Stepanova, Siberia 58.67 N 86.76 E
10:35 pm Siberia local; 11:35 pm next day EST
High: 58 F Low: 47 F Scattered rain
This has been a hard day for me. I have been a little sick with a cold for several days, but today I am just exhausted, with no energy at all. I had to make the very difficult decision to stay in camp.
I want to be in the field, working. But if I get in the field and have to quit, or can’t walk fast enough, then we may get less data than we should. It is standard protocol that we don’t take people in the field that can’t keep up. And today, that is me. It has never happened to me before, and I am taking it pretty hard – but it’s necessary for the expedition.
The others, except for Slava, went out as usual to make measurements. They did a great job, too. They returned to camp very late, with measurements from 14 plots. I understand that the forest is mostly upland, with moderately dry soils. Scots Pines are the predominant tree, with some other species mixed in. They reported that there were some really outstanding old Aspen trees – some they estimated to be as old as 100 years old.
The camp is right on the bank of the river here – the Ket River. The ground is sandy and soft, and the weather is cool. We have some rain today, but just scattered rain and clouds, then some sunshine.
There is a hayfield behind our camp and the grass is ready for cutting. This morning we looked up and there were people there, working just behind the tents. They just sort of appeared from nowhere, very quietly, cutting the hay by hand. They had these big scythes – just like the grim reaper is supposed to carry. They are continuing the traditional harvest, just as it has been done here for many centuries.
They waved to us, and Slava went out to talk to them. Pretty soon I saw him with a scythe, helping them harvest. He did a pretty good job, too. When he returned, he was smiling. He said it reminded him of when he was a boy. He used to go harvest like that with his Grandfather.
Slava made a run into town today, and came back with milk and newly made bread, some onions and cottage cheese. The people at the market gave him some smoked fish to try. It’s a type of carp and it comes from local rivers. The dried fish still has the bones in it, but you can pull the flesh away and it tastes pretty good. Slava also tried his luck at fishing today, but said he caught nothing in the river. And he set up a new tent. This one is tall, so we can stand up in it. For the rest of our time here, it will be our “office”, where we can work together if it rains, and maybe we’ll be able to zip it up to keep the mosquitoes out.
The biggest chore for the day was fixing the grey UAZ. There was something wrong with the electrical system. Slava said he couldn’t turn the headlights off anymore. Even when the car is turned off and he takes the keys away, the lights still burn. That’s not very good, and it drains the battery, so it had to be fixed. Slava had the car all apart and wires in his hands for most of the afternoon. And, of course, he succeeded.
After he fixed the electrical system, he took every bit of everything out of the car and scrubbed it well. Then he applied sealant to the seams in the floorboards. They let dust in yesterday, and he thinks that made my cold a lot worse, so he wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
I don’t think I described the dust-storm in the car very well yesterday. We were driving on a good, paved road, with Ross and I sitting in the back seat. I was very tired, so I fell asleep. We hit a bump, and I woke up with a start. My head was down and all I could see was this white cloud billowing up between my feet. I thought the car was on fire.
I got all excited and yelled at Slava, “pull over, pull over!” Slav asked “Jon, what do you mean by ‘pull over’?” “I mean stop the car!” I yelled. He said no, he didn’t think we should. Then Ross informed me that it wasn’t fire, just dust. The tires were tossing road dust up against the wheel well, and it was billowing in through holes in the seams of the floorboards.
For awhile I tried to cover the holes to stop the dust. I grabbed maps and papers and all sorts of stuff. Then finally I gave up – and found a dust mask in my backpack. I put that one, and tried to go back to sleep. That’s why Slava is fixing it. Oh – I found out this is NOT Slava’s personal car – it belongs to the Sukachev Institute. Obviously, it must always need a lot of repairs, because Slava appears to be a very practiced mechanic.
So Slava’s day was very busy. As for me, I took some pictures for the blog and thought about making dinner for the homecoming of today’s “Heroes of the Expedition” But our heroes had taken all the supplies for dinner with them, so they had to help cook when they got back. I hate to say it, but what I did, mostly, was lie in my tent and sleep. It’s no way to spend an expedition, but it’s the only way to get myself well again.
