Colling for the forest

In Mountain Altai, the newcomers hung out of the eastern pines on the outskirts of the villages, in the coastal zone of the BII and along the highway leading to the Taurus Lake. And people defended the taiga

Almost half of the territory of the Altai Republic is covered with forests. The harvesting of the forest is a familiar business for local residents. And what else to do when the taiga around? Well, perhaps the collection of cedar nuts to hunt, but hunting. During the Soviet planned economy, collective farmers were forced to hold cows and develop livestock. Cows - where to go - were kept, but there was a disaster with feeds. Where to grow them? Therefore, in the morning they simply let go from the yard in the morning, and they went into the forest for the whole day to look for food for themselves. And in the evening they returned home. And even with milk. So it was 30 years ago, so now. True, since last year, residents of the village of Verkh-Biysk and other villages began to score cattle one after another. Increasingly, cows are returning from the taiga with a broken shift. They tell the locals, walk through the forest a strictly selected route. And the obstacles do not bypass, but overcome. Recently, there were a lot of such obstacles - throughout the republic, mass and very active deforestation are underway throughout the republic. The logs are taken out, and the branches, peaks, the stumps are left on the plots, although this is prohibited by the rules. Here are cattle on these wailing remnants.

Activist and dog

There is also nowhere to grow wheat, and not in tradition, this is among the locals. Here every second is a lumberjack. This lives mainly. When necessary, they go to the forestry, write an application for lease of the site for conducting logging. As a rule, there are no problems - the taiga must be thinned out, and in forestry they know where and what specific trees can be cut down without harm and even with the benefit of the forest. This has always been strictly strict: forests are the property of the Russian Federation. “We are all lumberjacks here, and my father cut the forest,” says Vladimir Shvetsov, a resident of Verkh-Biysk. “But not barbaric, as is done now, but according to the rules.” According to the rules, this is when the areas stand out 70-80 kilometers in the depths of the taiga. The inspector will march every tree that is allowed to cut down. To get to the allocated site, Shvetsov froze the winter roads through the swamps and so transported the equipment. “It is difficult, very expensive, but this is a competent approach, responsible,” says Vladimir. Previously, he was actively engaged in logging, he was his own sawmill. Now only purchases wood - 200 kilometers from the village.

Recently, Vladimir Shvetsov became famous throughout Siberia. Pictures on which he stands with the poster “Save the Taurus Lake and the Forest of the Altai Mountain” at the gates of the President’s plenipotentiary in the Siberian Federal District, parted throughout the Internet.

He and several more activists from among the inhabitants of Verkh-Biysk arrived in Novosibirsk on February 13, but, realizing that their small company was qualified as participants in an unauthorized rally with all the ensuing, Swvetsov entered the picket alone.

Vladimir Shvetsov at the burned house photo: Andrey Bespalov

The pickets were noticed by local social activists who are also leading the fight against illegal cutting of forests of the Novosibirsk region. They helped Vladimir meet one of the assistants to the envoy of Sergei Chanipolo. The conversation lasted three hours. And, as it turned out, not to no avail. As soon as they returned home, Shevtsov was invited to a meeting with the governor of the Altai Republic Alexander Berdnikov. Vladimir unsuccessfully sought this meeting for several months. Then the head of the region came to Verkh-Biysk to meet with the inhabitants of the village. According to Shvetsov, the governor promised to do everything in his power. Only, he asked: "Do not bezing." They answered him: "As soon as the forest stops falling, people will calm down."

