home » Hairstyles » The Vasyugan swamps are the largest swamps in the world on the Vasyugan River in Western Siberia. Vasyugan swamps on the world map

The Vasyugan swamps are the largest swamps in the world on the Vasyugan River in Western Siberia. Vasyugan swamps on the world map

LargeOe VasyugAnskoeswamp is located on the Vasyugan Plain in the central part of Western Siberia in the border areas of the Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk regions and the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, almost entirely occupying the northern part of the interfluve of the Ob and Irtysh rivers. In its axial part there is a watershed line between the Ob and Irtysh basins. The left tributaries of the river originate here. Ob (Vasyugan, Parabel, Chaya, Shegarka), right tributaries of the river. Irtysh (Om, Tara and Demyanka), as well as rivers feeding fishing lakes in the inland drainage basin of Western Siberia (Chulym and Kargat).

The estimated area of the Vasyugan swamp is over 52 thousand km 2 (5 million hectares, or 0.3% of the total area of Russia), which makes it the second largest swamp in the world after the largest wetland, the Pantanal in South America . The length of the swamp from west to east is 573 km, from north to south – 320 km.

The swamp is the main source of fresh water in the region - fresh water reserves are estimated at 400 km 3 . There are about 800 thousand small lakes here, usually of secondary origin. Explored peat reserves amount to more than 1 billion tons (2% of all world reserves).

The words “Vasyugan”, “Vasyugan” are part of the names of a number of objects in Western Siberia (Vasyugan swamp, Vasyugan plateau, Vasyugan steppe, the villages of New Vasyugan and Middle Vasyugan) and are associated with the name of the Vasyugan river. Initially, the Ket peoples called this river “Vasses” or “Vassis” from the Ket word “ses”, “sis” - “river”, “stream”. When the Khanty tribes settled near this river, they added their root “yugan” to its name, which in their language has the same meaning – “river”. Over time, the name was simplified and acquired a modern pronunciation.

Back in the 19th century. local residents called the swamp area the Vasyugan Sea: in the spring, when rivers overflowing their banks flood the coastal lowlands with water, it turns into a vast freshwater basin similar to the sea. Some researchers, for example, depicted a large lake in place of swamps, from which tributaries of the Ob flow.

The Vasyugan swamp was formed about 10 thousand years ago and initially occupied an area of about 45 thousand km 2. The primary isolated bog massifs, which arose throughout the basins and flat relief depressions, gradually (2–1.5 thousand years ago) merged into a single vast and complex bog system as peat accumulated and their linear dimensions grew. The process of swamping continues to this day: on average, 18 km 2 is swamped here every year.

The Great Vasyugan Swamp is a natural phenomenon that has no analogues in the world. It is unique in the composition of natural complexes, the extreme complexity of the landscape structure, and the development of special types of wetlands. The swamp is a standard for heavily swampy landscapes in the southern part of the forest zone of Western Siberia.

The Great Vasyugan Swamp is located at the junction of two botanical-geographical subzones - southern taiga and small-leaved forests and two swamp zones - a zone of convex ridge-hollow swamps and a zone of different types of swamps - eutrophic and convex pine-sphagnum with the participation of transitional swamps.

There is a wide variety and unique combination of lowland (eutrophic), transitional (mesotrophic) and raised (oligotrophic) bogs at different stages of development, different in physiognomic appearance, nature of vegetation, features of surface microrelief and structure of peat deposits. Only in the Great Vasyugan Swamp a special landscape type of swamps has been discovered and described - veretyevo-bog net-polygonal lowland complex swamps. Verets, or ridges, 1–3 m wide and tens of meters long, are located across the slope of the swamp surface. The width of the swamps between the verets reaches 200 m. On the flat tops of the watershed, with almost complete absence of surface runoff, the verets run in different directions and, connecting with each other, form a network-cellular pattern of surface microrelief with a polygon diameter of 50 to 100 m.

The northern macroslope of the bog is occupied mainly by raised bogs. Here are the ones studied in the 1920s. by the famous geobotanist A. Ya. Bronzov, unique upland bog massifs of a special Narym type, descriptions of which have become classic in Russian swamp science.

The most important function of the Vasyugan swamp is to cleanse the atmosphere, for which it is called a giant natural filter - swamp peat absorbs toxic substances, binds carbon and thus prevents the greenhouse effect, saturates the air with oxygen. And if the Amazon forests are called the “lungs” of the Earth, then the Siberian swamps, including Vasyugan, are the real “air conditioners” of the planet.

In many areas there are rare and endangered plant species, including “Red Book” species from the orchid family. Locations of rare plant communities requiring protection have been discovered. For example, southern taiga birch-spruce, spruce-cedar, fir-birch and fir forests, confined to drained areas in the upper reaches of the Tara, Cheki and other rivers, are rare communities in the Novosibirsk region.

In the marginal zone of the swamp system, forest swamps (sogrs) with a rich species diversity of plants are noted. Within the system itself, rare swamp communities with downy-nosed grass, white grass, and some rare species of sedges have been identified. Significant areas are occupied by valuable berry plants, primarily cranberries, as well as lingonberries, blueberries, and cloudberries.

Forest-swamp landscapes, in the presence of a network of rivers, streams and lakes, play a significant role as places of temporary residence of birds (waterfowl and waders) during the migration period. According to the Institute of Systematics and Animal Ecology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, up to 60% of the total number of ducks flies during the spring migration through interfluves, including extensive swamp systems, and only 40% - along the valleys of large rivers (Obi, Tom, Chulyma, etc.). During the breeding season, large waders (curlews, godwits) and rare species of birds of prey readily nest in the interfluves of forested and swampy landscapes. The Vasyugan swamps are of particular importance as the place of the last reliable encounters and possible habitat of the slender-billed curlew, which has practically disappeared from the world fauna. On high marshes in the river basin. The “Red Book” species, the peregrine falcon, nests in quite large numbers.

