Pacific Environment recently hosted a group of four Russian environmental activists for a really great exchange program which brought them to eastern Washington and northern Idaho to meet with a spectrum of groups that are in varying capacities involved in agricultural burning and wildfire management. Over ten packed days, we met with community advocacy groups, farmers, state air quality regulators, tribal smoke managers, and United States Forest Service fire specialists and smokejumpers.

(Photo credit: Anton Beneslavskiy, Greenpeace-Russia) Washington State Department of Ecology’s Air Quality Program staff explain the decade-long negotiation process between farmers, regulators, and communities.

For a little over a year, Pacific Environment has been supporting several pilot projects in Russia aimed at reducing agricultural burning in Siberia and the Far East through a combination of public outreach and education, fire-fighting, and policy advocacy. The four participants all represent these interesting projects, and traveled to the US to discuss with their counterparts strategies for expanding and replicating the successes these groups have seen in changing field burning practices.

Agricultural burning is widespread across Russia – commercial and subsistence farmers alike set fire to their fields in the spring and fall, as this is the quickest and cheapest way to get rid of stubble and extra straw. Control over the practice is poor to non-existent, and intentionally-set fires that accidentally escape field perimeters cause the majority of forest fires in Russia. In addition to public safety and forest conservation concerns, agricultural burning in Russia(pdf) has a considerable impact on global climate. These fires are significant contributors of black carbon, or soot, in the Arctic: smoke columns from massive burning in Siberia carry the carbon north, and where it eventually settles on Arctic ice, darkening the ice and lowering its reflective potential – causing the ice to melt faster. The pilot project efforts will hopefully result in considerable reductions of black carbon from agricultural burning in the Arctic.

(Photo credit: Anton Beneslavskiy, Greenpeace-Russia) Wheat farmer Jeff Schibel gives participants a tour of his farm near Odessa, WA, explaining the permitted burning process and fire safety protocols.

Wheat farmers in eastern Washington State and northern Idaho also burn intensively after spring and fall harvests, and have for decades, but this practice is now very strictly regulated through a state-run permitting system, while bluegrass seed farmers may not burn at all. In the 1990s, the Washington and Idaho departments of ecology created the current burning regulations after a multi-stakeholder coalition led heated campaigns to ban wheat and grass straw burning because of the public health impact of the heavy smoke it sends into nearby communities. A decade of litigation and negotiations between state lawmakers, farmers associations, and communities produced field burning which favors public health over farmers’ frugality.

In Spokane, we met first with activists from Safe Air for Everyone/Save Our Summers, who led much of the local coalition-building and media efforts during the anti-burning campaign, and we were joined by one of the lawyers that helped argue the citizens’ case in court. Of greatest interest to the Russian guests were local organizing tactics and communications strategies. From here, we went to the Washington State Department of Ecology to learn about the state’s burning regulation system and the agency’s role as coordinator between all involved parties. The participants noted that the intensive coordination was time- and resource-intensive, but seemed to balance the goal of increasing burning safety with farmers’ needs.

We also met with the Air Quality Program managers at the Idaho State Department of Environmental Quality in Coeur d’Alene to learn about the state’s very similar burn permitting program and the agency’s work to balance environmental concerns and farmers’ residue management needs. The participants and agency staff talked in great detail about programs to train farmers in safe burning practices and monitoring protocols. In the following days we also visited staff from the Coeur D’Alene Tribe Air Quality Program and then the Nez Perce Tribe Air Quality Program; these agencies collaborate closely with WA and ID air quality managers to control smoke levels within the respective reservations and the shared regional airshed.

(Photo credit: Anton Beneslavskiy, Greenpeace-Russia) US Forest Service hotshot crew leaders give participants a tour of the agency’s aviation equipment and Smokejumper base.

The clear priority of our hosts in WA and ID is to protect community health during agricultural burning seasons, while the Russian participants and their organizations are less concerned with this aspect – the majority of large-scale field fires in Russia occur in areas that aren’t very densely populated. It is the local organizing, strategic media outreach, and state agency-coordinated negotiations that effectively changed burning behavior here that were of greatest relevance for our guests.

Other interesting and useful meetings included a visit with an agricultural researcher (born and raised on a wheat farm) from the Washington State University Dryland Research Station, where he shared his findings on the impact of burning on soil health and wheat crop yield. As it turns out, burning is not as unambiguously beneficial, as wheat farmers in both countries attest – science-based arguments such as these will add further merit to the pilot projects’ campaigns to promote non-burning alternatives in crop residue management. A few of the alternatives offered are no-till farming or plowing stubble back into the soil, but hopefully farmers will soon be able to capitalize on their straw by turning it into an energy resource. The owners of Gady Farms and the director of their NGO FarmPower gave us a tour of their unique facility that converts grass straw into synthetic gas. This project is still in the research phase, but it has great potential to further reduce burning practices while offering a clean, renewable energy resource!