And five days after the picket in Novosibirsk, Shvetsov burned the house. The wooden house caught fire at three in the morning - when the strongest dream. Shvetsov believes that this is arson - too fast, just instantly the house took up fire. Waking up from a heart -rending barking home dog, Feni, who slept on his bed, and realizing that there was no time at all, flew out into the street in what his mother gave birth, having managed to grab only a smartphone. Even Fenya forgot, who saved the owner life. Returning, Vladimir ran into the house, found Chihuahua, which had scored under the bed, but the path through the veranda was already cut off by fire. Together with the hairdryer in my hands, jump out the window. In addition to the phone and dog, Vladimir did not have time to take anything. Everything burned out-passports, money, the medals of the Sportsman’s son and the car keys, the hours of the 18th century melted. It’s happiness that that night he was alone in the house. The wife and son went to Biysk. In the other half (a house for two families), grandfather and grandmother lived completely old, but a couple of months ago their children took to the city. That night got another dog Shvetsov - the Caucasian shepherd Masha. She, locked in the aviary, had hind legs from fear.

This house, Vladimir recalls, was already burning 15 years ago. The reason was a short circuit in the wiring. But Shvetsov then managed to put on and bring his wife and son into the street, gain water and snow and put out the fire on his own. In general, I managed everything. Nevertheless, the house, albeit a log - is not a hay stack. Then the house was almost not injured. This time he burned out in a matter of minutes. The naked Shvetsov quickly put on, the neighbors who fled to the fire so that he would not be stared. He still walks in clothes from someone else's shoulder - not up to the change of wardrobe, he has not come to himself to the end, he does not sleep at night. “Such matters” Vladimir said that he did not exclude a version of a short circuit, but, he says, more like arson. The house burned too quickly, as if it had previously been doused from all four sides with gasoline. Yes, and threats from the loggers came, he says.

"We sat on their horns"

The threats began after a lumberjack trailer burned out at night in November at night, which stood some twenty meters from the highway not far from Verkh-Biysk. They burned the tractor left by the trailer, shot the dog. Who set fire is unknown. According to the inhabitants of the village, it could be anyone. The cutters took out the whole village to the stove.

Residents of Verkh-Biysk stood a live shield and stopped cutting a pine boron near the village of Photo: Vladimir Shvetsov

Investigators showed enviable activity - they drove away all the suspicious through a lie detector, photographed the soles, checked the guns. They did not see such a number of defenders of legality and order in their village - the cars of the operatives, the traffic police. And when the sawmill of one of the black lumberjacks burned out, riot police came and rushed.

The prosecutor's office imposed an arrest on the logging area where the trailer burned down. Lumberjacks began to bring down pine trees a little at a distance. Before the New Year, the whole village went to this plot - with wives, children, old people. We stood in front of the tractors, forced the workers to drown the engines.

“We literally sat on the horns, forced us to stop cutting down,” says pensioner Vladimir Prokushkin. He lived all his life in Novokuznetsk, and six years ago, having retired, he moved to Verkh-Biysk-to the graves of great-grandfathers, who were among the first Cossacks on the Altai Mountain.

In activists - the whole village

The conflict with logging, which in the village is called only black log cabins, began in September. They appeared suddenly and let's blame the hundred -year -old forest to the right and left. Like a scythe mowed. “If they fell somewhere in the depths of the taiga, we would not have recognized most likely. And there would be no rallies, ”says local resident Olga Konoreva. “But they were going to start from the outskirts of the village, right behind the gardens.”

“Anyone is gaining to the rollers,” says Alexei Konorev. - In the fall, the trees were falling right on the road. It’s good that no one nailed. You go - and your tree falls in front of your nose. Right on the asphalt, across the road. People were indignant, but the cutters are like deaf. The owners told them - to blame here, they are lying. So from the road did not go deep into the forest. It is clear why: this is the costs, but I want easy money. Dumped, loaded, ten meters - and you are already on the highway. ”

According to Olga, the loggers moved to their Turochak district from the neighboring Choysky, from where they were kicked out by the locals who achieved the initiation of a criminal case and the arrest of agricultural vehicles (about why the huge sections of the Altai taiga began to be considered lands of agriculture, let's say a little later). In the fall in the Turochak district, mass extermination of forests along BII and roads began. And when the forestry arrived in Verkh-Biysk and began to persuade the locals to bring down the forest right behind the outskirts, the people were indignant: “If the tractors and saws are buzzing with us immediately behind the gardens, we will not put up for sure with this.” They announced a rural gathering that almost everyone who could walk came to. Even the 90-year-old old women who have not been seen in the village for decades, because they did not leave the house, and they, with the support of relatives, came to the gathering.

