National park Russian arctic flora. National Park "Russian Arctic" (Arkhangelsk region). To India via the North Pole

The Russian Arctic National Park was established on June 15, 2009. Then it included the northern part of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, the Big and Small Oransky islands, Loshkina, Gemskerk and a number of others. In 2016, it included the territory of the Franz Josef Land reserve, and with them the northernmost land area of \u200b\u200bEurasia - the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

The main task of the park is to preserve and restore the unique Arctic nature of the Russian Arctic. Its seemingly lifeless, icy, full of tranquility, open spaces inhabited by many animals. Five species - ivory gull, bowhead whale, narwhal, Atlantic walrus and polar bear of the Kara-Barents Sea population - are listed in the international and Russian Red Data Books. By the way, the narwhal, or, as it is also called, the sea unicorn, is the symbol of the "Russian Arctic". Most often, it can be found in the waters of Franz Josef Land, which is also the modern range of the bowhead whale population, the rarest marine mammal in the North Atlantic.

"Russian Arctic" is a home for polar bears, Atlantic walruses, seals, bearded seals, polar foxes, reindeer, beluga whales, polar lurik subspecies and others. The numerous rocks of the park are inhabited by about 20 species of birds, five of which remain here for the winter. On the territory of the park there are the only proven nesting sites of the Atlantic subspecies of the black goose in Russia, the main nesting sites of the Greenland subspecies of the common eider, as well as the places of the periodic stay of the short-billed bean goose.

The inaccessibility and harsh climate of the park's territories made it possible for populations of many animals to survive and preserved the pristine beauty of these places, despite the fact that people knew about the islands already in the 11th-12th centuries. Novgorodians came here, who were attracted by the possibility of a rich fishing for fish, animal skins, "fish tooth" (walrus tusk), birds and eider down. In addition to the harsh climate and low winter temperatures (sometimes the thermometer drops below -50 ° C), the local waters have an insidious feature. The Barents Sea, washing the territory of the park from the west, does not completely freeze under the influence of the warm North Atlantic Current. The eastern Kara Sea, on the other hand, is covered with continuous ice for many months, which has left many navigators trapped in the ice.

However, in the 20th century, thanks to technological progress, people found a way to survive in the harsh climatic conditions of the Russian Arctic. The history of the times of the Great Patriotic War is connected with this. On the island of Alexandra, the Germans built the Schatzgraber meteorological base. According to the plan of the Wehrmacht, she had to monitor the weather so that the German fleet attacked the Lend-Lease convoys arriving at the ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, only in suitable weather for this. For a long time, the exact location of the base was unknown, and they learned about its existence only because they accidentally intercepted the message, thanks to which it was possible to establish its approximate location.

Only after the war did Soviet explorers come to the island of Alexandra Land and accidentally stumbled upon this base. They found well-camouflaged coastal hideouts. It immediately became clear what kind of base it was, for what purpose it existed. She was properly mined. It looked like people had just left. The houses were habitable, so it was cleared of mines, and for the first years the employees of the Soviet polar station on Alexandra Land lived here until they built a weather station with normal houses.

Now on the territory of the "Russian Arctic", namely on the islands of Hooker and Huysa, there are the northernmost post offices in the world.

As often happens, after people on the islands of the "Russian Arctic" there is a lot of garbage, which has a negative impact on the environment of the park. In this regard, workers of the national park, together with volunteers, carry out annual cleaning of the territory.

“The experience gained during the elimination of environmental damage on the islands of Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land was later used to return the original appearance to other protected areas of Russia, for example, in Kamchatka,” notes the acting director. Director of the Russian Arctic National Park Alexander Kirilov.

Today, to visit these lands, you do not need to be a military man or a research scientist, you can just come on an excursion. Tours in the "Russian Arctic" are carried out from June to September, when the weather conditions are most favorable for visiting the park for an unprepared person. The following routes are planned for 2017:

1. Murmansk - Franz Josef Land - North Pole - Franz Josef Land - Murmansk on the ship "50 Years of Victory".
2. Helsinki - Murmansk - Franz Josef Land - North Pole - Franz Josef Land - Murmansk - Helsinki on the ship "50 Years of Victory".
3. Longyearbyen - Franz Josef Land - Longyearbyen on the Sea Spirit.
4. Anadyr - Chukotka - Wrangel Island - New Siberian Islands - Severnaya Zemlya - Franz Josef Land - Murmansk on the ship Akademik Shokalsky.
5. Longyearbyen - Murmansk - Franz Josef Land - Severnaya Zemlya - Novosibirsk Islands - Wrangel Island - Chukotka - Anadyr aboard the Akademik Shokalsky ship.