I did help fix the car – okay, well let’s be more accurate and say I made a contribution. Looking at the cracked windshield gave me an idea. I dug around in my backpack and found the adhesive that I like to carry along. It’s called Gorilla Glue, and it’s great for sticking just about anything together. I offered it to Slava, thinking it might stabilize the windshield. He liked the idea, and now the UAZ has Gorilla Glue on both the outside and inside of the windshield. Maybe it will hold together until we get back to Krasnoyarsk.
While I lay in my tent today, I started thinking about animals. When I drive around near my home in Maryland, I always see lots of mammals and birds. There are lots of animals that live in Siberia, but we don’t ever seem to see many when we are on expedition. Maybe they stay away from people, because they aren’t used to seeing many of us. Or maybe we just make too much noise – that’s certainly true when we are working a plot. We’re cracking through brush and yelling out numbers. No self-respecting animal would hang around when fools like us are in the woods. Whatever the reason, the only four-legged wild things I’ve seen so far have been a couple of squirrels and a few skinks.
There are birds here, though. Southern Siberia seems to have a lot more birds than the far north, where we traveled the last two expeditions. So far I’ve seen hawks, pigeons and magpies. There are two types of crows – a black one and a gray one – and I’ve seen both. There were some swallows feeding their young and a flock of heron-like birds that flew overhead. The best bird I’ve seen was the Siberian nutcracker, a Nutifraga species, which is called a “cedarbird” here. This bird eats the seed of the Siberian pine, and through this habit, helps the tree reproduce. Since I like Siberian pine, I have a soft spot in my heart for this little bird.
Today has been a quiet day for me – a day of healing and meditation. For the rest, it was a long day of hard work, as usual. The night has come, with cool air that makes the prospect of snuggling into a warm sleeping bag very attractive. It’s great sleeping weather. Hopefully a good night’s sleep will bring me a healthier tomorrow, so I can go back to the forests with the team. They are already asleep – the morning comes soon in Siberia.
Tomsk Oblast 58.67 N 86.76 E
11:15 pm Siberia local; 12:15 PM next day EST
High: 72 F Low: 62 F Scattered Rain
Today we finally reached the town of Belyy Yar. I can testify that yes, it does exist and also that it is a lovely little town. But what a day it has been – it’s a long, long way from Tomsk to Bely Yar.
Our first goal was to cross the Ob River by ferry. Our cars were running fine, the weather was decent and the roads were paved. We soon found the ferry, and drove our vehicles aboard with no trouble. There enough room that five cars, one truck and a few standing passengers easily got onboard. It must be a popular ride – four ferries work this dock, departing and returning approximately on the half-hour. They load up quickly, and then they take off.
When I say “take off”, that’s exactly what I mean – they waste no time at all. As Mikal and Slava drove onto the boat, I stayed on the dock to take another picture. I had the camera up and was focusing, when, through the lens, I noticed that the ferry was moving! The captain had decided they were full and gunned the engines – without sounding a horn or giving any notice at all. I ran down the dock and made a big leap for the boat. Somehow I landed on the deck rather than in the Ob. Nothing like the fear of being left behind in Siberia to turn a scientist into an athlete!
We disembarked at a nice little town on the other side, but we didn’t linger. We needed to make Belyy Yar by early afternoon. At first the road was paved, but, predictably, the good road soon ran out. We hit a gravel road and the ride turned noisy and dusty. Gravel spattered against the car’s body and dust rose up from the seams in the floorboards.
I looked up in time to see a big truck driving towards us, going fast. As it passed, the gravel flew high – and hit the windshield right in front of Slava. The windshield cracked with a horrible noise – but it held, and no one was hurt. We’re not going to be able to get it fixed anytime soon, and that’s a shame. We can’t seem to get through a day without some kind of car trouble. The rough road and all the car trouble makes me nostalgic for river expeditions. They seem so easy, now!