(Photo credit: Anton Beneslavskiy, Greenpeace-Russia) Washington State University agricultural researcher William Schillinger explains crop studies on crop stubble utilization at the Dryland Research Station in Lind, WA.

Our visit to the US Forest Service offices in Missoula, Montana were equally educational – experts in forest fire management and community fire safety answered participants’ questions on forest fuels management, inter-agency coordination, and positive incentives to stimulate public participation in fire prevention and community fire-safety programs. Afterwards, the Russian participants – all volunteer firefighters at home – met with USFS Smokejumper hotshot crew leaders to talk about suppression tactics and team managements, then were treated to a tour of the aircraft and heavy equipment hangers.

Since going back home, exchange participants have stayed in touch with several of the groups they met during the tour, sharing more detailed information about aspects of their respective work, and discussing potential for future advising or trainings.

Agricultural burning and resultant forest fires are much more than a public health and safety threat for Russia – rampant burning sends thick plumes of black carbon to the North during the spring and summer, leaving a dark layer on Arctic ice when the sun shines the longest, causing the ice to warm and melt at an increased rate. Pacific Environment is supporting several community-based projects in Russia to change burning behavior in the long term, with the hope that reduced black carbon emissions will buy time for the Arctic.

Photo credit: Audrey Wood, July 2011. Greenpeace Volunteer Program Director Grigorii Kuksin creates a model scenario in which an uncontrolled field fire spreads to a forest and then to a village on the other side, demonstrating to campers (all farmers’ kids) the importance of responsible burning practices.

During my recent bicoastal trip to Russia, I had the great opportunity to visit with two of Pacific Environment’s partner organizations for an up close and personal look at the incredible work these groups are doing locally to reduce seasonal agricultural burning and forest fires.

My first visit was with Greenpeace-Russia at their summer youth camp called “Let’s Restore Our Forests!”, located in the Meshcherskii National Park in the Ryazan region. The annual camp brings together children from rural farming communities for lessons in forest ecology, local botany, forest restoration (elementary), and fire safety basics; it is also this summer’s base camp for the Greenpeace volunteer fire brigade, so the crew doesn’t have to drive out from Moscow to fight local fires. When I arrive near the end of July, the rotating cast of Greenpeace staff and volunteers from Moscow and other regional towns has been fighting local fires for a month – mostly underground peat fires that smolder in dried-out bogs throughout European Russia.

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Nearly 300 years ago, one of the first researchers of the Kamchatka Peninsula, George Stelleronce wrote:

“Kamchatka lives almost solely on fish. If you hit the water with a spear you rarely miss a fish.  Fishing nets or seines are useless in Kamchatka for that reason.  It’s impossible to drag them ashore, they tear because ofthe abundance of fish.”

Many years ago, it seemed that the salmon would last forever.  However, today we know that all natural resources are limited, and Kamchatka’s salmon need protection.  So what is the current state of Kamchatka salmon?  The Kamchatka Branch of the Pacific Institute of Geography has published extensively on the topic. (more…)

A western gray whale named Flex has been receiving media attention worldwide for being the first of his kind to be tagged and tracked.  He is a 13 year old western gray whale that was tagged on October 4^th, 2010 by Russian and American scientists off of Sakhalin Island in eastern Russia.

His precedence is not the only thing gaining him fame though; his unpredictable path in the last four months has also been gaining him attention.  Scientists and researchers are baffled by his movements, but then again, they humbly admit they did not really know where western gray whales should be going in the first place. (more…)

I first met Arina Shurygina at the Keepers of the Salmon festival. It was amazing to see how much love she put into teaching about the salmon life cycle, its constitution, and peculiarities. It seemed that there was nothing more important to her than to teach each student how many fins a salmon has and the locations and names of each fin. Later, I learned that containers set throughout the town to collect plastic caps were another of Arina’s initiatives, but not the only one.