National Park "Russian Arctic"

This is the northernmost and first-largest specially protected natural area in Russia. The area of \u200b\u200bthe national park is 8.8 million hectares. Creation date - June 15, 2009.

The park is located on two polar archipelagos in the Arkhangelsk region: Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land, which can rightfully be called the “end of the earth”. There is no permanently residing population in the "Russian Arctic".

New earth

The southern cluster of the national park includes the northern part of the Northern island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, the Big and Small Oran Islands, about. Gemskerk, about. Loshkina and a number of others. This is the territory of the municipal entity "City District" Novaya Zemlya ".

Many centuries ago, the Pomors called the extreme northern point of Novaya Zemlya - Cape Zhelaniya - “income”: a place beyond which to walk on the sea and carry on fishing is both dangerous and difficult. It was established that in the XI-XII centuries Novgorodians went to Novgorod. In 1596, Willem Barents circled the northern tip of the Severny Island and wintered on its eastern coast. In Soviet times, a polar meteorological station operated on Cape Zhelaniya; a complex of fortifications from the Great Patriotic War, as well as fishing camps of the first half of the 20th century, have survived to this day.

Cape Zhelaniya, where the Russian Arctic field base is located, is the confluence of two seas: Kara and Barents. The Barents Sea, washing the cape from the west, does not completely freeze under the influence of the warm North Atlantic current. The Kara Sea in the east, on the contrary, is covered with solid ice for many months.

The Lomonosov Mountains and Mendeleev Mountains belong to the group of characteristic and especially memorable objects in the southern part of the national park.

The relatively small remoteness of Novaya Zemlya from the mainland and higher winter temperatures lead to a greater variety of life forms than in other Arctic territories. On the islands and in the water area of \u200b\u200bNovaya Zemlya, 11 species of mammals are found: polar bears, Atlantic walruses, ringed seals, bearded seals (bearded seals), harp seals, belugas, whales - bowhead (polar) whale and Minke (minke whale). All these are marine species. There are only three land animals: arctic fox, hoofed lemming and reindeer. The islands of the archipelago, with their gentle cliffs, are a real paradise for 48 species of birds (most of them are marine or semi-aquatic). Of these, 18 species (kittiwakes, glaucous gulls, fulmars, thick-billed guillemots, puffins, etc.) nest here, the status of a dozen more species requires clarification

Fish: on Novaya Zemlya within the boundaries of the park lies the northern limit of the distribution of Novaya Zemlya anadromous char.

During the short Arctic summer, plants turn their leaves towards the polar sun, of which there are 87 species (vascular). In this part of the national park, there are also more than 50 species of ground lichens, 65 species of mosses (leafy and liverworms), 18 species of algae and 39 species of mushrooms.

The northern cluster of the "Russian Arctic" is the Franz Josef Land archipelago (FFI). It is a group of 192 islands. The archipelago is part of the Talazhskoe municipal formation of the Primorsky District of the Arkhangelsk Region.

The length of the archipelago from west to east is 375 km, from north to south - 234 km. From here it is closer to the North Pole than to the "mainland": from the extreme northern point of the northernmost island of the archipelago - Cape Fligeli of Rudolf Island to the "crown" of the planet, only 900 km.

Until August 2016, the Franz Josef Land archipelago was part of the territory of the eponymous state nature reserve of federal significance, created on April 23, 1994. Since 2010, the reserve has been under the management of the Russian Arctic National Park. On August 25, 2016, according to the Decree of the Government of Russia, the reserve was liquidated: its territory entered the borders of the national park.

The Franz Josef Land Archipelago is located in the northeastern part of the Barents Sea and is the northernmost land area in Eurasia. On an administrative-territorial basis, it is part of the Primorsky municipal district of the Arkhangelsk region.

The existence of these lands was predicted by the great Pomor M.V. Lomonosov, however, due to their remoteness (the distance to the Kola Peninsula is 1200 km, to Novaya Zemlya - 360 km) and the inaccessibility of the archipelago was discovered only in 1873 by the Austro-Hungarian expedition of Karl Weiprecht and Julius Payer. It was named after the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I.

