In the arid valley of the Zagunao River, five plantation plots of Cupressus chengiana with different years were chosen, and the growth of C. chengiana young trees (including tree height, basal diameter, crown diameter, and growth of height), plant community characteristics (vegetation coverage and species composition) and soil properties (soil pH, water content, soil nutrient content) were examined to assess the ecological effects of plantation using native tree species. The growth of all young trees with different planting years was well, young trees planted in 2003 were the best, the basal diameter, tree height and crown diameter respectively was 4.39cm, 4.17m and 1.01m, the increment of height was more than 43cm; young trees planted in 2001 and 2005 were relatively good, the base diameters were 4.19cm and 4.52cm, tree heights were 2.50m and 2.17m, the crown diameters were 0.55m and 0.61m, the increments of height approximately 37cm. Due to the shorter growth time of young trees planted in 2007 and 2009, their base diameters, tree heights and crown diameters were smaller, but their increments of height were more than 20cm. The changes of vegetation coverage in the plantations with different years were relatively complex, except the plantation of 2001, the shrub layer coverage decreased gradually with increase of plantation time, while the changes of herb layer coverage were small, the herb layer coverage of plantation of 2005 was the highest, and there were no significant differences among other plantations. Community structure of the plantations was simple, and plant species numbers reduced with the plantation time except the plantation of 2001. In addition, the changes of soil pH, organic matter and nutrient contents were also small among different plantations. Although the differences of soil water content among them were significant, there was no obvious trend. The results indicates that C. chengiana is a suitable tree species for plantation in the Zagunao river basin of arid valley of the upper Minjiang River, but the ecological effects of vegetation restoration and soil improvement are not fully reflected. Long-term observations need to be conducted for rational assessment of their ecological effects.