Forest Club model projects and sites

GENERAL FOREST CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REGION

Russia's taiga as a whole is a complex mosaic of different ecosystems. Forests do not always dominate the landscape. Many areas are primarily bogs, sparse forest, mountain tundra, and other non-forest ecosystems. The dominance of conifers in the older forests is absolute. Conifer forests - mostly Scots Pine and Norway Spruce and to a much lesser extent Larch and Siberian Stone Pine - account for no less than 77 percent of the total forest area (Lesnoi Fond ..., 1999). However, these official data overestimates the share of conifers. For example, before the 1995 Forest Inventory Instruction was issued, all forests with a share of conifers greater than 0.4 by volume were classified as coniferous, even if dominated by deciduous trees. The same was true for all coniferous forest plantations, even when overgrown by fast-growing deciduous species (Instruktsiya po …., 1986). Forests dominated by birch and aspen account for 23 percent of the total area, according to the official forest inventory. These are mostly relatively young secondary forests on logging sites, sometimes also on burned areas. A small amount of birch forest can also be found in a narrow band along the northern boundary of the forest. Forests in which broadleaved hardwoods dominate (oak, elm, ash, maple, linden) cover only a very small area - less than 0.01 percent of the territory, mostly in the southwest regions of Pskov and Novgorod. Broadleaved hardwoods typically grow as minor components in forests where other tree species dominate.

Fig. 3. Forest - tundra transition zone. Tumen Region, Ural Mountains. Photo: V. Korotkov.

The northern edge of the taiga is an exceedingly diffuse transition zone toward the tundra, and drawing a sharp delineation would be a very arbitrary exercise. Forest cover gradually thins and breaks up, from a more or less closed northern boreal forest to areas with only sparse forest, essentially nothing more than small pockets of trees or even solitary trees, surrounded by tundra. Narrow bands of closed forest stretch out into the tundra along the valleys of rivers and creeks. Small stands also occur in places that are especially warm or sheltered by the local topography from strong northern winds. Bogs, which cover extensive areas on water divides and river terraces in the vicinity of the northern tree line form a vast treeless expanse together with tundra. Higher elevation ecosystems of the subpolar and northern Ural Mountains are also part of this large zone. Whether or not these areas should be included in the boreal forest or tundra landscapes is a question with no clear answer. In our research, all non-forest ecosystems, which make up the forest-less expanse together with zonal tundra, have been excluded from the analysis of intact forest areas.

The southern edge of the taiga was formed by natural and anthropogenic elements in an intricate interaction. Human activities have played a decisive role here for many centuries, including shaping the very boundaries of the vegetation zones. The transition from typical southern boreal ecosystems to mixed conifer/deciduous and deciduous forests was diffuse and gradual. All areas investigated in this work are located above the southern boundary of the boreal as drawn by many authorities. Only the very southwestern corner (parts of the Pskov and Novgorod regions) is sometimes considered to belong to the zone of mixed coniferous and deciduous forests. In any case, large (greater than 50,000 hectares) areas free of infrastructure or signs of intensive economic activity for the last 50-60 years, remain only within the boreal zone.

The examined territory can be divided into the following main parts, based on natural forest vegetation characteristics:

The Baltic shield (1) is dominated by pine forests. These stands grow on outcrops of crystalline rock or sandy glacial sediments which were formed during the latter stages of the last glacial retreat. There is also an abundance of bogs and lakes which in the north form a complex mosaic within mountainous areas. The landscape dynamics of the Baltic shield is strongly influenced by forest fires. These fires are frequent but usually small-scale and rather weak ground fires due mainly to the pronounced fragmentation of the topography. The area of the Baltic shield is clearly defined on forest maps by the dominance of pine forest (see Figure 4).

The western slopes of the Ural Mountains (2) are characterized by substantial amounts of precipitation, many days with cloudy and foggy weather, and high levels of wintertime snow accumulation. This area is dominated by Spruce-Fir and Spruce-Fir-Siberian Stone Pine forests, historically only marginally affected by fire and in many cases not showing any signs of fire influence at all. On forest maps this territory is clearly visible as a uniform spruce-dominated forest, although the southern part is now dominated by birch-aspen and mixed coniferous-birch-aspen forests following clear-cutting.

The eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains (3) are characterized by significantly less precipitation and usually a more broken topography in comparison with the western slopes. The eastern slopes also differ significantly in forest composition and fire characteristics, and are dominated by fire-influenced coniferous forests in a way similar to the Baltic shield (mainly pine forests, but often with a considerable fraction of Siberian Stone Pine and larch).