Local activist Olga Konoreva Photo: Andrey Bespalov

The district prosecutor with the head of the administration was also invited to him. The general decision of the rural gathering was an invitation to the conversation of the governor Alexander Berdnikov. There were several such gatherings, and the governor did not come. And the forest was still falling.

A group of activists formed in the Turochak district, the core of which was the inhabitants of the village of Verkh-Biysk Vladimir Shvetsov and the wife of Konorev, Olga and Alexei. First of all, the activists went to the local authorities demanding to explain why the mass cut of the pine boron began. According to Olga Konoreva, the authorities answered that there is no reason for concern, everything is by law. Switches are the owners of land, and you have no right to interfere with them. The only thing was said in the Tondoshinsky village council, which belongs to the village of Verkh-Biysk, you can try to agree with the owners on the purchase of those land plots on which there are no more forests.

“And you cannot stop the cutting down, they said. In general, they talked with us very cynically, self -confident, ”says Olga. “We were shown a map on which the forest along the river and the highway was designated as agricultural land.”

Activists did not calm down and went to the Turchak forestry. There they were shown a certificate of registration of ownership of the same land. The rights to them were assigned to the Russian Federation represented by the state flesh.

“Here we finally realized that something is unclean here. Two owners for the same areas - and both with legal rights. Activists found that the owner of the so-called agricultural land around Verkh-Biysk is the Novosibirsk entrepreneur Viktor Shchekin. Activists convinced himself that they would be able to agree with him, heard that the agricultural vehicles covered with forests in the ownership of this businessman are apparently invisible throughout the Altai Republic and in the territory of the Novosibirsk region. It was hoped, since I couldn’t chop the forest at the village of Verkh-Biysk from a businessman from another area, as it seemed to them, negotiations, firstly, can take place, and secondly, it will be possible to achieve mutual understanding. Negotiations, or rather, their likeness, soon took place - through third parties.

"The cheek himself did not want to communicate with us, we were given his words:" I would fall and fall, the money was invested in the purchase of land, they need to be returned and profitable. "

The same Novosibirsk businessman said the same at a public hearing in Turchak. According to Konoreva, Shchekin said that he intends to demand the forest amnesty and the withdrawal of “his forest” from the forest fund. To which Tatyana Gigel, the Senator of the Federation Council from the Altai Republic, who was present at the hearing, replied: “Do not even count on an amnesty.” The senator also said that the forest should be returned to the forest fund. The cheek tried to go from the other side and announced his intention to build a monastery on the mountain. Adding that for this good business he will need to free the mountain from the forest. Did not work. This statement was not impressed by representatives of indigenous peoples, for whom each mountain in Altai is sacred.

Centuries -old pine trees, they are shrub vegetation

After the hearing, the activists of Verkh-Biysk sent requests to all instances and began to wait for an answer. They wrote letters to the governor and even - so reliable! -Once they themselves went with this letter to the capital of the Gorno-Altaysk region. “But our appeal was not accepted in the reception of the head of the republic,” says Olga Konoreva. - They said it is written on the wrong paper. We realized that further and do not try to meet with Berdnikov. ”

Soon answers began to come. More precisely, unsubscribing. Like, due to the fact that the owner leads to cut down, we are powerless to do anything. From the Republican Ministry of Natural Resources to all appeals, they sent the same answer dated by different numbers: the transfer of cadastral numbers of the sites, as well as on what basis and which organizations they belong. In a word, calm down already, everything is legal.

