Magadan Oblast

Geography. Magadan lies below Chukotka and above the Khabarovsk Krai.

Climate. The region's harsh climate is regulated by the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and two mountain ranges. The average temperature in January ranges from -19C along the Sea of Ohotsk to -38C in the interior. Average July temperatures are from 5C to 16C.

History/Culture. The first Russian explorers came to Magadan Oblast in the late 1600's in search of furs. Settled as a support base for the exploration of minerals, it became the center of the Gulag Archipelago described by writers such as Solzhenitsyn, Shalamov and Ginsburg. Exiled politicians and criminals were sent by Trans Siberian Express windowless cars and transferred by barge to Magadan. They built the famous Kolyma Highway, the road reaching from the gold mines to Yakutia. More than a million people who were declared enemies of the state died in Magadan camps.

Ecology/Environment. The Magadan Region is mountainous. The Anulyskiy and Pekul'nei mountain ranges feed the Boslhoy and Mally Anui Rivers. The Kolyma, Suntar-Khayata and Gherskiy mountain ranges feed the gold rich Omolon and Kolyma rivers. Large forests and marshland form the landscape in the southern Magadan Oblast. Dwarf Siberian pine grows alongside the coast. The most valuable forests (mainly larch, poplar and willow) grow alongside the river valleys. These river valleys are the richest in terms of species diversity, biomass and productivity and often have the main gold deposits.

Amour Oblast

Geography. The Amur Oblast is a small territory on the left upper corner of the Khabarovski Krai and is bordered by Yakutia to the north. Its capital is Blagoveschchensk. It is most known for its location close to China with which it has important trade relations. Most of its industries are related to agriculture. The territory is accessed by two railroads, the Trans Siberian and the BAM (Baikal-Amur). The territory is also crossed by the Amur River, which is the natural border with China.

Climate. Temperature fluctuations range from 32C in the summer to -32C in the winter. Spring is dry and clear. Summer is hot, short and moist. Fall is clear and winter is dry and cold with little snow.

History/Culture. The Oblast received its first influx of Russian settlers in the mid 17th century. They were looking for a more temperate climate as an escape from the north. However the cruelty of the Russians toward the local population forced them to look for protection from Manchuria. After the Opium War, when the Manchurian Empire was exposed to the outside world, Russian explorers once again moved to the region (mostly Cossacks and peasant farmers). The last influx of people arrived upon the completion of the Trans Siberian Railroad. Presently the Amur Oblast has approximately 1.2 million inhabitants.

Ecology/Environment. The Stanovoy Mountains form the dividing line between Yakutia and the Amur Oblast and spread across the entire northern border of the territory. Dwarf Siberian pine and alpine tundra grow at higher elevations on these mountains and larch forests with small stands of flat-leaved birch and pine forests grow alongside the river plains. The Zeya River begins in these mountains in the northeast. The middle reaches of this great river were dammed to create the huge Zeysky Reservoir, which sprawls over 2,500 sq. km. between the Stanovoy Mountains and a southern parallel range running across the center of the Oblast. The low lands between these two mountain ranges make up the Upper Zeysky Plain, which is primarily marshland with larch and pine forests. South of the second ridge is the vast Amur River plain which covers up to 40% of the region.

Along the eastern border of the Amur Oblast is another series of mountains separating Amur from the Khabarovski Krai. These larch and fir-spruce forests form the watershed of the Selemdzha River, which flows south into the Zeya, continues to the city of Blagoveschchensk and then into the Amur River. Southeast of the Selemdzha are the Bureya and Arkhara Rivers, which have the richest remaining forests in the oblast with Korean pine, Limmonik, Mongolian Oak and other Manchurian flora. The Zeya, Amur and Buraya rivers form a cradle for the highest biodiversity in the Amur Region - the Zeysko-Burenskaya Plain. Much of this plain has been burned for agriculture, but large patches still remain. Japanese Daurian and Far Eastern western cranes nest here, as well as a host of other rare birds.

Flora and Fauna. The Amur Oblast has three distinct habitat zones with a different type of fauna: Eastern Siberian (e.g. brown bear, wood grouse, sable, elk and wolf), Priamursk (e.g. Far Eastern white stork, Japanese crane and raccoon) and Daurian-Mongolian (e.g. white naped crane, gopher and high mountain sheep). Rare and Endangered Species in the Amur Oblast include a number of crane species: Himalayan black bear, horned mountain goat, Baer's pochard, Far Eastern stork, Mandarin duck and osprey.