At last, we arrived in the town of Belyy Yar. It was a nice town. The houses are quaint and the people talkative and helpful. It is is apparently the center of government in this area, and most of the industry in the area is forestry, so it’s a town important to those interested in the forest. We had a meal at a restaurant, filled our tanks with gasoline, and spent a few hours visiting with the local Forester. I am terrible with names, and with apologies to him, I have to say all I remember is that he is called Igor. He was helpful and generous. Igor told us about the forest conditions, discussed the cutting history and methods here, and gave us up to date information about the main roads between here and the forest sites. And he gave us tea and cookies, too. We would have loved to linger in town, but tonight’s camp was about 130 km to the east – so we had to move on.
After a relatively uneventful drive, we arrived in the general area that we wanted to camp. We get details for camps from locals, so we started looking for a likely source of information. We rolled into Stepanova, a little village, and saw an older fellow sitting on a bench in front of his house. He was a typical Siberian townsman, in long pants and a long-sleeved summer shirt. But on his feet he sported a large pair of purple Crocs. I don’t think I’d ever seen Crocs quite that color before. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen Crocs in Siberia. Slava thought he’d be a good guy to talk to, and we made a stop. Sure enough, soon we had information about a wonderful camp on a decent road, and off we went to find it.
The only problem with following local advice is that conditions do change. Maybe the last time this fellow was on this road, it was good. But today it was terrible. It was more of a path than a road, and it was full of grass, rocks and mud. I rode in the grey UAZ, the lead car, and Slava was paying close attention to the road. So we didn’t notice when The Pill ran into deep mud and got solidly stuck. But we didn’t drive too far, because all of a sudden we, too, were axle-deep in mud. We waited for The Pill to show up, but when they didn’t, Slava called them on this cell phone. That’s when we found out the entire expedition was mired in mud.
Pretty soon the crew from The Pill came carrying their hand-shovels to help dig us out. We dug near the tires, then laid down branches and brush under the tires for traction. Then we dug a bit more. It took awhile, and at some point, I heard Marsha mutter the slogan I’d read about before: “a UAZ will break down where no other car will go”. I get it, I get it – a UAZ will take you far beyond where it makes any sense to try to drive. And then you may regret it.
Eventually we freed the grey UAZ, then drove back to rescue The Pill. Slava and Mikal hooked The Pill’s winch to the grey car, and, after much more digging, Slava gave a good pull. Finally Mikal was able to get some forward momentum and The Pill rolled forward out of the mud to safety.
We decided to abandon that road, and headed back to Stepanova. As we reached town, the fellow with the purple crocs waved to us. “How did you like the road?” he said, with an open, guileless smile. With characteristic understatement, Slava gently replied “It was not so good” – and off we drove, waving and smiling.
We finally reached a lovely campsite near a river. It was dark when we arrived, so I don’t know much about it, other than it looks like a lovely place to sleep.
It’s been a long, long ride. From our campsite two days ago we have driven about 1500 km (930 miles). That’s about the same distance as driving from Baltimore, Maryland to Des Moines, Iowa. And most of it has been on really, really rough roads. I like road trips, but at times this has been more like an amusement park ride than a road trip.
There is a lot of work we can do in this forest, so we will camp here for the next three or four days. By the end of that time, we’ll be ready to return to Krasnoyarsk refreshed, with loads of excellent data. I’m hoping our car troubles are behind us, and am looking forward to a productive time in the forests near Stepanova.
Tomsk Oblast 57.22 N 83.53 E
11:22 pm Tomsk local; 12:22 pm, next day, EST
High 70 F Low 49 F Clear skies
Today was a long day of slow progress. At the end of a tiring journey, we are now snug in a wonderful little camp, with a bright half-moon shining over the lake next to our tents. But, unfortunately, Bely Yar still eludes us.
We woke up early this morning, broke camp and loaded up as quickly as possible. By 8:30 the sun was up and we were on our way. After rattling down our rugged forest road for a bit, Slava discovered a leaking tire. Fortunately we soon found the village of Komsomorsk and even more fortunately we found a good mechanic, a nice young man who had grown up in the region.
Like most folks around here, our mechanic was friendly and enjoyed chatting. He told us that his family had been exiled here in the 1930’s, under Stalin’s regime. It turns out that it is quite likely that his family had lived in the very same forest we worked two days ago – the forest where we found the old, sad stumps.