Due to the diversity of habitats and relatively difficult accessibility, the area provides productive and important grounds for a number of hunting and commercial animal species.

The mammal fauna is typical of the southern subzones of the taiga. More than half (56%) of the species composition of mammals are insectivores and small rodents.

The most common large mammals here are elk, brown bear, lynx, as well as sable, squirrel, mink, black grouse, hazel grouse, and white partridge. The place of concentration of all species of animals is a strip of forested swamps and forest-swamp complexes along the periphery of open swamps in combination with rivers and streams. In the forested upper reaches and valleys of all large rivers (Kenga, Parbig, Andarma, Bakchar, etc.), with wide wedges and strips jutting into vast spaces of high-moor swamps, there are winter camps for moose. Sable and mink are also found here; along larger rivers - otter; concentrations of wood grouse and hazel grouse are noted.

Until 1984, a local group of reindeer (40–80 heads) lived in the swamps of the Bakcharsky district in the Tomsk region. During aerial surveys in 1995, traces of a small group of deer (up to 8 heads) were noted only in the swamp between the upper reaches of the Bolshaya Kazanka and Emelich rivers .

The territory of the Vasyugan swamp system has traditionally been sparsely populated and practically unaffected by economic activity. In recent decades, along with the growth of technical equipment, it has become more accessible and more often visited for fishing and procurement purposes. The most powerful impact on it was exerted by the intensive development of the oil and gas complex of Western Siberia, territorially connected with the western part of the swamp. The increase in anthropogenic pressure on local landscapes has led to the need to organize their special protection. At the same time, there are still significant territorial reserves for organizing large specially protected areas.

However, the most dangerous and most frequently recurring anthropogenic impact on the Vasyugan ecosystems are fires, which destroy all natural swamp complexes, including in winter.

To preserve and restore the natural complexes of the Vasyugan swamp in the Tomsk region, a natural landscape reserve of regional significance “Vasyugansky” with an area of 509 thousand hectares was created in 2006. In the near future, it is planned to create the Vasyugansky state nature reserve on the territory of the Tomsk (500 thousand hectares) and Novosibirsk (250 thousand hectares) regions, which will include the Vasyugansky nature reserve.

The Great Vasyugan Swamp is included in the prospective list of the Ramsar Convention as meeting criteria 1 (reference, rare or unique type of wetland ecosystem for the corresponding biogeographic region, is in a natural or close to natural state), 2 (supports the existence of vulnerable or endangered species or communities) and 3 (ensures the existence of populations of plants and/or animals that are of great importance for maintaining the biological diversity of the relevant biogeographic region).

The Great Vasyugan Swamp site within the boundaries of the Vasyugansky reserve was included in the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2007.

In 2007, the Vasyugan swamp was included in the semi-finals of the all-Russian competition “Seven Wonders of Russia” as one of the winners of the Siberian stage of the competition, and in 2013, according to the results of online voting, the Vasyugansky nature reserve was chosen as one of the seven wonders of nature in the Tomsk region.

In the very center of Western Siberia, between the Irtysh and Ob rivers, there are the largest swamps in the world - the Vasyugan swamps. Their area is about 53 thousand km2 (the area of Switzerland, for comparison, is 41 thousand km2), their length from north to south is 320 km, from west to east – 573 km. And according to scientists, it continues to increase its area (75% of its territory has been swamped over the past 500 years).

Vasyugan swamps on the world map:

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The Vasyugan swamps have existed for about 10 thousand years and their influence on the entire region is enormous. First of all, they store the main supplies of fresh water for the surrounding areas; many Siberian rivers take their sources from these swamps. And thanks to the deposits of peat in the depths (contains 2% of the world's reserves), swamps are a powerful natural filter that counteracts the greenhouse effect.

In addition, the Vasyugan swamps are a unique natural community where you can find rare species of flora and fauna (white-tailed eagle, golden eagle, osprey, peregrine falcon and many others).

However, due to the large-scale development of the mining industry, the entire flora and fauna of the swamps is under threat. In this regard, the administration of the Tomsk region created the Vasyugansky reserve, and UNESCO plans to give it the status of a World Natural Heritage site.

The Vasyugan swamps are the largest swamps in the world, located in Western Siberia, in the interfluve of the Ob and Irtysh, on the territory of the Vasyugan Plain, located mostly within the Tomsk region, and in small parts - the Novosibirsk and Omsk regions and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.
The area of the swamps is 53 thousand km² (for comparison: the area of Switzerland is 41 thousand km²), the length from west to east is 573 km, from north to south - 320 km, coordinates - from 55°40" to 58°60" N. w. and from 75°30" to 83°30" E. d.
Included in one hundred wonders of Russia!

The deserted Vasyugan swamps are a “geographical trend” of the north of the Tomsk region, which in the old days was called the Narym region. Historically, these were places of exile for political prisoners.

“God created paradise, and the devil created the Narym region,” said the first wave of Russian settlers - “service people under orders” and “exiles” (almost from the very beginning, Narym, located in the middle of swamps, began to be used as a place of exile). The second wave of exiles (political prisoners, starting in the 1930s) echoed: “God created Crimea, and the devil created Narym.” But this was said by those who found themselves here against their will. The indigenous inhabitants are the Khanty (obsolete “Ostyaks”) and Selkups (obsolete “Ostyak-Samoyeds”), whose ancestors, as evidenced by archaeological finds of the Kulai culture (bronze casting: hunting weapons and cult artifacts), lived in half-dugouts on the elevated areas of Vasyugan for at least three thousand years, such a thing would never have been said. But the Narym region is a land of swamps, and in Slavic folklore swamps are always associated with evil spirits.

