In 2001, this author wrote that fires in the Crimea’s fields and forests were causing an environmental disaster (see Den’ No. 154). It was then that a major portion of the forest belts in the steppe regions of the peninsula was destroyed by fires, and the resort zone suffered a swath of natural cataclysms. In the winter of 2001-2002 and in the spring of 2003 so-called black storms returned to the peninsula, a phenomenon last recorded in the Crimea in the 1980s, with strong gusts of easterly winds blowing the dry chernozem black soil into the sea. This was recently confirmed by Anatoly Kovalsky, chairman of the Republic Forestry Committee. According to the Crimean News Agency, he said that “while in the past few decades an almost complete system of forest belts with a total acreage of twenty-five hectares was created, it was badly damaged in recent years. This and last year, black storms, of which there were none in the past few decades, damaged tens of thousands of hectares of crops. On large areas the fertile topsoil was blown away completely, and it will take years to regenerate it.” What is being done today in the Crimea to protect Crimean fields and resorts from the wind?
This year the situation was not as critical as in the previous three. First, this year was not as dry and precipitation levels were higher. Second, the Republic Forestry Committee took steps to enhance the protection of the forest belts and woods. To illustrate, in January-August of this year fires on the territory protected by the committee destroyed a mere 21 hectares of land, 2.7 times less than during the same period a year earlier. According to Anatoly Kovalsky, 78 forest fires were reported before September 1, while 86 fires were reported in January-August 2002. “The reduction in the number of fires is due both to the steps taken by the authorities of the Crimea and Ukraine and weather conditions,” he said. This year, the Republic Forestry Committee, aided by Ukraine’s State Forestry Committee and the Crimean government, bought two fire trucks and created a mobile forest guard in Yalta that is also charged with ensuring fire safety.
“Fires destroying forest belts in the steppe constitute a major problem in the Crimea,” said Anatoly Kovalsky. According to his estimates, if only the Republic Forestry Committee were allocated UAH 700,000 annually for the regeneration forest belts in the steppe, “this issue would be closed for another decade,” and the Crimea would be again protected against black storms. After all, trees burn fast but grow slowly. As he put it, recently the committee “almost stopped planting protective forest belts as a result of inadequate funding. This year’s budget provides for a mere UAH 158,000 for planting forest belts, but this will suffice only for the upkeep of the trees planted in the previous years.” Incidentally, under the Cabinet of Ministers decree of 2001, On Planting Protective Forest Belts, 648 hectares of them were to be planted in the Crimea in 2003. However, inadequate funding has made these figures unrealistic. “Most probably, we will be able to cover only 110 hectares, that is, six times less than planned,” said Mr. Kovalsky. At such a rate it will take sixty years to regenerate the protective belts of the Crimean fields and resorts. Moreover, newly planted forest belts can protect the environment only after five to six years. Simple calculation suggests that black storms will ravage the Crimea for another seven or eight years, until at least a third of the destroyed forest belts is regenerated.
