Back to table of contents

3.5 Environmental impacts of icing

Ice-covered grounds occur in winter time when the temperatures fluctuate and the snow thaws and then refreezes, or in spring time when the spring sun melts the upper lay of snow and night frost coats it with ice. Icing is an annual natural phenomenon in both NAO and Kamchatka, but respondents from NAO identified icing as more common and with more serious impacts than did interviewees from Kamchatka.

People in both regions talked about how icing makes it difficult for reindeer to feed, and how this can have several impacts on a reindeer herd. When icing is expected, reindeer herders try to leave the herd in forest areas where reindeer can find food around trees. If the herd has been confronted by this disaster in an open area, then reindeer herders look for the shortest way through ice-covered territory. Below reindeer herders talk about their own experiences and stories they have heard from others.

 A Nenets man from Narian-Mar said that icing is very harmful for reindeer because they cannot find food: �During the icing of 1972 a lot of reindeer died in the Bolshezemel�skaya and Malozemel�sakaya tundras�.

 Transcript from an interview with an Even man, a former reindeer herder from the Ichinsky farm (Kamchatka): 

Interviewer:	�What about icing? Have you seen it anywhere?�
Respondent:	�Also in the Ichi river area, at its low current, 20 km from the mouth. 1,200 head died within 10 days. It was in the 1980s. Icing and the crust was about 30 cm. We could walk without skis as if on asphalt. And we drove the reindeer to the sea, and they died during this travel. 1200 at one time. Exhausted.�
Interviewer:	�How big the icing was?�
Respondent:	�50 km wide and 100 km long.�
Interviewer:	�Was the herd large then?�
Respondent:	�1700 head, 500 survived. The team leader delayed. He should have driven them immediately. But usually, you know, there is a plan. As soon as he saw 10 meters of icing, he should have driven the reindeer away from there and not waited for orders. There is no time to wait in such situations.�

 An Even man from Esso explained that he experienced icing when he drove the herd at Krutogorovo: �On the seashore, also during the calving. In April. The snow became firm. Reindeer started to feed in a birch grove. It was the first time we had gone to Krutogorovo. A lot of calves died then. Weak animals died. Almost the whole tundra to the sea was covered with icy snow. We had to wander from there to save reindeer, herded them away�.