The Vasyugan swamps arose about 10 thousand years ago and have been constantly increasing since then - 75% of their current area was swamped less than 500 years ago. Swamps are the main source of fresh water in the region (water reserves are 400 km³), there are about 800 thousand small lakes, many rivers originate from swamps, in particular: Ava, Bakchar, Bolshoi Yugan, Vasyugan, Demyanka, Iksa, Kargat, Kyonga , Nyurolka, Maly Tartas, Tartas, Maly Yugan, Om, Parabel, Parbig, Tara, Tui, Uy, Chaya, Chertala, Chizhapka, Chuzik, Shegarka, Shish. Vasyugan swamps

The Vasyugan swamps are home to numerous local fauna, including rare ones. Rare species of animals in the swamps include, in particular, reindeer, golden eagles, white-tailed eagle, osprey, gray shrike, and peregrine falcon. There are significant quantities of squirrels, moose, sable, wood grouse, partridges, hazel grouse, black grouse, and in smaller quantities mink, otter, and wolverine. Flora also includes rare and endangered plant species and plant communities. Among wild plants, cranberries, blueberries, and cloudberries are widespread.
Now the flora and fauna of the swamps are under threat due to the development of the territory during the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas fields. An environmental hazard is also posed by the falling second stages of launch vehicles launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which contaminate the area with heptyl residues. Vasyugan swamps

VASYUGAN PLAIN
The Vasyugan inclined stratified accumulative plain (Vasyuganye) is a plain in Western Siberia, part of the West Siberian Plain, located within the Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Omsk regions, in the interfluve of the Ob and Irtysh.
The plain decreases to the north, absolute heights vary from 100 to 166 m.
The territory is heavily swamped, here is one of the largest swamps in the world - Vasyugan, from which many rivers originate, in particular: Ava, Bakchar, Bolshoi Yugan, Vasyugan, Demyanka, Iksa, Kenga, Nyurolka, Maly Tartas, Tartas, Maly Yugan , Om, Parabel, Parbig, Tara, Tui, Uy, Chaya, Chertala, Chizhapka, Chuzik, Shegarka, Shish.
Fossils: oil, natural gas, peat, iron ore. Vasyugan swamps

VASYUGAN RIVER
Vasyugan is a river in the south of the West Siberian Plain, a left tributary of the Ob. It flows entirely through the territory of the Kargasoksky district of the Tomsk region.
Length - 1082 km, navigable at a distance of 886 km from the mouth, basin area - 61,800 km². Average long-term annual flow: 345 m³/s, 10.9 km³/year.
It originates from the Vasyugan swamps. Vasyugan swamps

Largest tributaries:
right: Elizarovka, Petryak, Polovinka, Ershovka, Kalganak, Pyonorovka, Nyurolka, Zimnyaya, Chizhapka, Pasil, Silga, Naushka, Kochebilovka, Lozunga.
left: Bolshoy Petryak, Listvenka, Cow, Staritsa, Garchak, Kyn, Burbot, Deaf, Chertala, Yagylyakh, Egolyakh, Olenevka, Kelvat, Lontynyakh, Katylga, Cheremshanka, Prudovaya, Makhnya, Kedrovka, Martynovka, Varen-Egan, Yokhomyakh, Chebachya , Kacharma, Malaya Kuletka.

Populated areas (from source):
With. New Vasyugan, village Aipolovo, s. New Tevriz, village. Middle Vasyugan, village Staraya Berezovka, village. Ust-Chizhapka, village. Naunak, s. Bolshaya Griva, village Staroyugino, s. Novoyugino, s. Bondarka.
Oil and gas fields are located in the Vasyugan basin.

BIG YUGAN RIVER
The Bolshoi Yugan is a river in Russia, flows through the territory of the Surgut and Nefteyugan districts of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, a left tributary of the Ob, flows into the Yugan Ob.

The length of the river is 1063 km, the area of its drainage basin is 34,700 km². At 118 km from the mouth, the average annual water flow is 177.67 m³/s.
The source is in the Vasyugan swamps (Vasyugan swamps), flowing through the wetlands of the West Siberian Plain.
There are many tributaries, of which the largest is the right Maly Yugan. There are about 8,000 lakes in the basin, with a total area of 545 km². The river is fed by snow. Freeze-up from October to early May.
Main settlements from mouth to source:
Yugan, Maloyugansky, Ugut, Kogonchins, Kayukovs, Taurova, Tailakovo, Larlomkins.

DEMYANKA RIVER
Demyanka is a river in Western Siberia, the right tributary of the Irtysh.
Sources in the Vasyugan swamps in the northeast of the Omsk region. Further it flows through the territory of the Uvat district of the Tyumen region. Tributaries: Keum, Tyamka - right; Tegus, Urna, Imgyt, Big Kunyak - left.
The total length of the river is 1159 km, the catchment area is 34,800 km² with an average height of 90 m, it receives 50 tributaries with a length of more than 10 km. The total number of streams in the river basin reaches an impressive 1,689, with a total length of 10,913 km. The river network density coefficient is 0.31 km/km².
The average weighted slope of the river is 0.07 ‰, which indicates a calm flow, moderate deformation processes and a fine-grained composition of bottom sediments.
The river valley, both in the upper and middle reaches, has a trapezoidal shape. The slopes of the river valley are relatively steep, steep in places, and have a variety of taiga vegetation.
Woody vegetation is represented by mixed forests, coniferous trees: cedar, pine, spruce, fir; deciduous species: aspen, birch, willow. The predominant shrubs are bird cherry and common willow.
The river bed is unbranched and highly winding. The bottom of the riverbed is silty-sandy. During the spring water level rise, the river partially becomes navigable. The channel in shallow water is littered with fallen trees and bushes. The type of channel process is free meandering. The low-lying longitudinal slope is insignificant - 0.034 ‰. Ice drift occurs as the flood waters rise.
The Demyanka basin is significantly swamped and is distinguished by a huge number of small lakes: swampiness 50%, forest cover 45%.
The lake content is not so large and does not exceed 2.0%, which is caused by the extremely small size of intra-marsh lakes.
There is a village called Demyanka on the river, but in general the Demyanka basin is sparsely populated. There are no large settlements.

