The largest swamp in Western Siberia. Big Vasyugan swamp. Social and cultural significance of the site

Vasyugan swamp is rightfully considered the largest swamp in the world - its area is equal to 53-55 thousand square kilometers. Swamps are located near the interfluve of the Ob and Irtysh, on the Vasyugan valley with the borders of the Novosibirsk, Tomsk and Omsk regions.

In 2007, the Vasyugan swamps were included in the preliminary list of UNESCO sites.

General information

Vasyugan swamps are a phenomenon created by nature, there is nothing like it anywhere in the world, their area reaches the size of Estonia. They are distinguished by the fact that they consist of natural complexes built extremely complex and specific, these are special types of swamp massifs. The swamps are located between the subzone of small-leaved forests and the southern taiga subzone. The salinity and leaching of the soil in different periods of the formation of swamps was different. This explains the great diversity of local vegetation. The north and south of the swamp are also different from each other. The Vasyugan swamps also represent a geographical reference value; they can be characterized as a standard of a well-bogged area in the south of the forests of Western Siberia.

The age of the swamps is also impressive, according to scientists about 10,000 years and from the moment of their formation, they constantly increase their area like a desert, capturing the surrounding lands, taking them away from the surrounding places that are not occupied by any structures.

As you know, at first there were nineteen swamps, separately located. To date, they have merged into one single swamp, called the Great Vasyugan swamp. It plays a huge role in the life of the region. The swamp is a deposit of huge reserves of fresh water in this area. There are a lot of minerals in the swamp. Also, the area in the swamp is an example of primeval wildlife.

More than eight hundred lakes can be found in this area. Many rivers and streams start their journey from here. And the evaporating water preserves the microclimate of these places and even reaches the territories of Kazakhstan and Eastern Siberia.

Of great interest is the Great Vasyugan Swamp from the point of view of the economy. Peat alone makes up two percent of the world's reserves, there are more than a billion tons of it here, this is an enormous amount. Conducted in the swamps and the development and search for gas and oil reserves. This threatens the existence of the swamps themselves, their microclimate is under serious threat, and this primarily poses a great danger to the flora and fauna of the swamp massif. Also, the swamps are very harmed by the fact that the second stages of rockets launched there are dropped into the swamps from the Baikonur cosmodrome. All this spoils the ecological situation, infecting the surroundings with heptyl residues. All this harms the ecological situation of the swamp massif.

There is a legend among the people about the origin of the Vasyugan swamps. It turns out that the Devil himself created the swamps, he created the land, liquefied by water with thickets of coarse grass and crooked trees. The legend says that at first there was no land on earth, there was only water around and God walked on it. One fine day, he saw a cloudy bubble, which first burst and released the Devil. God ordered him to bring the earth from the bottom, which he did. However, the Devil cheated and took the earth by the cheeks. From the land received, God made dry land with all the necessary vegetation. But trees and bushes began to grow in the mouth of the Devil, he could not stand it and spat out the earth, and the Vasyugan swamps appeared.
In the year 82 of the nineteenth century, information began to reach the West Siberian department of the Russian Geographical Society that Old Believers-schismatics appeared and settled along the upper reaches of the Vasyugan River and the surrounding rivers flowing into it, who set up houses for themselves there, organized arable land and vegetable gardens, started cattle and live, indulging in their pious canons. Special Officer Grigorovsky N.P. counted 726 people Old Believers, both men and women, including children, over two thousand miles.
After the start of land reforms, P.A. Stolypin in the vicinity of the Vasyugan swamps, about two hundred thousand family migrants settled in the Tomsk province and up to 75,000 walkers looking for land for farming.
For the city of Tomsk, Vasyugan swamps are the same symbol as Klyuchevskaya Sopka is for Kamchatka.
The drilling of oil rigs and oil spills in the drilling sites pose a great danger to the local microclimate. Also, as mentioned above, the second stages of rockets dropped from the nearest cosmodrome are also a danger. All this has a bad effect on the environment and can lead to the gradual extinction of the ecosystem.
It is very interesting that with the construction of the Nizhnevartovsk-Parabel-Kuzbass gas pipeline, gas came to the homes of Tomsk residents and factories and factories in Kuzbass from the Severo-Vasyuganskoye, Myldzhinskoye and Luginetskoye fields. But the residents inhabiting the vicinity of these fields do not receive blue fuel for themselves.
The "Vasyugansky" nature reserve, located on the territory of the Vasyugan swamps, prohibits hunting and logging. But many of the surrounding residents earn their living by hunting. The management of the reserve is working to attract hunters to rangers to protect the territory from poachers.
The settlement of oil workers in the vicinity is called New Vasyugan, which echoes the name of New Vasyuki, allegedly owned by Ostap Bender. But neither in the book nor in the movies does this name exist. Such a toponym was formed and is popular among the people thanks to the phrase that Vasyuki will be New Moscow, and Moscow will be called Old Vasyuki.