The valleys of large rivers and the wide fluvioglacial depressions (4) support dry pine forests and very frequent fires, much like the Baltic crystalline shield. The high frequency of fires is connected partly with the dominance of sandy sediment in the soil, but also linked with historic disturbance as the large river valleys and forested lowlands were the first parts of the taiga to be colonized by people.

The morainic plains (5) account for the major portion of the studied territory. In the past, these areas had a relatively low human population density, and the least developed transportation infrastructure. In the northern part of the taiga most of these watersheds are characterized by extensive amounts of bogs, sometimes to the extent that open bogs and low-productive bog forests dominate them. It is in these least accessible and least productive areas that we find most of the remaining intact forests.

Timan ridge (6) interrupts these relatively uniform plains with more diverse vegetation..

Fig. 4. Dominant tree species of Northwest Russia (State Forestry Committee of the USSR, 1990).

The taiga of European Russia is commonly considered to have pronounced zonal characteristics. Nevertheless, there are no well-defined boundaries between subtundra, northern, middle, and southern taiga. Variances within zones - depending on geology, macrorelief and quater-nary deposits - are often much greater than differences between zones. Furthermore, existing evidence concer-ning the distribution of tree species in European Russia during different stages of the Holocene shows that the current relatively pronounced division of the forest composition into zones is a recent phenomenon - probably to a significant degree the effect of a zonal distribution of human economic activity. Today, the natural structure of the forest cover of European Russia is overlaid by a spatial structure that reflects the pattern of forest management and harvesting. The differences between stands of secondary forest that can be traced back to specific forms and techniques of logging are often greater than the differences between the zones of the taiga.

A significant part of the taiga has been subject to the indirect influence of humans during the entire history of their development. Fires have occurred much more frequently than they would if lightning had been the only cause. Lands have been periodically cleared for agriculture. Hunting and fishing have affected the population density of many species. And the list continues.

Fig. 5. Hunting cabin. Perm Region. Photo: A. Morozov.

Practically all taiga territory of European Russia has at some point been affected by human economic activity, either directly or indirectly. Such disturbances include burning and shifting cultivation, hunting, harvesting and expansion of meadows along rivers, tree cutting, and air pollution. The areas chosen as references for intact natural taiga are not absolutely "wild" or "virgin," but rather those areas where human disturbance has been and remains minimal.

Fig. 6. Ruins of 19th century hunting cabin. Arkhangelsk Region. Photo: A. Yaroshenko.

Fig. 7. Second growth deciduous forest (red), and lichen (Cladonia) type pine forest on burned areas (blue) in the proximity of villages and hunting cabins. Komi Republic, Udora District, Vashka River valley. Satellite image (Landsat).

- Villages (greater than 100 inhabitants)    - Villages (up to 100 inhabitants)    - Hunting cabins

Many taiga territories are still used, or were used until recently, as professional hunting grounds. These areas contain a dense network of hunting cabins in various states of disrepair (see Figures 5, 6, and 7). Even inside the most wild spaces one can find the remnants of abandoned settlements (see Figure 8). Typical components of the taiga landscape are meadows alongside small rivers and creeks, used for hay production, but now mostly abandoned as an effect of collectivization and the forced discontinuation of "non-perspective" villages (see Figures 9 and 10). Much of the mountainous northern taiga was used until fairly recently as the main fodder base for reindeer herding. During the last two centuries practically the entire territory was subjected to the influence of industrial logging, although this was dispersed over large areas and oriented towards the extraction of high-value trees through selective cutting (Denisov, 1911; Bogouslovskiy, 1912; Kublitskiy-Piottykh, Nazarov, 1913; Faas, 1922). The few places that escaped such logging include a handful of areas within the Pechora basin as well as some of the wettest parts of the greatest water divides of the North. Thus, the taiga, even in parts that are least disturbed by human economic activity, is a complex conglomerate of natural and human influences - intact, but showing clear indications of having been subject to traditional human influences on nature.

Modern economic activities, especially industrial logging, the development of transportation infrastructure, and mining have very little in common with traditional low-intensive forms of human influence on the taiga. The equilibrium between natural processes and sustainable human use, having evolved over the course of millennia, is destroyed. The result is that the taiga as a unified nature complex simply disappears.

Fig. 8. Abandoned agricultural lands (red) along Kamennoe Lake. Karelia Republic, Kostomuksha Nature Reserve. Satellite image (Landsat).

Fig. 9. Hay fields along the Vol River. Komi Republic. Photo: P. Potapov.

Fig. 10. Abandoned village. Komi Republic. Photo: P. Potapov.