In the XX century, man left a noticeable mark on the archipelago: barrels from fuel, scrap metal, coal, household and industrial waste. Therefore, in the XXI century on the territory of the "Russian Arctic" began the Arctic "cleanup", the purpose of which is to return the fragile, vulnerable nature of high latitudes to its original appearance

The Franz Josef Land Archipelago is the most glacial land area in the Russian Arctic: 85% of its 192 islands are covered with glaciers.

It is interesting to note that 71% of the total number of islands in the archipelago occupy only 0.4% of its area. Only 4 islands (Georg Land, Wilczek Land, Graham Bell, Alexandra Land) have an area exceeding 100,000 hectares.

All the islands of the archipelago belong to the climatic zone of the arctic deserts. The average January temperature is -24 ° С, in July - -1.5-0 ° С. In winter, the thermometer can drop below -50 ° C.

Despite the truly harsh climate, the archipelago is not a lifeless space. Its nature is unique and charming in its own way. Here, as well as on Novaya Zemlya, 11 species of mammals live. Among the few other places, these islands are chosen by the owners of the Arctic - polar bears - for the birth and education of their babies. FFI is the second most important "maternity hospital" for polar bears. Atlantic walruses, ringed seals, bearded seals, bowhead whales, beluga whales, white-faced dolphins are marine mammals that have chosen Franz Josef Land and the archipelago as their home. Here you can meet the sea unicorn - the narwhal - the rarest marine animal, which is the symbol of the "Russian Arctic". On numerous rocks of the archipelago, chicks of 18 bird species are hatched, and a total of 50 bird species have been registered at the FZI, most of them are seabirds.

There are no freshwater fish in Franz Josef Land.

The flora of Franz Josef Land is represented mainly by mosses and lichens: there are 167 species of lichens, more than 30 species of liver mosses, about 120 species of green mosses and 94 species of mushrooms.

Due to the more severe climate, there are fewer vascular plants than in the north of Novaya Zemlya - about 50 species. Representatives of the saxifrage, cruciferous and clove families predominate. Here, just like on Novaya Zemlya, saxifrages, grains, polar poppies, etc. have time to bloom in summer.

"Russian Arctic" are islands in the Arctic Ocean, remote from the continent. You can visit the hard-to-reach protected area during a sea cruise. Tourists to high latitudes are attracted by untouched unique landscapes - glaciers, snowfields and waterfalls; the famous globular nodules ("spherulites") of Champa Island; undisturbed ecosystems; wildlife that can be observed in natural habitat; as well as a rich historical and cultural heritage, including about 200 (!) monuments and memorial sites not only of national but also of international importance. And it is on the islands of the "Russian Arctic" - Hooker and Hayes (FFI) - that the northernmost post offices in the world operate!

The Arctic is a mysterious territory that has long attracted romantics and researchers. Endless and, at first glance, deserted and lifeless spaces are actually full of the most diverse life. And this is exactly what you can see by visiting the Russian Arctic National Park - the northernmost of the protected lands of the Russian Federation, the third largest and the youngest park in Russia.

How it all began

National Park "Russian Arctic" in Russia has a rather long history. He owes his creation to Peter Vladimirovich Boyarsky, known to most as a writer and publicist. But Petr Vladimirovich is a Soviet, and after a Russian geographer, historian, physicist and equestrian sports professional. An enthusiastic explorer of the Arctic expanses, it was he who, in 1986, was the first to voice the idea of \u200b\u200bthe need for a comprehensive preservation and study of those northern expanses, which many consider lifeless.

It was thanks to him that in 1994 the federal reserve "Franz Josef Land" was formed, which later (in 2016) will become part of the National Park "Russian Arctic".

Northernmost and youngest

Federal State Budgetary Institution National Park "Russian Arctic" was established by order of the Government of Russia on a summer June day 2009. At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin advised all ministers to spend their holidays in these vast expanses, surrounded by landscapes that will fascinate forever. In 2011, the Federal State Budgetary Institution National Park "Russian Arctic" INN received a place of registration in the northern capital of Russia - Arkhangelsk.

Endless expanses

FSBI National Park "Russian Arctic" is 793 910 hectares of sea water areas and 632 090 hectares of land. This is the northern part of the North Island, all the islands of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago (Big and Small Oranskie, Gemskerk and others) and 192 islands of the most glacial land in our part of the Arctic - the Franz Josef Land archipelago. For information, the entire area of \u200b\u200bthe National Park "Russian Arctic" with the lands of the reserve, which has already been mentioned, is more than 8.8 hectares of protected areas.