Vasyugan swamps appeared about 10 thousand years ago. At first, there were 19 separate wetlands here, but as a result of a humid climate and topographical features, the bog began to absorb the surroundings.

Scientists have calculated that over the past 500 years, the swamps have quadrupled in size and continue to grow every year by an average of 800 hectares.

Local population

The territory of the Vasyugan swamps in the old days was called the Narym Territory. The ancestors of the indigenous people - the Khanty and the Selkuts - settled on these lands at least three thousand years ago. At archaeological excavations, scientists have found cult objects, hunting weapons and fragments of dugouts.

There were always few local residents in the Narym Territory: by 1720 there were only 12 settlements. In addition to the natives, pioneers and conquerors of the Siberian Khanate, Kerzhak Old Believers and exiles lived here - political prisoners were sent here since 1835. “God created paradise, and the devil - the Narym region” - so the first settlers said. Peasants who came to these territories after the Peasant Reform of 1861 learned how to grow potatoes, turnips, and carrots on local land. Fish, meat, furs and berries were exchanged in Tomsk for flour, salt and fabrics.

Minerals and the importance of wetlands for the region

Vasyugan swamps contain more than a billion tons of peat, which is about two percent of the reserves of the entire planet. In 1949, oil was found in the western part of the territory, after which the area was nicknamed the "oil Klondike". By the 1970s, more than 30 fields had been discovered, and an oil and gas pipeline began to be built here. Due to the constant intervention of drilling rigs and tracked vehicles, the ecology of the swamps has become more vulnerable. Therefore, today most of the territory is reserved places. Vasyugan swamps affect the ecosystem of all adjacent areas. They provide fresh water to the entire territory of Western Siberia - there are about 800 thousand small lakes. By sequestering carbon, swamps prevent the greenhouse effect, for which they are called the "giant natural filter".

In the very center of Western Siberia, between the Irtysh and Ob rivers, there are the largest swamps in the world - Vasyugan. Their area is about 53 thousand km2 (the area of Switzerland, for comparison, is 41 thousand km2), the 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 their territory has been swamped over the past 500 years).

Vasyugan swamps on the world map:

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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 reserves 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 bowels (contains 2% of the world's reserves), swamps are a powerful natural filter that counteracts the greenhouse effect.

In addition, Vasyugan swamps are a unique natural community where you can meet 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 was 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.

Vasyugan swamps occupy a vast territory of Western Siberia and are of great ecological significance. Places that do not have bogs amaze with splendor and beauty. There is a rich flora and fauna, a lot of rare flora and fauna. Many historical facts are associated with them, and an interesting legend about their origin has been composed by the people.

Vasyugan swamps are a unique area of historical, ecological and economic importance.

You can find them on the map between the banks of the Irtysh and Ob, capture most of the Tomsk region, as well as Omsk and Novosibirsk, the south of the Tyumen region and the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug.

How to get there

The easiest way to get to the swamps is from the Kyshtovsky district, located 565 km from Novosibirsk. It's about 8 hours by car. The road passes through several extinct villages, one of which is home to 300 inhabitants. Most of the houses turned into ruins. There is a ringing silence near the swamp.

The country road, which the SUV is still able to overcome, ends, then you can only follow on foot or on a caterpillar all-terrain vehicle. But swamps are a threat to life if there is no experience of moving through swamps, you should abandon the dangerous journey through them.

They buried tools, weapons and entire villages. In addition to bogs, bears are a danger.

It is best to inspect the area from a flying height. Travel companies in Tomsk organize excursions by helicopter. From the air, a huge swampy area strikes the eye with wild unbridled beauty. By private transport from Tomsk you can get to the village of Orlovka, along the M53 highway, then the road is difficult to pass.

Independent passage through the swamps can be extreme, in a desperate struggle for life.