On January 25, after the three rallies of the Verkhbiychan and the public resonance that they called in the Altai Mountain, a response came from the Republican prosecutor's office. After reading it, the activists of the village realized that there was still hope for victory in the fight against black lumberjacks. The letter said that the prosecutor’s office had conducted an audit and found on land plots “randomly scattered waxing residues in the form of twigs, branches and tops of trees”, that is, “cutting was carried out in violation of fire and sanitary safety in the forests”. From the next quote, it became clear that the owners of the plots misled the republican prosecutor’s office and simply deceived: “As the owners of land plots stated, the cutting of forest plantations was carried out by them to clear the agricultural land from wood-shust vegetation in the order of implementation of reclamation cultural engineering measures. However, the results of the inspection clearly indicated that under the guise of land reclamation on these land plots it was precisely the harvesting of wood. ”

Wood, arrested by bailiffs and passing into invoices as wood-shrubby vegetation. Photo: Vladimir Shvetsov

The prosecutor's office of the Altai Republic challenged the legality of the sale by the administration of the Turochak district of the Turochak company 16.8 thousand hectares covered with forests of land, as well as the legality of registering the right of permanent (unlimited) use of Turochak LLC with this land. A criminal case has been instituted against the employees of Rosreestr who registered the above transaction. At the same time, the prosecutor’s office noted that the cutting of forests on agricultural lands is not a crime and it is impossible to bring the cutters to criminal liability. “But we were promised to conduct inspections of the legality of the transfer of land to the agricultural category,” Olga Konoreva informed “such matters” with restrained optimism.

Now the activists of Verkh-Biysk, with the support of the inhabitants of the village, grabbed the idea of ​​introducing a specially protected area around Lake Taurus. “We understand that it will become more difficult for us to live - we will have to coordinate many of our actions, there will be restrictions and prohibitions. But we agree to this, if only they would not destroy the forest, ”says Olga. - The consequences of mass cutting down forests in the area of ​​the Lake Taurus, popular among tourists, will negatively affect the environment, this is obvious. You can not chop pine trees in the coastal zone of BII. The root system holds the shore. If the tree is cut down, the rhizome will rot in three to four years. Total deforestation will lead to erosion of the coast. The river will become wider, but smaller. Instead of a stormy mountain river that you see now, a wide swamp will appear. ”

By the way, the Republican prosecutor's office stands on the side of residents of the Turochak district. And even sent the governor a proposal to create a specially protected natural territory along the banks of the Biya River throughout its entire length in the territory of the Turochak district. The borders of the protected areas should include coniferous forests that are currently destroyed, according to the prosecutor's office.

“If you cut down pines along the river, this will lead to the shallow of the entire Ob basin. There will be no fish, mushrooms, berries. Tourists come to us from all over the world. What will we show them? Propleshins in the taiga? Hemp in the coastal zone? They will stop driving - what will people live on? - Vladimir Shvetsov is indignant. - Between the river and the road walking along it - several hundred meters of everything. Bone strip, unique, relict. Previously, our forest was only visible by 50 meters, and then the wall is impenetrable. And now, in some places from the road, everything is visible through and through, even the opposite shore. ”

Tubalaras against

On February 24, another rally was held in Turochak. This time with the active support of the Association of the indigenous peoples of the Altai Republic. The Turochak district belongs to the territories of compact residence of Tubalars, Schelants, Kumandinites (by the way, “Tubalars” in translation - “forest people”). According to the federal law of 1999 “On guarantees of the rights of indigenous peoples”, without their consent, no economic activity in the territory is impossible, it is necessary to negotiate.

Miting photo: Andrey Bespalov

There was 150 people at the rally, not counting the police and the Investigative Committee. Activists from Biysk and Novosibirsk came to support the neighbors of the Altai. They were waiting for the governor, but he did not come. From the leadership of the republic there was no one at the rally. Но выступающие все равно обращались к губернатору и правительству, понимая, что им передадут. Люди снова потребовали вмешаться и остановить уничтожение леса в Турочакском районе и по всей Республике Алтай. Как вмешаться? А просто — вернуть земли, неважно когда и кем переведенные в категорию земель сельскохозяйственного назначения (сейчас сам черт ногу сломит, как во всем этом разобраться, история уходит в девяностые), в лесной фонд Российской Федерации.