Republic of Yakutia (Sakha)

Geography. The Republic of Yakutia (Sakha) is situated in northeastern Siberia, stretches to the Henrietta Islands in the far north and is washed by the Arctic Ocean (Laptev and Eastern Siberian Seas). These waters, the coldest and iciest of all seas in the northern hemisphere, are covered by ice for 9-10 months of the year. The Stanovoy Ridge borders Yakutia in the south, the upper reaches of the Olenyok river form the western border, and Chukotka forms the eastern border.

Climate. Winter is prolonged and severe, with average January temperatures about -40C. Summer is short but warm; average temperatures have reached 18C in Yakutsk. In the northeast, the town of Verekhoyansk, the temperature reaches -70C and is considered the most uninhabitable place on the Earth.

Indigenous People. The Republic of Yakutia (Sakha) is the traditional homeland of the Yakut people who today represent about one-third of the population. When the Russians arrived at the end of the 16th century, the Yakuts had settled in the Lena River valley and had smaller settlements along the head waters of the Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma Rivers. While their traditional way of life continues to center around reindeer herding, cattle and horse raising (Yakut means "horse people"), hunting and fishing, most Yakuts today are urban dwellers and live much like other Russians. 

Reindeer herders are nomadic and have no formal hierarchy. Hunters and fishers live in permanent settlements or wander within a limited territory on a seasonal basis. Other indigenous people who live in Yakutia include Eveni, Evenki, Dolgane, Chukchi and Yukaghiri. Like Yakuts, they herd reindeer and hunt and fish.

Under Soviet collectivization, nomadic herders were organized into work units, so that their reindeer herding followed an official plan. To reach production quotas, communist officials forced the herders to overgraze the land. The overgrazing led to a rapid decline in the productivity of the pastures and hit the reindeer industry hard. There are still over 400,000 reindeer herders today but good grazing land is declining.

Horse herding is still a strong tradition. Yakut horses, very hardy animals, can survive the winters on natural pastures without being fed by humans. 190,000 still roam the lichen and moss fields. Cattle are also bred, but their numbers are at an all time low. Work to regenerate the herds is taking place on farms in the Even-Bytyntaiskiy district and in Central Yakutia.

Hunting and fishing are not being done sustainably. Over fishing of rivers and over hunting of roe deer, chubak (a species of snow sheep) and other commercial species have led to a drastic decline in populations. Again, as with the collectivization of reindeer herds, the decline is mainly due to the restructuring and reorientation during the Soviet period.

At least eight major villages in southern Yakutia continue to retain their traditional way of life. They include the Eveni villages: Topolino, Berezovka, Sebyan-Kel' and Olotung. Other villages include: Iengra (Evenki), Nenemnoe (Yukagiri), Andriushkino (Chukchi) and Iuriuts-Khaya (Dolgane).

Ecology/Environment. Forty percent of Yakutia lies within the Arctic Circle and all of it is covered by eternally frozen ground - permafrost - which greatly influences the region's ecology and limits forests in the southern region. Yakutia can be divided into three great vegetation belts. Arctic and subarctic tundra define the middle region, where lichen and moss grow as great green carpets and are favorite pastures for reindeer.

In the southern part of the tundra belt, scattered stands of dwarf Siberian pine and larch grow along the rivers. Below the tundra is the vast taiga forest region. Larch trees dominate in the north and, in the south, stands of fir and pine begin to appear. Taiga forests cover about 47% of Yakutia and almost 90% of this cover is larch.

The great Lena watershed begins in the steep mountains that border the western shores of Lake Baikal. Then the river meanders northeast and is joined by the Vitim River, followed by the Olyokma, Aldan, Aniga and Vilui Rivers before flowing out of a wide delta and into the Arctic Ocean. It spreads through Yakutia like a huge pitchfork and, with its tributaries forms the great river network that supports the immense region's ecology. The Lena is over 4,000 km long and the entire basin is 2,500 sq.km.

Yakutia's greatest mountain range, the Verkhoyansk, runs parallel and east of the Lena river, forming a great arc that begins the Sea of Ohotsk and ends in the Lappet Sea (Arctic Ocean). This great range has hundreds of small tributaries which flow into the Lena as it moves northward. The Cherkyi range runs east of the Verkhoyansk and has the highest peak in Yakutia, Peak Pobeda (5,147 m). Even further east are the gold rich Kolyma Mountains, which stretch all the way to Chukotka.

Geographically, Yakutia is very old, particularly in the west which is one of the most ancient portions of the earth's crust and source of Yakutia's massive diamond reserves. The region's complex and diverse geological structures are extremely rich in minerals and are well known through Russia for gold deposits in the Aldan, Indiguirka and Yana river basins, tin in the northeast and natural gas and oil in the Vitui basin.

Flora and Fauna. Polar bears den and hunt in Arctic regions near the Henrietta Islands. Each year over 50,000 geese migrate to the wetlands between the Yana and Kolyma Rivers and 200,000 to 300,000 ducks migrate to the region between the Kolyma and Alezeya rivers.