Characteristic

They stretch 600 km long and 320 km wide. These are the most outstanding swamps in the world. Their size exceeds the area of Switzerland. The swamp area is constantly growing. Over the past 5 centuries, it has quadrupled. In warm weather, they are impassable, although the bog is not everywhere.

The local natural zone has created conditions for the formation of various types of peat deposits and marsh vegetation.

What are the Vasyugan swamps in winter, you can learn from this video:

In winter, the air temperature here does not rise above -20 ° C. The height of the snow cover is from 40 to 80 cm, it lasts 175 days a year. It is in winter that all research and oil fields are carried out. The inaccessibility of the swamps does not contribute to their study, work on them began in 1950 - the reserves of each type of peat product were explored and calculated.

Vasyugan swamps are of interest to science not only for their valuable raw materials, but also for their biological functions - in fact, they preserve the water-heat balance of the Earth.

History of the Vasyugan swamps

There is a legend about the emergence of swamps, as if the devil created them, deceiving the Lord, who asked to bring from the depths of the earth in order to create dry land in the middle of the water surface, with flowers and bushes. He hid part of the extracted soil from God by putting it behind his cheeks. The Creator spread the land received from the unclean, and a landscape of extraordinary beauty arose. But trees with grass grew behind the cheeks of the demon.

The devil spat out the contents - viscous and sticky. Thus the swamp was born.

In fact, a huge swampy area was formed due to the flooding of the banks by the swamp. 10,000 years ago, the Vasyugan swamps consisted of 19 separate swampy areas, which, under the influence of a humid climate, gradually absorbed the adjacent land and are still doing this, increasing every year.

The social and cultural significance of the swamp

For the life of the region, they play an important role:

swamp system- the main source of food for local residents from a few surrounding villages - Evenki, Khanty.
They have a huge reserve of fresh water. Some rivers emerging from the swamps feed the commercial lakes of Siberia. There are 800,000 lakes on their territory.
The swampy area is an example of primeval natural beauty, as well as the habitat of numerous species of birds, animals and plants, including rare ones. Wildlife excites the imagination, which contributes to the formation of tourism in the region.
Peat extraction, as well as gas and oil deposits, develop the region's economy.

Vasyugan swamps rank first in the world in terms of peat deposits

But their main function is to purify the atmosphere from harmful impurities emitted by enterprises. By absorbing them, they prevent the greenhouse effect.

Vegetable world

Moisture-loving plants grow in swamps, completely or partially submerged in water. Their leaves retain oxygen, which is rare for a swampy environment. The bottom is inhabited by various types of algae, fish hide and spawn in them. They feed on invertebrates, which in turn are food for fish.

Flowering plants and white moss - sphagnum grow a little higher. The substances released by it decompose the dead plants, and the undecayed remains turn into peat. The coastal zone is inhabited by rare mosses and sedges, as well as buttercups, horsetails, iris, calla, shrubs and sundew.

From berries: cloudberries, cranberries and blueberries.

Animal world

Vasyugan swamps are the habitat of rare fish: white salmon, peled, lampreys. In 1980, reindeer and slender-billed curlews lived there, the population of which almost disappeared.

On the borders with forests are found:

mink;
wolverine;
otter;
Elk;
sable;
capercaillie;
black grouse;
grouse;
white partridge.

Birds of prey, such as peregrine falcon and golden eagle, also nest. According to the Institute of Ecology, at the time of spring migration, about 60% of ducks stop in the swamps. In the tributaries of the rivers emanating from them, there are about 20 varieties of fish, and pike perch, bream and carp are found in marshy lakes.

There are many mosquitoes in the swamps, including malarial ones.

land use

In addition to the indigenous population, conquerors, pioneers, schismatics and exiles lived on these lands. Dugouts were built, vegetable gardens were cultivated - fragments of dwellings and tools were found by archaeologists during excavations. In 1861 landless peasants settled here.

They planted turnips, carrots and potatoes, and the products of the hunt were exchanged in the city for cloth, flour and salt.

During the repressions, deported political prisoners arrived, who were helped by the natives to establish a life - they taught them to pick berries, mushrooms, hunt and fish. The population grew as a result of mixed marriages with settlers.