ARTICLE ABOUT VASYUGAN SWAMPS
Russian pioneers founded Tyumen (1586), Narym (1596) and Tomsk (1604) forts shortly after the completion of Ermak’s military expedition (1582-1585), which marked the beginning of the conquest of the Siberian Khanate in 1607. Judging by the documents , by 1720, in the Narym region, the newly arrived population lived in 12 settlements, but times were turbulent, the resistance of the local population was not broken, the nature was harsh, so only “service people” recruited “by the sovereign’s tax” settled among the Khanty and Selkups (Cossacks), clergy-missionaries. Peasants, artisans and traders bypassed the Vasyugan wilds, moving towards lands more favorable for living, but for the Kerzhak Old Believers persecuted by the authorities, the places were suitable - remote, impassable.
Since 1835, the systematic settlement of exiles began (a new influx of exiles came to Vasyugan in the 1930-1950s), it was mainly at their expense that the local population increased. Later, more active development of Western Siberia was facilitated by the dispossession of land among the peasants of the central provinces as a result of the reforms of 1861, and especially the Stolypin agrarian reform of 1906. It was necessary to look for land for arable land, and the 1908 expedition, sent by the resettlement department of the Tomsk region to Vasyugan, passed from the village Orlovka through the Vasyugan swamps to the Chertalinsky yurts and along the Vasyugan River and found suitable sites for several more villages. Along the winter road, Vasyugan residents transported frozen fish, meat, game birds, furs, berries, and pine nuts to Tomsk in convoys, and brought back flour, textiles, and salt. Bread was not born, but later Siberians adapted to grow potatoes, cabbage, turnips, and carrots; They also found a place to graze the cattle.

In 1949, oil was found in the western part of the swamp, the Kargasok region was nicknamed the “oil Klondike”; by the early 1970s, more than 30 oil and gas fields had already been discovered in the Vasyugan (Pionerny) and Luginets (Pudino) regions. In 1970, construction of the Aleksandrovskoye - Tomsk - Anzhero - Sudzhensk oil pipeline began, and in 1976 - the Nizhnevartovsk - Parabel - Kuzbass gas pipeline. New tracked vehicles and helicopters have made the Vasyugan swamps more accessible, but also more vulnerable. Therefore, it was decided to reserve a large part of the swamp adjacent to the Ob-Irtysh watershed in order to preserve this natural phenomenon and environmental regulation of the region.
The natural region of Vasyugan covers not only the Vasyugan swamps, but also the basins of the right tributaries of the Irtysh and the left tributaries of the Ob. This is a flat or gently undulating plain with a slight slope to the north, cut through by a network of valleys of the Bolshoy Yugan, Vasyugan, Parabel and other rivers. The swamp lies in the Ob-Irtysh watershed area and is constantly growing.
The swamp is a repository of large reserves of fresh water. Bog peat is a valuable raw material and a giant natural filter that cleanses the atmosphere of excess carbon and toxic substances, thereby preventing the so-called greenhouse effect. Thus, swamps have a beneficial effect on the formation of water balance and climate over large areas. Also, wetlands are the last refuge of many rare and endangered species of animals and birds driven away from habitats transformed by humans, and the basis for maintaining the traditional use of natural resources by small peoples, in particular the indigenous inhabitants of Western Siberia.
The Vasyugan swamps are the largest swamp system in the Northern Hemisphere, a unique natural phenomenon that has no analogues. They cover about 55 thousand km2 in the northern part of the interfluve of the Ob and Irtysh on the inclined Vasyugan plateau, rising in the center of the West Siberian Plain. Peat bogs rest on a thick layer of clay and loamy sediments; their formation is facilitated by excess moisture.
According to scientists, swamps appeared in Western Siberia in the early Holocene (about 10 thousand years ago). Local legends speak of the ancient Vasyugan sea-lake, but research by geologists says that the Great Vasyugan Swamp did not occur through the overgrowth of ancient lakes, but as a result of the encroachment of swamps onto land under the influence of a humid climate and favorable orographic conditions. Initially, on the site of the current single swamp massif there were 19 separate areas with a total area of 45 thousand km2, but gradually the swamp absorbed the surrounding area, like the advance of desert sands. Today, the region is still a classic example of active, "aggressive" marsh formation: more than half of its current area has been added in the last 500 years, and the marshes continue to grow, increasing on average by 800 hectares per year. In the central part, peat grows more intensively upward, which is why the Vasyugan swamp has a convex shape and rises 7.5-10 m above the edges; At the same time, area expansion occurs on the periphery. Vasyugan swamps

The Great Vasyugan swamp at the junction of the southern taiga, middle taiga and subtaiga (small-leaved) subzones is distinguished by a wide variety of vegetation and is heterogeneous in landscape and type of swamps (upland, lowland and transitional). The landscape alternates between ridges and depressions, swamps, intra-marsh lakes, streams and rivers (tributaries of the Irtysh and Ob).
The diversity of the marsh landscape is reflected in the local names of individual areas. Thus, “ryams” designate areas of Siberian oligotrophic (low-nutrient, infertile) bogs with pine-shrub-sphagnum (sphagnum mosses are the source of peat formation) vegetation. “Shelomochki” are individual islands with pine-shrub-sphagnum vegetation (as on ryams) with a diameter of up to several tens of meters, rising above the surface of sedge-hypnum bogs by 50-90 cm. “Veretya” are narrow (1-2 m wide) and long (up to 1 km long) areas lying perpendicular to the surface runoff and rising 10-25 cm above the monotonous sedge-hypnum swamps; Birch, pine, Lapland and rosary-leaved willow, sedge and leaf-stem mosses grow on the branches, singly or in small groups (as in depressions).
A characteristic feature of the Vasyugan swamp are special spindle-bog lowland swamps with a polygonal-cellular surface pattern (a subspecies of the ridge-hollow-lake swamp), confined to saucer-shaped depressions at the top of the watershed, devoid of drainage. Their “geometric pattern” is clearly visible from an airplane and on aerial photographs. Vasyugan swamps

