Back to table of contents 3.2 Environmental
impacts of fires
Fires were identified by about one third of
people interviewed in Kamchatka as the natural disaster that causes the most
serious impacts on nature and for human beings. In NAO fires were neither
common nor regarded as a serious disaster. Interviewees who discussed causes of
fires indicated that fires are most commonly started by humans who throw away a
cigarette or are not careful with their camp fires, but acknowledge that fires
can also be caused by volcanic eruptions, lightning and drought. People
discussed the great impacts fires have on flora and fauna.
A Koryak woman from Palana (Kamchatka) said: �Lately, the bears have started to attack people after fires. I think that during fires the bears migrate the way they can, they defend their area, try to survive. They migrate, starve, and feel ill at ease. Cedar woods revive in 30 years after a fire�.
Transcript from an interview with a Kamchadal man from Mil�kovo (Kamchatka):
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Interviewer:
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�Can you tell about forest fires, have
you ever observed birds and animals behaviour?�
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Respondent:
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�We as hunters observe birds and
animals behaviour. Sables and foxes run away from the fires but then they
return, and birds fly away from the fires. Food � hawthorn, wild rose � is
burnt out, and animals and birds have nothing to eat. They run and fly away
and do not come back during hunting season. Bears that are not afraid of
anything, they also run away from fires, and migrate far away. The fish also
migrates because of earthquakes on Klyuchevskaya and Tolbachik mountains, and
the fish do not come back for spawning. Probably the fish do not come for
spawning because of the water�s high temperature.�
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Interviewer:
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�Did you notice any changes in the
behaviour and in the number of wild animals and birds before, during and
after disasters?�
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Respondent:
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�Yes, animals� behaviour is very
noticeable. The fires destroy the food sources, and animals leave those
places. Different animals run close to each other. During the blizzard humans
and animals suffer from the disaster, they can not find their home, e.g. the
fox can hide in the hole up to one week. The otter, before the bad weather,
goes up-stream along the river; the otter is very sensitive.�
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Interviewer:
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�Do animals and birds come back after
forest fires?�
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Respondent:
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�Even in a year they do not come back.
Bears and foxes come back, but sables do not return. No food, no animals and
birds.�
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A Kamchadal man from Mil�kovo (Kamchatka) explained: �If the fir forests were burnt away, larch forests begin to grow up instead. If the larch forest appears, then animals and birds used to living in the fir forest migrate to other places, and other birds and animals appear in that forest�. A reindeer herding Koryak man from Maily (Kamchatka) said: �Lots of pastures burn. We have to migrate then, as reindeer lichen, the main food, burns�. A Komi man from Indiga (NAO) said: �The number of animals has grown, wolverines, bears. It must be after the recent fires in the Komi Republic. All the wild animals seek refuge here. If there are a lot of rodents in summer, there will be many white and red foxes in winter�. This was supported by a Nenets man from Viucheisky, (NAO): �There are more animals now, wolverines, bears. It must be due to the fires in The Komi Republic. All the animals from the forests are coming here for their lives�. A Nenets man from Nes� (NAO) said, �Fires are bad. The tundra was on fire in 2004, the peat field actually. It was burning to the snow, for a long time. And you see the consequences now � the burnt, deserted land�. He continued, �New plants do not appear. The same ones are there but they grow more slowly on a fire site. And mosses will not grow for 30 years or so, that�s for sure, because our vegetation grows slowly�.
Transcript from an interview with a Komi man from Nes� (NAO):
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Interviewer:
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�Have you ever noticed any changes in
landscape, plant variety or other after natural disasters?�
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Respondent:
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�We have forest-tundra here, fires are
rare.�
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Interviewer:
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�Peat fields don�t burn?�
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Respondent:
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�They do. When I was an adolescent we
went to put the fire out for three days. In summer the heat lasted for 40
days. My brother was in the herd, made a fire on the peat field to make some
tea, and we had to go there for three days to put it out, the fire went down.
When a peat field burns, it takes tens of years until anything starts growing
there, that�s for sure.�
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