His family had been rounded up in Russia and forced into exile at Shushenskoye, a town built at the confluence of the Yenisei and Big Shush Rivers in the southern part of Krasnoyarsk Krai. It’s a famous town, because it is site of Vladimir Lenin’s exile from 1897 to 1900.
The families were allowed to stay in town for a little while. Then, suddenly, the Russians came and packed them up, along with many others, and transported them to a “special settlement” near the Chulym River. They were dropped in the middle of the wild forest with just a few tools, and told to go to work and build cabins for themselves. This was just before winter set in, he said. That would make it this time of year, probably in August. So we are experiencing what conditions may have been like for those kulaks so long ago. They would have had mild, probably rainy weather for a few weeks longer. And then winter would come.
When winter comes to Siberia, it moves in fast and hard. In this area, average August high temperatures are in the low 70’s. By September, average highs fall to the low 50s and snows may start falling. It gets worse from there – and quickly. Food is reasonably available in the summer, but one can’t start a garden in August – there is no time – so they would have had to live off the land, without a garden and without reserve food. In the winter, food becomes quite scarce. One can hunt, but there is not much vegetation to gather. It was not a very good situation, to say the least. Our friend says that of the 300 people who were put out at that site, only 30 survived the first winter.
Besides these “special settlements”, the Russians also had Gulags in this area. These were forced-labor prison camps. If the kulaks had it bad, those locked away in Gulag had it much worse. Prisoners were supposed to be provided with food, a luxury the kulaks did not enjoy, but at least the kulaks could strive to survive and they held their fate, as bleak as it was, in their own hands. Prisoner’s lives were at the whim of the State and particularly at the whim of the prison guards – most of whom were well-hardened men, if not outright cruel. If kulaks were cold, they could look for kindling and have a chance at a fire. Prisoners might be shot for trying the same thing – or freeze to death if they did not. Suffering from extreme conditions, lack of nourishment and extraordinary work loads, survival rates in Siberian Gulag were very low.
After hearing about these hard times, we felt pretty happy that our troubles were so simple. The tire was repaired and off we drove. To reach Bely Yar tonight, we would have to head west hundreds of kilometers to Tomsk, then turn north and drive hundreds more kilometers in that direction. In the end, we’d be fairly close to where we left last night, but on the other side of the impassible road. What a very long diversion, just because of one bad road! Around here, you can’t just hop off the beltway at the next exit and drive a parallel route, like we do where I’m from. In many areas, here there’s only one route in, and one route out. And when that fails, it’s time for creativity. And patience.
We soon reached Tomsk, where we had planned to shop for supplies and another GPS. Having a second GPS which would let us divide up into two groups and work two plots simultaneously. So we were glad to take a break there. And that’s where we heard the news that Slava’s car was having steering problems. We figured that being able to steer might be a bit important, so he went off to get the car fixed, with our blessing.
It seems we’re having a lot of car trouble on this trip, but then again, this is not an easy trip for any car at all. Some of these roads might even be a challenge for a horse – or a human. Slava drives a UAZ 469, which is a boxy, Russian-made, four wheel drive vehicle. UAZ (pronounce that as “you –oz”, cars have a simple design, so they can be worked on by their owners, because Russians seem to prefer being independent. The cars, especially those built up to 1990, have a reputation for being very reliable and rugged. Our blue Pill is also a UAZ and is also a four wheel drive. I once read that there is a saying in Russia that goes “a UAZ will break down where no other car will go”. I don’t think many other cars would have gotten us into the forest on yesterday’s roads, so I guess we can forgive a bit of trouble.
By the time Slava and his UAZ returned, it was so late we had to give up once again on our quest to reach the fabled Bely Yar, at least temporarily. Slava had asked around and found a promising camp location to our north and west, so off we went to try to find a place to park and sleep for the night. As it was, we rattled up another rough road to the camp just as the sun was getting ready to set.