GENERAL INFORMATION
A giant swamp system in Western Siberia, the largest swamp in the Northern Hemisphere.
Location: in the northern part of the interfluve of the Ob and Irtysh, on the Vasyugan plateau in the center of the West Siberian Plain.
Administrative affiliation: a swamp on the border of the Tomsk and Novosibirsk regions, in the north-west it extends into the Omsk region.
Sources of the rivers: the left tributaries of the Ob - Vasyugan, Parabel, Chaya, Shegarka, the right tributaries of the Irtysh - Om and Tara and many others.
Nearest settlements: (the swamp itself is not inhabited) Kargasok, Novy Vasyugan, Maysk, Kedrovo, Bakchar, Pudino, Parbig, Podgornoye, Plotnikovo, etc.
Nearest airports: international airport Tomsk, Nizhnevartovsk, Surgut.

Area: approx. 55,000 km2.
Length: from west to east 573 km and from north to south about 320 km.
Annually swamped: about 800 hectares.
Average heights: from 116 to 146 m (at the source of the Bakchar River), slope to the north.
Fresh water reserves: up to 400 km3.
Number of small lakes: about 800,000.
Number of rivers and streams originating from peat bogs: about 200.

CLIMATE AND WEATHER
Continental, humid (excessive moisture zone).
Average annual temperature: -1.6°C.
Average January temperature: -20°C (up to -51.3°C).
Average July temperature: +17°C (up to +36.1°C).
Average annual precipitation: 470-500 mm.
Snow cover (40-80 cm) from October to April (average 175 days).

ECONOMY
Minerals: peat, oil, natural gas.
Industry: peat extraction, logging, oil and gas (in the western part of the swamp).
Agriculture (in dry areas in the vicinity of the swamp): livestock raising, growing potatoes and vegetables.
Traditional trades: hunting and fur harvesting, gathering (berries: cranberries, lingonberries, blueberries, cloudberries; medicinal herbs), fishing.
Service sector: not developed (potentially ecotourism, extreme tourism, commercial hunting and fishing outside the reserve).

ATTRACTIONS
■ Natural: the Vasyugansky biosphere reserve of federal significance (since 2014, its inclusion in the UNESCO List of sites is under consideration; 1.6 million hectares are protected in the Novosibirsk region and 509 hectares in the Tomsk region) - on the watershed of the Ob-Irtysh interfluve.
■ Fauna: reindeer, elk, bear, wolverine, otter, sable, beaver, squirrel, etc.; waterfowl, wood grouse, hazel grouse, ptarmigan, osprey, golden eagle, white-tailed eagle, peregrine falcon, waders (curlews and godwits, including the rarest, almost extinct species - the slender-billed curlew), etc.
■ The richest berry areas: cranberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, blueberries.
■ Cultural and historical (in the vicinity): Museum of Political Exile (Narym).

FUN FACTS
■ There is a legend about the creation of a swamp by the Devil - liquefied earth with stunted, gnarled trees and coarse grass: “At first the earth was entirely water. God walked along it and one day he met a floating muddy bubble, which burst and the devil jumped out of it. God commanded the devil to go down to the bottom and get earth from there. Carrying out the order, the devil hid some earth behind both cheeks. Meanwhile, God scattered the delivered earth, and where it fell, dry land appeared, and on it trees, bushes and herbs. But the plants began to sprout in the devil’s mouth, and he, unable to bear it, began to spit out the soil.”
■ In 1882, the West Siberian department of the Russian Geographical Society instructed N.P. Grigorovsky to check whether “peasants from Russian provinces, schismatic Old Believers, really settled along the upper reaches of the Vasyugan and the rivers flowing into it; as if they had set up villages for themselves, had arable land and livestock, and were living, secretly indulging in their fanatical devotion.” According to the report, “726 souls of both sexes lived in Vasyugan, including minors,” and this was over a distance of more than 2,000 miles!
■ In 1907, immediately after Stolypin’s land reforms, up to 200 thousand family migrants and about 75 thousand walkers came to Tomsk province in search of land to start a farm.
■ For Tomsk, the Vasyugan swamps have become the same symbol as the Klyuchevskoy volcano for Kamchatka or the Kivach waterfall for Karelia.
■ In addition to heavy tracked vehicles, drilling rigs and oil spills at mining sites, the falling second stages of launch vehicles launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome also pose an environmental threat to the Vasyugan swamps. They pollute the environment with residues of toxic rocket fuel.
■ When the Nizhnevartovsk - Parabel - Kuzbass gas pipeline was put into operation, blue fuel from the Myldzhinskoye, Severo-Vasyuganskoye and Luginetskoye gas condensate fields came to the homes and factories of Tomsk, to the enterprises of Kuzbass... But only the residents of the Kargasoksky district, where this gas is produced, this gas is not received (according to information from the local website).
■ The Vasyugansky Nature Reserve involves a ban on hunting and logging, and this will deprive a significant part of the local residents of work, among whom there are many professional hunters. The administration of the reserve hopes to attract former hunters to become rangers to combat poaching...
■ The name of the oil workers’ settlement Novy Vasyugan is very similar to the popular ironic name “New Vasyuki” attributed to Ostap Bender. However, this name does not appear either in the book or in the films (“The Twelve Chairs”). The colorful toponym arose among the people from a confused phrase: “Vasyuki is renamed New Moscow, Moscow - Old Vasyuki.”