White Siberian cranes, Canadian cranes, Ross's gulls, geese and other waterfowl nest on the left bank of the Khroma River and along the lower Indigirka and Aleezeya rivers. Over half of the Yakutia Bewick swans nest between the Kolyma and Konkovaya rivers. Sandhill cranes, elder and other waterfowl nest here also. Little curlews, hooded cranes and black storks nest between the Lena and Kolyma Rivers. In total there are 28 species of mammal, 285 species of bird, 43 of fish and around 4,000 insect species.

Entire section was quoted from The Russian Far East; Forests, Biodiversity Hotspots, and Industrial Development by Josh Newell and Emma Wilson, published by Friends of the East, Japan

 Kamchatka

Kamchatka is a fish shaped peninsula at the most eastern side of Russia. From south to north it is 1,500 km long. Kamchatka is washed by the Ohotsk Sea in the west and the Pacific on the east. Kamchatka offers a world of contrasts between snow and warmth, glaciers, lunar sceneries and luxuriant vegetation. 

Geography. In the central part of the peninsula there are two parallel mountain ranges. Between them there is the central Kamchatka lowland where the Kamchatka river runs, the longest on the peninsula (758 km). Kamchatka is a mountainous country with 29 active and over 300 extinct volcanoes, the most active part of the Ring of Fire framing the Pacific. Samples of active volcanoes are: Kluchevskoy volcano with a height of 4,835 m, Kamenj 4,575 m and Ushkovsky 4,108 m. There are about 200 mineral springs (150 of them are hot), the unique Valley of the Geysers, crystal-pure lakes and 14,100 streams and rivers.

Climate. The climate is mainly temperate monsoon. In the middle part and in the north it is temperate continental. The average temperature in February is 13 below zero and 22 above zero in August.

Flora and Fauna. Kamchatka is a land of tundra and taiga, alpine flora and aquatic plants, many kinds of grasses and berries and different species of trees. While you are traveling in Kamchatka you can often meet the king of our animals: the brown bear, the biggest in the world, moose, caribou, foxes, big horns, etc. On the coast you will find sea lions and seals, walruses and fur seals resting on the rocks. The cries of ducks and sea gulls fill the air. Many kinds of fish: salmon, trout, char, grayling, cod, flounder, halibut, smelt, the biggest crab in the world are living in the sea and rivers.

Petropavlovsk

Petropavlovsk is the capital of the Kamchatka Peninsula. It was founded in 1740 by Vitus Bering. It was also visited by a number of other explorers such as Charles Clerk and Francis de la Perouse. The city presently has 250,000 inhabitants most of which are fishermen, ship builders and traders.

Bering Land Bridge

Beringian Heritage International Park

 What is Beringia?

The term Beringia comes from the name of Vitus Bering, a Danish explorer for the Russian czar in the 18^th Century. Bering-Chirikov expedition explored the waters of the North Pacific between Asia and North America. The Bering Strait, which lies between Alaska and Northeast Russia, and Bering Island, in the Commander Islands, are named after him.

In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, P. Sushkin and E. Hulten began to use the word "Beringia" as a geographic description. Today, we use the term to describe a vast area between the Kolyma River in the Russian Far East to the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is a region of worldwide significance for cultural and natural resources. This area also provides an unparalleled opportunity for a comprehensive study of the earth -its unusually intact landforms and biological remains may reveal the character of past climates and the ebb and flow of earth forces at the continents’ edge. Biological research leads to the understanding of the natural history of the region and distribution of flora and fauna. As one of the world’s great ancient crossroads, Beringia may hold solutions to puzzles about who the first people were to come to North America, how and when they traveled and how they survived under such harsh climatic conditions.

It is currently believed that the ocean levels rose and fell several times in the past. During extended cold periods, tremendous volumes of water are deposited on land in the form of ice and snow, which can cause a corresponding drop in sea level. The last "ice age" occurred around 12-15,000 years ago. During this period the shallow seas now separating Asia from North America near the present day Bering Strait dropped about 300 feet and created a 1,000 mile wide grassland steppe, linking Asia and North America together with the "Bering Land Bridge". Across this vast steppe, plants and animals traveled in both directions, and humans entered the Americas.

The National Park Service administers the Shared Beringia Heritage Program and is actively working for the establishment of a Beringia Heritage International Park. Our area of primary focus for research and cultural development is Central Beringia, that area adjoining the Bering Strait between 64 and 70 degrees north latitude and 160 and 180 degrees west longitude. In addition to promoting the conservation and enjoyment of the natural and physical features of the region, the program supports the understanding and celebration of the common shared heritage between the United States and Russia in this part of the world.

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