Whoever turned us on to this spot certainly was kind. It is a nice flat meadow right next to a little lake. I am told that it is in an area called Charevo Shayno, which translates as “Twisted Neck”. I have no idea how it got that name, and I’m not sure I even want to speculate. But I do know this is a beautiful campsite and I feel lucky we get to take a rest here.
As I was putting up my tent, I looked across the lake and the sun was going down. The sky was full of colors and it all looked so very peaceful as the sun slowly set. Then a million stars came out against the blackest sky you can imagine. Tonight the sky is very clear and the half-moon looks very white and bright. We will sleep well at Twisted Neck, I think.
Morning will come quite early. We’ve left everything but the most essential gear in the vehicles, so all we need to do is get up, grab a bite to eat and pack up minimal gear. We need to be on the road by 6:30 in the morning. We have another 4-5 hours driving ahead of us, and we’d like to try to get a little time working the forest tomorrow afternoon. The night is beautiful, but morning will come early, so it’s time to close this entry. Don’t forget to look at the moon tonight, wherever you are.
Tomsk Oblast 57.83 N 86.7 E
12:00 midnight Siberian; 12:00 noon EST
High: 55 Low: 43 Overcast
Oh my goodness, I’m exhausted tonight. It’s late and it’s been a very long day. It’s chilly tonight, too – the breeze off the water is cold here, in our camp by the river. I’ve already crawled into my sleeping bag, where it’s quite warm and cozy. Stick a fork in me, I am done.
This morning we climbed into The Pill and headed out to the study area, only about 30 km (18mi) away. That’s a fraction of my morning commute back home, so I thought it would take just a few minutes. But the road was full of ruts and potholes. It took us almost two hours to get to work. It was worse coming home, too. We happened upon some locals who had gotten stuck in a real deep pothole. Mikal had a winch on The Pill, so we got them hauled out, but it made the commute take forever.
As we drove in, we saw a very diverse and robust forest. Siberian fir, Siberian pine and aspen are abundant in the wetter spots. Spruce and Scots pine thrive in the drier areas. When we stopped, we noticed right away that the wet soil-species predominated in our work area, so it looked like a good idea to wear our rubber waders.
The waders are heavy and hot, but they do keep feet dry, and wet feet in the forest can be miserable. We all elected to wear them, except for Marsha. She is very experienced in this region and was confident she could pick dry paths through wetlands. She did great most of the time. But there was one very wet bog that was a challenge. All us guys in our big boots sloshed right on through. It was a little tiresome, but we got out dry. Marsha had to be much more methodical, picking her way from one tuft of vegetation to another. We waited for her, and silently rooted for her to make it through. In the end, though, she ended up getting her feet pretty wet a time or two. And no, none of us gentlemen offered to carry the damsel across the bog. We’re scientists not knights. In the forest, there is no chivalry.
Let me describe how we do our work. To start, we have to find the right location, so we consult maps to locate a GLAS footprint within walking distance. Using our GPS, we walk to the center of that footprint – which can be a challenge, depending on what is in our way. Then we measure and mark the boundary of a 10 meter radius around the center, so we end up with a 20m diameter circle. That’s our “plot”.
Once the plot is marked, we split into teams of two. One person will use a standard forestry diameter tape (measuring tape) and wrap it around the tree trunk at 4.5 feet (1.37 m) above the forest floor and measure the diameter of the tree. That height from the ground is known as diameter breast height, or DBH. Once you get used to it, it’s easy to repeat DBH without having to think about it. And the other person has a clipboard and records the height of the tree, the species of the tree and makes other notations that may be relevant. We measure the DBH of every tree in the plot.
We also need to measure three trees for height, and they need to be representative of the species in the plot. That means that we pick trees of the predominant species – we wouldn’t measure the lone birch in a Scots Pine forest, for example. We’d pick a pine. Then we choose one tree from each category of DBH – one tree with a low DBH, one with a medium DBH and one with a high DBH. We’ll need a tree that is relatively tall, and one that we can see both the trunk and the top of the crown, so we can sight it with the hypsometer – the gadget that makes the measurements. Once we sight the tree properly, the hypsometer gives us a reading, and we write that down, too. That’s all there is to it. Sounds easy, but after hundreds of trees in a plot, it gets a bit tiring. Today we measured over 600 trees in our nine plots.