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SOURCE OF MATERIAL AND PHOTO:
Team Nomads
Zemtsov A.A., Savchenko N.V. Current geoecological state of the Vasyugan swamp massif. // e-lib.gasu.ru.
Vasyugan swamp (natural conditions, structure and functioning) / Ed. L. I. Inisheva. - Tomsk: CNTI, 2000. - 136 p.
Inisheva L. I., Zemtsov A. A., Inishev N. G. Vasyugan swamp: study, structure, directions of use // Geography and natural resources. 2002. No. 2. P. 84-89.
http://geosfera.info/evropa/russia/1644-vasyuganskie-bolota.html
The Great Vasyugan Swamp: Current state and development processes / Edited by. ed. M. V. Kabanova. - Tomsk: Publishing House of the Institute of Atmospheric Optics SB RAS, 2002. - 230 p.
Ezupenok A. E. On the issue of preserving part of the Vasyugan swamp // Swamps and biosphere: materials of the first Scientific School (September 23-26, 2002). - Tomsk, 2003. - P. 104-107.
Ippolitov I. I., Kabanov M. V., Kataev S. G. et al. On the influence of the Vasyugan swamp on environmental temperature // Swamps and biosphere: materials of the first Scientific School (September 23-26, 2002). - Tomsk, 2003. - P. 123-135.
Zdvizhkov M.A. Hydrogeochemistry of the Vasyugan swamp massif. - Tomsk, 2005.
Official website of OJSC "West Siberian River Shipping Company".
Fundamental problems of water and water resources: Mater. III All-Russian conf. with international participation (Barnaul, August 24-28, 2010). - Barnaul: ART Publishing House, 2010. - P. 137-140.
Wikipedia website

Man has done quite a few stupid things, for example, he set up a hydroelectric power station, installed a nuclear power plant on faults in the earth’s crust, plowed up the Kazakh steppes for the so-called virgin lands, got dust storms that swept away entire villages, and drilled drilling wells all over the planet.

The disappearance of the Aral Sea was not without human help. The thickness of silt deposits in the Sea of Azov reaches more than twenty meters, about the same, or even more, in the Black Sea, and there are assumptions that as a result of the vital activity of marine mollusks and microorganisms, these deposits may one day float up and the seas will become simply underground reservoirs.

Even Lake Baikal, which we are so proud of, is gradually turning into a swamp, like all bodies of standing water. This is what the coastal zone looks like - green mud instead of crystal water. The marsh algae "spirogyra" has taken over vast areas along the coast:

Nature, as it were, begins to take revenge on us for its barbaric attitude towards it, for the destruction of all living things, and perhaps the day is not far off, the oxygen necessary for our life will simply disappear and then new forms of life will appear on earth instead of us. Which are already emerging in our swamps.

In the center of the Siberian Federal District, between the Ob and Irtysh rivers, there is the Vasyugan Swamp, the largest not only in Russia, but also in the world.

Most of this unique natural zone is located on the territory of the Tomsk region, also covering the Novosibirsk, Omsk and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.

The area of this swamp, as already mentioned, is the largest in the world and is about 53–55 thousand square meters. km, which exceeds the size of such European countries as

The dimensions of the swamp in length and width are approximately 570 by 320 km

According to scientists, swamping of this area began about 10,000 years ago and continues to this day.

- Over the past 500 years, the swamp has quadrupled in size.

Local legends speak of the ancient Vasyugan sea-lake, but research by geologists says that the Great Vasyugan Swamp did not occur through the overgrowth of ancient lakes, but as a result of the encroachment of swamps onto land under the influence of a humid climate and favorable orographic conditions.

Initially, on the site of the current single swamp massif there were 19 separate areas with a total area of 45,000 square meters. km, but gradually the quagmire consumed the surroundings, like the advance of desert sands.

Today, this region is still a classic example of active, "aggressive" bog formation: an interesting fact is that the bogs continue to grow, increasing on average by 800 hectares per year.

The entire Internet is buzzing about the fact that the Chinese are cutting down the taiga in Siberia, but no one cares about the fact that 800 hectares grow every year just in the Vasyugan Swamp.

There are more than 800 thousand lakes here, many rivers and streams originate, and the moisture evaporated from the surface maintains the climatic balance and is carried even to the territory of Eastern Siberia and Kazakhstan. The climate in the Vasyugan swamp area is continental and humid. The average temperature in January is -20 °C, in July +17 °C. Snow cover with a height of 40–80 cm lies from October to April on average 175 days a year.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on the creation of the Vasyugansky state nature reserve on the territory of the largest swamp in the Northern Hemisphere. It is located in adjacent territories of the Tomsk and Novosibirsk regions, the press service of the Russian government reported.

Flora and fauna

Wetlands are the last refuge of many rare and endangered species of animals and birds, driven away from their habitats transformed by humans, and the basis for maintaining the traditional environmental management of small peoples, in particular the indigenous inhabitants of Western Siberia.

Among the plants of swamps and lakes, the main value is provided by various medicinal herbs, as well as berries that are found in abundance in swamps: cranberries, cloudberries, blueberries, etc.

A variety of insects, animals, fish, and birds consider the Vasyugan swamps their home. During the migration period, waterfowl and waders stop there to rest.

Godwits and curlews, as well as various birds of prey, including the peregrine falcon, make nests in the swamps. It was on the Vasyugan Plain that the slender-billed curlew, which is considered an almost extinct bird species, was last seen.

peregrine falcon

peregrine falcon

About 20 species of fish live in the tributaries of the rivers originating from the Great Vasyugan Swamp. In recent years, bream, pike perch, carp, and verkhovka have become common in local reservoirs. Vulnerable and rare fish species in the area are nelma, peled, lamprey, and ruff.