It was interesting to learn how it all began. Arina explains that, “One spring, at the outskirts of town, I realized that I was walking on a carpet of garbage. Snow cover was gone and garbage brought from nearby dumps had begun to surface. It was a very unpleasant feeling, but I wanted to fix it. I began to learn about different approaches to the problem that existed worldwide, and the possibilities available in the region. I discovered that in Kamchatka, and Russia in general, there is no general practice of sorting and recycling of household trash. I started to learn more about the issue and wrote articles to newspapers and journals. They were published but the situation still did not change.” (more…)

Almost every culture has a celebration to give thanks to nature for the previous year, the harvest, and the supplies stored for the winter. The Itelmen, one of the most ancient peoples of Kamchatka, call this holiday Alkhalalalai which is traditionally celebrated on the last weekend of September.  Recently this holiday has been celebrated in the Itelmen village of Pimchakh, after taking place for many years in Kovran, the spiritual and cultural center of the Itelmen people. This year, Alkhalalalai became an official holiday on Kamchatka’s calendar, a natural move, since the holiday unites all of the peoples of Kamchatka on one field, with no attention paid to population, age, or religious faith.

The celebration’s motto – “Here there are no guests, only participants” – came true from the very first minute of this year’s event. All of the guests were involved in the ceremonial cleansing of the hardships of the past year, and in the ritual feeding of Khantai. Khantai is the aboriginal god worshipped by the indigenous peoples of northern Russia and the Russian Far East. Aboriginals bring gifts to him since he rules the catch of fish.  Then they give thanks to him for the abundant catches.  The spirits were kind to the celebration’s participants and granted them a perfect, sunny day, even though the forecast predicted cloudy rainy weather, and it rained on both the day before and the day after the celebration. (more…)

A few years ago, experts came together to discuss potential scenarios for the Arctic.  They discussed what the Arctic would look like in 50 years in the face of climate change and intensified resource development.

The experts developed several scenarios, ranging from a race by countries to extract natural resources to armed military conflict, from protecting the Arctic for its natural wonders to a vision of sustainable development that brought economic wealth to local peoples.  After Russia planted its flag on the North Pole, news outlets trumpeted the likelihood of a new “cold war” with conflict brewing in the Arctic.

This week, Russia held a conference to try to dispel this myth.  The conference, called “The Arctic:  A Territory of Dialogue,” Diplomats and scientists from around the Arctic talked about the importance of working together to address the challenges facing the Arctic.  Speeches by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Prince Albert II of Monaco, and Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson provided an official air to the discussion.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the conference by the Russian Geographic Society, which organized and hosted the event.  In many ways, the conference was organized to showcase Russia’s long-term commitment to exploration and research of the Arctic.  Although hosted by Sergei Shoigu – Russia’s Minister for Emergency Situations and the President of the Russian Geographic Society – the most visible participant was Artur Chilingarov, Russia’s colorful Arctic explorer who planted the Russian flag on the bottom of the North Pole. (more…)

This past weekend we were fortunate to attend the Golden Springs Festival, which celebrates the creative arts of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia, and Far East. The festival took place in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

The festival’s gala concert was held in the recently refurbished drama theater. The performers met their guests at the theater’s entrance, and the sound of traditional drums (known as bubins) and songs set a festive atmosphere. The concert opened with a performance by Mengo, a renowned Koryak national ensemble, which has represented the creative arts of the indigenous peoples of the north on some of the most prestigious stages in Russia and throughout the world. It was lucky to see them perform on their native Kamchatka. Mengo delighted viewers with its performers’ sharp movements, perfect figures, and dramatic dances, as well as the beauty of their faces and costumes. (more…)

My recent trip to Altai was my third since last year and every time I traveled through the Republic, it was a time for reflection and discovery. My former colleagues and friends who have worked or still work in Altai warn me that it is a special and sacred place, and that once visited, it stays in your heart and changes your life. This time I helplessly fell in love with Altai – the serenity and piercing beauty of Lake Teletskoe, fields of flowers in the Karakol valley, lofty mountains of the sacred Uch Enmek, and wide plains and horsemen of Kosh-Agach. Most importantly, I felt at home with the people – their warmth, kindness and spiritual strength. (more…)

I shot the following videos at Lake Azabache and in Bistrinsky Nature Park in central Kamchatka during a mid-July trip with my colleague Igor Goldfarb.

Here you can see a spawning stream filled with sockeye salmon as they complete the final leg of their journey to the spawning grounds. When I took this video, these fish had already traveled from the ocean, up two rivers, across a lake, and up several miles of this stream. The white fish have already spawned, and are beginning to die. The media portrays post-spawn salmon mortality as a romantic sacrifice, but the truth is far more gruesome: after completing their “duty,” the salmon literally begin to fall apart. The upshot is that the nutrients the salmon bring to Kamchatka’s rivers feed entire villages, an enormous population of bears, and even fertilizes the surrounding forest. (more…)