This old rutted road seems to draw a line between two different types of forest. On the south side, the land is wet and the forests are rich in birch and aspen, with some Pine, Spruce and Fir mixed in, and moss covers the ground. On the north side of the road, the soil is dry and the forest is almost exclusively Scots Pine, with lots of lichen on the floor.
On the northern side of the road, we can tell that a big battle was oce waged here. It was a case of human vs. fire, with the forest being the prize. The most notable evidence is the remnants of very old firebreaks. In order to control a forest fire, often it is necessary to clear a wide swath of all burnable material. That’s a “firebreak”. The idea is that when the fire reaches the break, it won’t have any more fuel and it will die. To make a firebreak, they take a tractor with a big attachment and dig a wide trench. And that’s what we see here – the earth is scarred with firebreak trenches.
They must have fought the blazes a long time ago. Some of the trenches have almost completely been filled with soil, and others have good sized trees growing from them. We found these tracks all over the forest. Firs t they go in one direction, then in another. I don’t know when it happened, or who fought it, but it must have been a mighty battle. There’s no hint of who won, either – the fire or the people. Well, the forest has returned, so I guess, in the end, the forest won the war.
The forest was also scarred by an old invasion of the Siberian silkmoth. This region suffered a very famous infestation back in the early 1950s, when about a million hectares of forest was destroyed by that insect. The little white moth lays eggs on the conifers – Siberian Pine, Siberian Fir and Siberian Spruce are favorites – and the larvae will strip the host tree of needles, killing the tree. That happened right here, and we see a lot of long-dead trees left standing, a lot of trees blown down and decaying, and a lot of “new” growth. Of course, the new growth is about sixty years old. It’s clear this forest has been under a great deal of stress from both fire and insects.
Pasha and Slava had been minding the camp today. We again returned to a burning campfire and warm food. Tonight we ate fruit compote, made of dried fruits mixed with water and heated over the fire, along with rice and a soup made out of meat, potatoes, onions and spices. I put my rice in my soup, and it made a wonderful, filling meal.
Tomorrow we will try to find a back way into Belyy Yar. The direct road to that city is still impassible, and it looks like it will stay that way for a long time. Slava has been searching for another route, and he tells me he’s found it. I’m told to get some rest, because we’ll get up very early and, if it all works out, we’ll reach that area very late tomorrow night. I hope it works out – we really do want the data from that area, if it’s at all possible.
Tomsk Oblast 57.83 N 86.7 E
11:30 pm Siberia, 11:30 AM EST
High: 56 F Low 57 F Light rain
Today started both early and suddenly, when Mikal decided it would be healthy for us to wake up and enjoy the day. He jumped into The Pill and started honking the horn vigorously. Then he walked all around camp, singing away. It was a unique awakening, but effective.
Our camp turned out to be the site of an old forest fire. On one side of the road, the fire had been a ground fire. On the other, a stand-replacing fire. A ground fire burns the forest floor. They usually stay low and clear away understory and debris. They tend to leave adult trees scorched, but alive. After a ground fire, seeds will quickly germinate and new growth, called regeneration will shoot up. So on that side of the road, we see tall, scorched trees with an upper canopy of green needles, with a dense growth of young trees underneath. A stand-regenerating fire burns hot and high. It burns everything in its path, including mature trees. So on that side of the road, we see a field of new green growth, with some blackened, dead trees scattered about.
The regeneration – the young trees – can tell us how long ago the fire came through. Scots pine put out one new set of branches, called whorls, each year. So if you can count the whorls on the trunk, you know how old the trees are. These young Scots Pines have 6 sets of whorls, so the stand burned six or seven years ago.
After we tore down our camp, Mikal drove us east to a spot near the forest, and turned us loose. We walked into the woods, using the GPS to find the first GLAS footprint, where we began to make measurements. Mikal returned to camp and Slava spent the day getting a leaking tire fixed.