In the middle of the last century, oil was discovered in the swamps. After that, they began to build gas and oil pipelines, to extract peat. In this regard, a new wave of immigrants surged: geologists, engineers, doctors, teachers, researchers. They built villages with schools, hospitals, kindergartens, established infrastructure and air traffic, organized vegetable gardens, and brought in livestock.

Perestroika disrupted the development of settlements, and people left them, moving to large cities: Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Tomsk. Villages and villages were deserted, some disappeared altogether. To this day, the population of the Vasyugan Plain is represented only by the indigenous people, and stories about anomalous incidents in the swamps and ghost people are spread among the miners.

Ecology of the Vasyugan swamp

The development of the territory and the extraction of minerals is a serious environmental problem: the natural landscape and environmental conditions are disturbed, as well as the natural process of changing plant and animal communities under climate change. Human intervention destroys the ecosystem and leads to soil depletion.

The object needs to be restored and protected from negative impacts.

Factors negatively affecting the state of the swamp

Forests are cut down, peat reserves are depleted. Emissions of oil and oil products, poaching threaten animals and plants. The construction of industrial complexes pollutes the atmosphere and the swamp ecosystem. The appearance of people in bird nesting places causes anxiety among birds and forces them to leave them.

This will lead to a decrease in their numbers and the possible extinction of rare species.

All-terrain vehicles destroy the soil, and rocket components from the spaceport pollute the water with fuel residues. Tourists forget to take out the garbage, do not comply with fire safety. Emerging fires destroy living creatures and forest stands, contribute to the emergence of intramarsh lakes, which impede the flow of water in already wetlands.

The area is polluted with scrap metal and building materials. Vegetation is trampled down to serve as food for animals. Mass gathering of medicinal herbs and catching peregrine falcons for the sale of chicks reduce their availability.

Environmental measures taken

The protection of a natural object at the system level has not yet been organized, but attempts have been made:

In 2006, the administration created a reserve in Tomsk, which included 5090 sq. m. km of the territory of the eastern part of the Vasyugan swamps.
In 2007 they were included in the UNESCO list.
In the spring of 2018, Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree transferring 614,803 hectares of land to the status of a federal reserve. It will be located in the interfluve of the Ob-Irtysh watershed. Officially, the document will come into force on December 1, 2019.

Suggested Conservation Measures

Tomsk reserve "Vasyugansky" made a proposal to ban hunting, logging, picking berries and lighting fires for a picnic. This measure will deprive many hunters from the indigenous population of jobs, but the administration plans to attract them to the huntsmen, thus organizing the fight against poachers.

The next stage is to improve rocket and space activities by abandoning heptyl. And the launch pad should be moved to the cosmodrome in the Amur Region.

Interesting facts about the Vasyugan swamps

Vasyugan swamps, interesting facts about which appeared relatively recently, served as a place of exile for imprisoned Decembrists, revolutionaries, and rebels and were called the Narym Territory. The impenetrable swampy terrain was considered an excellent place to correct them.

Some exiles were engaged in research on the climate, life and customs of the natives, wrote scientific works, for example, the grandfather of the Soviet composer Shostakovich, created a work in exile on the fishing activities of the Narym Territory, which modern students study at the university.

Vasyugan swamps, interesting facts about which became known from documents found in peat bogs, by 1720 had only 12 sparsely populated villages. In 1882, an employee of the Geographical Society counted 726 schismatics of the Old Believers in, settled along the Vasyugan river.

When oil was discovered on the western side of the Vasyugan swamps, they received the name "oil Klondike". They began to build oil and gas pipelines, a settlement of oil workers appeared - "New Vasyugan". Interestingly, the gas supplied to the Tomsk region and Kuzbass from the Vasyugan field was not delivered to the indigenous population.

Vasyugan swamps (interesting facts explained by scientists from a scientific point of view), sucking the bodies of people, keep them in an imperishable state. Centuries later, you can see cuts, examine the contents of the stomach. This occurs as a result of the reaction of decomposition products of peat moss with nitrogen and calcium.

The wandering glow that travelers mistake for house lights and, following it, die in the quagmire, is burning hydrogen phosphorous. The corpses of people and animals contain phosphorus compounds, which decompose under the pressure of water. And swamp gas ignites from them, coming to the surface.

This is how a pale blue flickering glow is formed, popularly called the candles of the dead.

Tourist significance of the Vasyugan swamps

The beauty of the taiga region attracts extreme tourists. It is allowed to wander through the swamps for more than one day, but without lighting fires- Violation carries a hefty fine. Independent travel here is rare, tourists are afraid of swamps and wild animals.