The significance of the swamp for the region

The Vasyugan swamp is the main source of fresh water in the region (water reserves up to 400 km³), this is the region where there are huge reserves of peat. Explored reserves amount to more than 1 billion tons (2% of the world), the average depth is 2.4 m, the maximum is 10 m. The most important function of the swamp is to purify the atmosphere, for which it is called a giant natural filter. Siberian peat bogs absorb toxic substances, sequester carbon and thus prevent the greenhouse effect by saturating the air with oxygen.

Historical facts

The deserted Vasyugan moss peat bogs are a “geographical trend” in the north of the Tomsk region, which in the old days was called the Narym region. Historically, these were places of exile for political prisoners.

Russian pioneers founded Tyumen (1586), Narym (1596) and Tomsk (1604) forts shortly after the completion of Ermak’s military expedition (1582–1585), which marked the beginning of the conquest of the Siberian Khanate in 1607. Judging by the documents found in peat bogs, by 1720 in the Narym region the newly arrived population lived in 12 settlements.

In 1835, systematic settlement of exiles began (a new influx of exiles came to Vasyugan in the 1930s–1950s).

Black migration and black gold

Later, more active development of Western Siberia was facilitated by the landlessness of the peasants of the central provinces as a result of the reforms of 1861, and especially the Stolypin Russophobic agrarian reform of 1906. "on thinning the European part of Russia". When whole villages of peasants were loaded into Stolypin wagons along with livestock and all their belongings and resettled to Siberia. The corpses of animals and people were buried right along the railway track at the stopping stations. People not adapted to such a harsh climate of Siberia simply died out in the first winters.

The entire Internet knows about the Ukrainian Holodomor, but no one writes about how Stolypin destroyed the Russian people with his reforms. They tried to erase the whole truth about Stolypin’s atrocities from memory and are even trying to erect monuments to him. But the Russian people do not forget anything...

Ecology

Despite the virtual complete absence of populated areas in the area where the Vasyugan swamps are located, with the development of civilization, a variety of factors began to have a negative impact on the unique natural site. Peat extraction disrupts the natural landscape of the Vasyugan Plain, there is a problem of deforestation, the negative consequences of draining swamps and poaching lead to the destruction of unique flora and fauna.

Heavy tracked vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, construction and drilling activities, oil spills, and the use of water in drilling processes harm the wetland ecosystem. Industrial wastewater constantly gets into the rivers, tourists, poachers, hunters leave behind tons of garbage.

Also a big problem is the second stages of rockets launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome: falling into swamps, they contaminate them with residues of highly toxic rocket fuel - heptyl. As shown by analyzes of samples of water, soil and plants of raised bogs collected in areas of pollution, the heptyl content in some of them is 5 times higher than the maximum permissible concentration.

Fires in the swamps

However, the most dangerous and most frequently recurring anthropogenic impact on the Vasyugan ecosystems are fires, which destroy all natural swamp complexes, including in winter. As a result, many intra-swamp lakes of pyrogenic genesis appear, tree stands and many animals die. The increase in lake density reduces the flow of water from already swampy forest areas.

In the 20s of the last century, a seven-year fire in peat bogs in the territory of the modern Northern region of the Novosibirsk region led to the formation of Lake Tenis, the largest in the south of Western Siberia. Subsequently, its basin deepened in places to 11–18 meters, the area of the water surface approached 19 square meters. km, and the total water reserves accumulated from swampy catchment areas are about 47 million cubic meters. m.

UNESCO reserve

Assessing the role and significance of the Great Vasyugan Swamp as a complex and multifunctional ecosystem and taking into account its uniqueness and significance, as well as the increasing scale of anthropogenic impacts, we have to recognize the urgent problem of its protection. However, for a long time the Vasyugan swamps were not even included in the preliminary lists of objects that need to be assigned the status of specially protected ones.

In 2006 year. The administration of the Tomsk region created the Vasyugansky complex reserve. There are currently plans to give it the status of a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site. The Vasyugansky Nature Reserve includes a ban on hunting and logging. Although this will put a significant portion of local residents, including many professional hunters, out of work, the reserve administration hopes to attract former hunters to become game rangers to combat poaching.

As the first step of environmental and practical actions, a state interregional complex reserve of federal significance should be formed in most of the Great Vasyugan Swamp, including border forest-swamp complexes.

A separate point of the program for the protection of the Vasyugan swamp should be a program for reforming the Russian rocket and space industry, providing for the cessation of the use of heptyl and nitrogen tetroxide as rocket fuel and oxidizer, as well as the transfer of the main rocket launch site from Baikonur to the Vostochny cosmodrome under construction in the Amur region.

From the above, it becomes quite clear that the Vasyugan swamp massif not only represents a unique natural phenomenon of Western Siberia, but also acts as such for Russia and the world.

The geoecological functions it performs are irreplaceable and irreplaceable, therefore the only way to preserve this natural heritage may be to create a biosphere reserve within its boundaries. Considering the high cost of implementing such a project, its solution is possible at least in stages: at the first stage there are various kinds of economic restrictions, at the second stage it is possible to create the Vasyugansky nature reserve, and, finally, its transformation into a biosphere reserve.

This unique Russian territory is worth a whole series of materials and galleries of wonderful photographs.

However, there is practically no material for reading or viewing on the Internet. If we are looking for places in Russia that can be called real miracles, then the Great Vasyugan swamps should take one of the most worthy places on this list.

cranberry picking

cranberry picking

Now the flora and fauna of the swamps are under threat due to the development of the territory during the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas fields. An environmental hazard is also posed by the falling second stages of launch vehicles launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which contaminate the area with heptyl residues.