We measured 9 plots today – a good day’s work. Sometimes we split our team into two groups, so we can work two plots simultaneously. But today was calibration day, so we decided we’d work all together in one plot. By staying close, we could make sure each hypsometer was measuring correctly, as well as make sure everyone was measuring in the same way. It’s really important to calibrate everything – including human technique. Getting ground-truth to be repeatable and accurate is absolutely vital if the data is going to be useful.
For lunch, we had a picnic in the woods. We had bread, canned fish and caviar. Well, that’s what the can said, in Russian … “caviar”. I guess it was sort of a Russian joke, because the can was full of a red vegetable paste, with a salty taste and a consistency vaguely resembling fish eggs. As it turned out, if you put “caviar” on a piece of bread, add a little canned fish and a thick slice of fresh onion, it’s really quite delicious. I’m not sure I’d do that in a nice restaurant, or where anyone could smell me afterwards, but here, in the forest, it was a real treat.
This forest has a lot of species diversity. Which species predominates depends mostly on the drainage of the soil. Birch likes the boggy, wet soil. Spruce and pine prefer upland, dryer soils. You can make a good guess about the soil, just by noting what species of tree is growing.
I was also impressed by the large size of the trees. Many are about 100 feet tall and ½ meter in diameter. The tallest today was an aspen. It was 34 m tall, with a DBH (diameter at breast height) of 67 cm.
Tall trees with large diameters growing in thick stands means a lot of biomass, and a lot of biomass means a lot of carbon. There is a great deal of carbon tied up in this forest, for sure. How much carbon is tucked away in Siberian forests is exactly what we are trying to understand.
In the forest, we came across signs that someone had been working here many years ago. We could see that trees had been selectively cut down. Timber had been harvested maybe 80 or 90 years ago. That would have been in the 20’s or 30’s, in the time of Joseph Stalin.
When Stalin came to power in Russia, one of the policies he created was collectivization. All private farms suddenly belonged to the State, and individual farmers suddenly worked for the common good, not for themselves. Certain farmers, usually the more successful ones, the ones that had the most to lose, didn’t think this was a very good idea. They protested, either by talk or by refusing to turn over all property to the State.
Stalin had no tolerance for disagreement – it was a cooperate-or-be-destroyed era. He decided to end protests by removing these farmers, called kulaks, from Russia. Some kulaks were tried for “crimes” and executed. Some were sent to the Gulag (the Russian prison system), where most died. The lucky ones were merely exiled from their homeland. They were transported to Siberia and deposited there, in the most uninhabited and uninhabitable land that could be found. Allowed almost nothing but the clothes they might be wearing, they were totally unprepared for living in the frigid, cruel land.
But the land has it’s gentleness and the kulaks tended to be hardworking and excellent farmers. Many kulaks ended up surviving in exile. I am told that descendants of the exiles that worked this timber nearly a century ago are still living in the area, and some are doing very well for themselves. It was terribly hard to be exiled – there was true suffering here, in this forest and this community. But many endured, and many thrived.
As I was looking at the stumps, doing my own easy work, I felt connected to those men. I felt tired today, although I had good gear, good food and good clothing. It was hard to imagine how bone-tired they must have been, in frigid weather, with minimal clothing and a poor diet. In a way, I felt them with us, their spirit and memory here in this forest. And I felt humbled.
At the end of the day Pasha called for a ride on his cell phone, and Mikal and The Pill showed up promptly. Russia has cell phone towers everywhere, and our colleagues seem to be able to talk to each other in the most remote places on earth with no trouble. It is just amazing.
We rode into our new campsite, tired, cold, dirty and hungry, knowing we still had to make camp and dinner before we could rest. But we were in for a treat. Not only did we get excellent taxi service, but when we walked into camp, it was like walking into a friend’s home. The tents were up, a fire was roaring, tea was simmering and there was warm food ready to eat. What a delight!
And there stood Slava, welcoming us home and calling us “heroes of the expedition”. With true Siberian hospitality, he offered a ceremonial toast fit for a hero’s return. What a marvelous thing, to be so tired and chilled, then to return to such a warm scene. The food was fabulous, and soon we were sleepy from the day’s work, the good nourishment and the warm fire. I have to say, they do know how to make hard work fun.