«Мы много раз просили о встрече с губернатором Бердниковым, чтобы обсудить наболевшие вопросы, но он с нами так и не встретился, — сказала на митинге Зинаида Тырысова, руководитель республиканской общественной экологической организации «Сакральный Алтай». — Может, настолько занят, а может, посчитал ненужной встречу с представителями общественности».

По данным Тырысовой, в Турочакском и Чойском районах действуют 28 арендаторов, которым леса отданы в аренду на 49 лет.

Тогда экологическая организация провела мониторинг своими силами. И выяснила, что в Турочакском и Чойском районах есть неучтенные кедровые массивы, которые в лесохозяйственном регламенте Республики Алтай значатся как эксплуатационные леса. А значит, разрешена сплошная рубка.

«Мы попросили провести ревизию договоров долгосрочной аренды. В правительстве ответили — это невозможно, так как договоров очень много. Да, мы видим годами — тяжеловозы с кедром идут и идут. Такого варварства, как сейчас, не было никогда в отношении лесных и животных ресурсов», — говорит Зинаида Тырысова. По ее данным, лесозаготовками в Горном Алтае занимаются все кому не лень — москвичи, краснодарцы, новосибирцы, отовсюду. И весь кругляк направляется в Китай.

«Сколько леса погубили! — возмущается пенсионер Василий Тудашев. — Местные жители здесь всегда орешничали, а сейчас все нарушено. Озеро мелеет, рыбы нет. Кончать надо с этим беззаконием».

«У нас берега Катуни оголили до невозможности, — рассказывает активистка из Чемальского района Галина Козерогова. — Я в Усть-Семе живу с пяти лет. В поселке никогда не было ветра. А сейчас со всех сторон дует. Вдоль наших огородов лес подчистую вырублен. Мы и в прокуратуру обращались, и в минлесхоз, и в лесоохрану, во все инстанции. All to no avail. Прямо в селе по улице Трактовой открыт песчаный карьер. Под его расширение будут еще восемь гектаров леса вырубать. И будем мы еще больше пыль глотать, огороды песком засыплет. Глубина песка в этих местах 24 метра. С теми масштабами выработки, которые планируются, Усть-Сема быстро в этот карьер уйдет как в воронку. Писали всем, жаловались на все уровни — и получили отписку, мол, не беспокойтесь, через 50 лет мы посадим вам там деревья (то есть когда долгосрочная аренда закончится). В карьере, в этой яме они нам посадят саженцы! Люди в селе растеряны, мы не понимаем, как нам быть. Мы один карьер кое-как закрыли — потому что туда мусор сваливали, в помойку превратили. Так нам другой открыли!»

Зинаида Тырысова Фото: Андрей Беспалов

«Наши продажные власти в Паспаул китайцев завезли. Прокуратура запретила, теперь они в Тондошку лезут! — возмущалась на митинге Мария Ельденова из села Каракокша. — Пишем, пишем — только отписки! Плевать они хотели на нас, тубаларов, потому что на кону — деньги. Людей разучили работать. Коров нет, покосы заросли, никто не хочет скот держать. А жить на что-то надо — поэтому и херачат кедр! И сами тубалары продают свой лес, свою землю. Надо начинать с себя, а потом уже выше смотреть. А то будем скоро как лысые бурундуки бегать по голой тайге!»