What for

To preserve and restore, if necessary, the unique nature of these territories is the main goal of the Russian Arctic National Park. The flora and fauna of these icy expanses, seemingly so lifeless, are mostly represented by the Red Data Book species.

And the first on the list is the narwhal - the one-horned whale, or the sea unicorn, which became the park's emblem. It is also home to polar bears, rare Atlantic walruses, bowhead whales and ivory gulls. But the list of the inhabitants of the land of colorful icebergs, turquoise sea surface and the never-setting polar sun does not end there. It is here that fifteen species of birds arrive to hatch their chicks.

Why park

All subjects of protected areas are subordinate to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation. The main document that regulates the activities of such entities is the Federal Law of March 14, 1995 No. 33 - FZ "On Specially Protected Natural Areas". And when choosing the status of protected areas, the main thing should be taken into account - what activities and in what volume will be carried out here. In natural parks, a regime is established in which some economic activity is possible that ensures the existence of the park. This includes research work, tourism and regulated hunting.

Environmental problems of the Arctic territories

Today not only Russia, but all the countries of the Arctic Council, created in 1996, are concerned about the state of the Arctic ecology. The development of oil and gas on the shelves, the loss of oil and its spills in the Arctic Ocean, and uncontrolled poaching cause irreparable damage to the most untouched territories.

Do not forget about the melting of ice as a result of global warming. There are already known cases when, due to the rapid melting of the ice, polar bears lost their strength and drowned, unable to swim to the nearest ice floe.

The uniqueness of the National Park "Russian Arctic"

The great variety of life in these areas is due to several factors. From the west, the park is washed by the Barents Sea, which does not freeze under the influence of the North Atlantic Current. To the east is the Kara Sea, which is completely covered with ice. And here is the Franz Josef Land - the most icy part of the land. It is the combination of geographical location, the absence of offshore developments and not so much remoteness from the mainland that contribute to the presence of a greater variety of life forms here than in other regions of the Arctic.

Features of tourism

One of the economic activities of the park is the development of ecological tourism. The first such season was held here in 2011, when 900 visitors visited it. But tourism is special here. These are mainly Arctic cruises, when people observe the landscapes, bird colonies and animals (walrus rookeries and bears with cubs) from the icebreaker ship.

Tourists can feel the hardness of the lands sung in the sagas of the Scandinavians and legends of the Pomors only after they have undergone some procedures: washing shoes in a special solution, traveling by sea on dangerous rubber zodiacs and escorting park staff.

The most diverse bird colony in the Arctic is located on the Rubini Rock. And the Cape of Desire was at first the Cape of Desire. This is what Willem Barentsz called him when he was looking for a passage to India. But the Pomors discovered it long before it. They sailed here to catch big fish and called this promontory and the surrounding waters Revenues. Cape Fligeli, which is located in the Franz Josef Land archipelago chain, is the northernmost point of the Eurasian continent.

Arkhangelsk 163100 is the last post office on the way north. It is located on the island of Hayes and is open from 10 to 11 from Tuesday to Friday. Champa Island is the northern Easter Island. Only here (and no more on any of the 190 islands of Franz Josef Land) are strange round stones of completely different sizes. Why they are, and who made them, no one knows.

There is a polar meteorological station on Hooker Island and it is in the form in which it was built in 1929. The era of the Soviet development of the Arctic appears before the tourist in all its glory. The Germans established a base on Alexandra Island during World War II "Treasure hunter" (Schatzgraber), which was discovered after the war. It was so well equipped that Soviet polar explorers used it for a long time.

From June to September 2017, the park conducts 5 expeditions with tourists on the icebreakers 50 Let Pobedy, Akademik Shokalsky and Sea Spirit. And everyone can witness this wonderful journey. But volunteers from Arkhangelsk visit the Russian Arctic more often. Every year, they and the park's staff carry out ecological actions to collect garbage on the islands of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya.

The park contains places unique in Russia where black geese of the Atlantic subspecies nest. The main nesting territories of the common eider of the Greenland subspecies are also located here, and the short-billed bean goose nests periodically.

Everyone who has visited the Russian Arctic National Park says that they did not even imagine such beauty and amazing discoveries when going on a trip. And forever they remain admirers of these amazingly deceiving lifeless spaces, so deserted and so filled with life.