Huge territories occupied by swamps do not at all mean that their entire area is a complete quagmire and mud. Yes, there are a lot of swamps and movement in many places in a number of months of the year is deadly. But where there are no swamps, the Vasyugan swamps, due to their high humidity and mild climate, can amaze the most biased connoisseur with their natural beauty.

The Vasyugan swamps are often called the “Russian Amazon,” comparing this vast and wild area with the famous rainforests of South America.

But a trip to an almost untouched area of Western Siberia - Vasyuganye, as it is called, can surpass any jungle in its extremeness, becoming a real adventure on the brink of survival in an unknown land.

The swamps are a huge, unsolved secret treasury that gives and reveals information about past times and landscapes, and helps to comprehend historical secrets.

They often keep the tools of labor and wars of bygone times buried in them, and even the remains of people in almost perfect condition. Sphagnum moss and its decomposition products, thanks to special microflora and specific chemical reactions, make the human body incorruptible.

Lost among the Vasyugan swamps are about a hundred abandoned villages, the entire population of which is just ghosts. And among peat and gas producers there are many terrible stories about anomalous phenomena occurring in the swamps.

Visiting the Vasyugan swamps is quite dangerous and requires special training and experience in moving through such places.

The Vasyugan swamps are one of the largest swamps in the world, located in Western Siberia, in the interfluve of the Ob and Irtysh, on the territory of the Vasyugan Plain, located mostly within the Tomsk region, and in small parts - the Novosibirsk, Omsk regions, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and the south Tyumen region.

The Vasyugan swamps are impressive in their size. The area of this natural zone is approximately 55 thousand square kilometers. This figure is larger than many countries, such as Estonia, Denmark and Switzerland. The length of the swamp is 320 kilometers from north to south and 570 kilometers from west to east.

According to scientists, the swamping of this area began about 10,000 years ago and continues to this day - over the past 500 years the swamp has quadrupled. Local legends speak of the ancient Vasyugan sea-lake, but research by geologists says that the Great Vasyugan Swamp did not occur through the overgrowth of ancient lakes, but as a result of the encroachment of swamps onto land under the influence of a humid climate and favorable orographic conditions. Initially, on the site of the current single swamp massif there were 19 separate areas with a total area of 45,000 square meters. km, but gradually the quagmire consumed the surroundings, like the advance of desert sands.

Climate of the Vasyugan swamps

The Vasyugan swamps have a unique flora and fauna. The climate in this natural area is humid and continental. In January the average temperature is about 20°C below zero, and in July - 17°C above zero. Snow cover lasts about 175 days a year, and its depth ranges from 40 to 80 centimeters. Thanks to this climate, the Great Vasyugan Swamps are a unique nature reserve, home to many endangered species of birds and animals.

Flora and fauna of the Vasyugan swamps

Among the plants of swamps and lakes, the main value is provided by various medicinal herbs, as well as berries that are found in abundance in swamps: cranberries, cloudberries, blueberries, etc.

A variety of insects, animals, fish, and birds consider the Vasyugan swamps their home. During the migration period, waterfowl and waders stop there to rest.

According to the Institute of Animal Ecology and Systematics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, up to 60% of the total number of ducks flies during the spring migration as a diffuse front through swamp systems, and only 40% - along the valleys of large rivers. Godwits and curlews, as well as various birds of prey, including the peregrine falcon, make nests in the swamps. It was on the Vasyugan Plain that the slender-billed curlew, which is considered an almost extinct bird species, was last seen.

In places where swamps border with forests and there are rivers and lakes, there are moose, minks, sables, otters, hazel grouse and wood grouse. Until the mid-80s of the last century, reindeer were found in the swamps, but today their population has practically disappeared. About 20 species of fish live in the tributaries of the rivers originating from the Vasyugan swamps. In recent years, bream, pike perch, carp, and verkhovka have become common in local reservoirs. Vulnerable and rare fish species in the area are nelma, peled, lamprey, and ruff.

In summer, swamps are practically impassable even for specialized equipment. Cargo transportation to oil fields and geological exploration parties is carried out in winter.

The significance of the Vasyugan swamps

The Vasyugan swamps are of great ecological importance for the entire region, and also perform a number of biosphere functions. They represent a natural reserve for various wetland landscapes and the flora and fauna that live in them.

The total water reserves amount to approximately 400 cubic kilometers, which makes them an important reservoir of fresh water. There are numerous small lakes here. In the Vasyugan swamps there are the sources of the rivers Vasyugan, Tara, Om, Parabig, Chizhapka, Uy and some others.

In addition, the area is rich in peat. Research shows that known deposits contain just over 1 billion tons of useful rock. This is approximately 2% of world reserves. The average depth of peat is 2.4 meters, and the maximum is 10 meters.

Do not forget that the main function of swamps is to cleanse the atmosphere. It is for this reason that they are also called “natural filters”. It is worth noting that the Vasyugan peat bog absorbs toxic substances, binds carbon, saturates the air with oxygen and prevents the formation of the greenhouse effect.

Environmental problems of the Vasyugan swamps

Although there are almost no settlements in the Vasyugan swamps and economic activity here is minimal, people still harm the unique and rather fragile ecosystem.

Among the environmental problems of the region are deforestation, peat extraction, oil field development, poaching, etc. The development of local deposits is associated with the negative impact of all-terrain vehicles on the soil, oil spills and other unfavorable factors.

A serious problem is created by the falling second stages of rockets that are launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. These steps contaminate the area with the substance heptyl, which has a strong toxic effect.

Until recently, almost no attempts were made to protect this unique natural landscape. Only in 2006, in the east of the Vasyugan swamps, the Vasyugansky complex reserve was created, the territory of which totals 5090 square meters. km.

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