«Весь лес — государственный. И в Республике Алтай рубится лес государственный, не местный, — считает новосибирский активист в защиту лесов Владимир Кириллов. — Не Бердникову принадлежащий, а находящийся в федеральной собственности по умолчанию. По нашим расчетам, в республике вырубили леса на 1,2 миллиарда рублей. Куда лес уходит? To China. Как и новосибирский. Почему китайцы начали скупать лес по всей Сибири? Потому что в Китае запретили любые рубки леса. По всей Сибири местные коррумпированные чиновники не обращают внимания на законы. Простой вопрос — кто менял категорию земель? В Новосибирской области это делал губернатор. Может, и в Республике Алтай так же? Это вопрос к правоохранительным органам. Власти не идут на диалог с представителями гражданского общества. Это чревато — в Новосибирской области губернатора сняли как раз за массовые митинги против резкого, на 30%, повышения тарифов на ЖКХ — в пользу местных олигархов, которые поставляют тепло».
Кириллов предложил провести в Горном Алтае летом всероссийский съезд некоммерческих организаций, которые занимаются проблемой незаконной вырубки лесов.

Митинг неожиданно завершился на веселой ноте. Ведущая, имея в виду резолюцию, оговорилась и случайно призвала проголосовать за революцию. Предложение всем понравилось. Народ расходился в хорошем настроении.

«Вот такой интерес»

Из Турочака в Верх-Бийск возвращаемся на машине Швецова. Расстояние в 25 километров проходим минут за 15. Не то что осенью, говорит Владимир, когда из-за 20-сантиметрового слоя грязи, нанесенной лесовозами из тайги, путь в Турочак занимал не меньше часа. Из-за этой грязи участились ДТП. Как правило, в них туристы попадали, непривычные к новым местным реалиям.

Спрашиваю Владимира, почему так неярко он выступил на митинге. Можно сказать, потерялся среди других активистов, а ведь самый известный сегодня в республике человек. «Этот митинг — не последний. И не так важно, кто на нем выступил, а кто нет. Главное, что он был и будут еще. We will not stop. Но мне не нравится, что как только мы стали выступать против незаконной вырубки леса, в село тут же потянулись представители всевозможных партий (на митинге в Турочаке они тоже были — как же не поддержать народ перед выборами?! Правда, скорее мешали, то и дело сбиваясь на политические лозунги — ТД). А потом в СМИ началась травля: писали, что Швецов от партий деньги получает, что нечист на руку. А я ни в каких партиях не состою, мне дела нет до них никакого. Еще намекали, что я турбазу строю и потому мне самому этот лес нужен. Мол, Швецов только свои интересы защищает».

Река Бия в окрестностях Верх-Бийска Фото: Андрей Беспалов

Владимир Швецов — предприниматель, хотя сам предпочитает называть себя крестьянином. У него фермерское хозяйство — свиней держит, коров, даже кони есть, продуктовый магазинчик в селе, небольшой земельный участок, на котором Владимир построил гостевые домики. Горный Алтай — регион туристический, село Верх-Бийск стоит на берегу Бии, незамерзающей и шумной даже в 30-градусные морозы. До Телецкого озера — каких-то 30 километров. Гостевые домики Швецов — да не он один в деревне — построил по республиканской программе развития сельского туризма «Зеленый дом». Еще в середине девяностых. На вопрос, какие льготы он получает за участие в программе развития туризма в республике, Владимир отвечает: «Да никаких льгот, кроме налогов, которые я плачу…»

Швецов на какое-то время замолкает, поглаживая сидящую у него на коленях Феню. С собачонкой он не расстается с тех пор, как подобрал ее два года назад, почти околевшую, на улице села: чихуахуа выбросили прежние хозяева, когда продали дом в Верх-Бийске и уехали. Несколько месяцев Владимир возил Феню (Швецов не стал называть собаку прежней кличкой Изольда) по ветклиникам, ей сделали не одну операцию. В общем, спас жизнь собачке. Которая теперь спасла жизнь ему… «Интерес, интерес… да, у меня есть прямой интерес. Я хочу, чтобы перестали валить вековые сосны прямо вдоль трассы и в береговой зоне. Я, как и все, хочу иметь на берегу реки домик с банькой, и чтобы вокруг лес рос. Вот такой мой интерес…»

Do you want us to send the best texts of “such cases” to you by e -mail? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter!