is the second largest inland river in the northwest of China.Its wetland has played a significant role in the natural ecological environment and social economy of the Hexi corridor.In order to expedite the recovery process of the degraded wetland,ecological restoration practices including planting Phragmites australis and Tamarix chinensis along with enclosure was experimentally tested.The results showed that by the coverage 1 and 2 year after Phragmites australis planting increased 36.8% and 49.6% respectively.With top-pruning(10-12 cm aboveground parts retained),the average growth(in height) and new stem numbers of Tamarix chinensis increased 67.8% and 30.8% more than the control without top-pruning,respectively.In addition,top-pruning of Tamarix chinensis led to 16%-22% more increases of vegetation coverage.The vegetation coverage increased from 45.7% to 77.2% for the enclosure treatments,with 40.9% increase in height and 73.1% increase in average total aboveground biomass.