Travel companies have been created in Tomsk, organizing tours to the Vasyugan swamps that are becoming popular. This develops the economy of the region. Vasyugan swamps - a mysterious, wild area, attracting with interesting views, mystical stories and commercial benefits - need to be protected, this is an indisputable fact.

Their biological functions are irreplaceable.

They are important for the ecology not only of our country, but of the whole world, since they save the surface layers of the earth from overheating and harmful atmospheric impurities. In addition, it is necessary to preserve the endangered populations of fish, animals, birds and plants that grow and inhabit the Vasyugan swamps.

Article formatting: E. Chaikina

Useful video about Vasyugan swamps

Characteristics and overview of the Vasyugan swamps:

Vasyugan swamps are located in the center of the Siberian Federal District (SFD), between the Ob and Irtysh rivers. This is the largest swampy place in Russia and the world. Most of this unique natural area is located on the territory of the Tomsk region, including the Novosibirsk, Omsk regions and the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. The area of this swamp is the largest in the world and is about 53-55 thousand square meters. km, which exceeds the size of such European countries as Switzerland, Denmark or Estonia.

The size of the swamp in length is approximately 570 by 320 km, it is truly huge, you can see it on the map. 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 increased 4 times. Local legends speak of the ancient Vasyugan Sea-Lake, but geologists say that the Great Vasyugan Swamp did not occur by overgrowing ancient lakes, but as a result of the advance of swamps on land under the influence of a humid climate and favorable conditions.

Initially, on the site of the current single swamp massif, there were 19 separate plots with a total area of 45,000 square meters. km, but gradually the quagmire swallowed up the surroundings, like the onset of desert sands. Today, this region is still a classic example of active, "aggressive" swamp formation: the interesting fact is that the swamps continue to grow, increasing on average by 800 hectares per year. 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 area of the Vasyugan swamp is continental and humid. The average temperature in January is -20 °C, in July +17 °C. Snow cover 40–80 cm high lies from October to April on average 175 days a year. Wetlands are the last refuge for many rare and endangered species of animals and birds driven from habitats transformed by humans, and the basis for maintaining the traditional nature management of small peoples, in particular, the indigenous inhabitants of Western Siberia. Among plants, swamps and lakes, various medicinal herbs are of the main value, as well as berries that are found in abundance in swamps: cranberries, cloudberries, blueberries, etc.

Wetlands contain huge reserves of peat and counteract the greenhouse effect by sequestering carbon. Explored peat reserves are more than 1 billion tons, the average depth is 2.4 m, the maximum depth is 10 m.
Vasyugan swamps are home to numerous local fauna, including rare ones. Of the rare species of animals in the swamps live: reindeer, golden eagle, white-tailed eagle, osprey, gray shrike, peregrine falcon. Squirrels, elks, sables, wood grouses, white partridges, hazel grouses, black grouses are present in significant quantities, mink, otter, wolverine are in smaller quantities. The flora also includes rare and endangered plant species and plant communities.

Now the fauna and flora of the swamps is under threat due to the development of the territory during the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas fields. The falling second stages of launch vehicles launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome, which pollute the territory with heptyl residues, also pose an environmental hazard.

Vasyugan swamps consider a variety of insects, animals, fish, birds to be their home. During the migration period, waterfowl and waders stop to rest on them. 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 fly in the period of spring migration with a diffuse front through swamp systems, and only 40% - along the valleys of large rivers.

Godwit and curlew, various birds of prey, including the peregrine falcon, nest in the marshes. It was on the Vasyugan plain that the thin-billed curlew was last seen, which is considered to be an almost extinct species of birds. In places where swamps border forests and rivers and lakes lie, elks, minks, sables, otters are found, hazel grouses and wood grouses are found. Until the mid-80s of the last century, reindeer were found in the swamps, but today their population has practically disappeared. In the tributaries of the rivers originating from the Great Vasyugan swamp, there are about 20 species of fish. In recent years, bream, pike perch, carp, and verkhovka have become common in local reservoirs. Vulnerable and rare species of fish in the area are nelma, peled, lamprey, and ruff.

In the summer, swamps are almost impassable even for specialized vehicles. Cargo transportation to oil fields and exploration parties is carried out in winter.