Wetlands in Ukraine

[Billie Bonce]

I stumbled upon an interesting site about the region of Ukraine called Polissya. Roughly speaking, it stretches along the border between Ukraine and Belarus. The region is famous by the bogs that cover most of its territory.

The site contains the information for tourists, and it is mainly in Ukrainian. The few articles in English (basically, it's the summary of the site materials) may be found here: http://polissya.blogspot.com/search/label/in%20English

I want to show you (what means: I try to translate into English) one particularly interesting page entitled "About wetlands in Ukraine: how to walk on bog and not to drown". The original is here: http://polissya.blogspot.com/2009/10/bo ... ferat.html (in Ukrainian).

Sorry for my English. But it still much better than Ukrainian-English Google translation (which simply makes the text not understandable)

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About wetlands in Ukraine: how to walk on bog and not to drown

Bogs - one of two main features of Polissya land. Even today we have very much of them. And the name Polissia likely comes not from the obvious "forest" (in Ukrainian - "lis") but from the ancient Baltic "pala" - "quagmire." Travel in a swamp - a dangerous thing, as it is easy to get lost or drown there. So anyone who wanders by Polissya, should know the basic rules of how to walk across bogs ...

The first and most important rule: if you can (see how to) bypass the bog - then bypass! Those who have once in a life beyond their own will found themselves in serious quagmire, remember this forever.*

* (Note: the author admits that there are those who may find themselves in serious quagmire by their will - Billie)

(Photo 1: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_jX9LqrLSOQo/S ... stnost.JPG)

General advice:

1. Walking along the boggy land, don't trust maps. They all lie because they are updated many times rarer than the bogs change. Much better to ask locals (Polishchuks) about available trails, causeways, ways to bypass dangerous areas in the local bog, and the best - to take a guide. But remember that even last year's trail on a bog may already be dangerous. Bogs change every year ...

2. Choosing between human and animal path, trust the latter - those of wolves, deers, boars.

3. Carefully check any marsh trail. Even if you see that an automobile road goes in a swamp - do not rush, it can only be "zymnyk", the road which accessible only in winter when ice covers the swamp.

3**. Under any circumstances, follow the selected path, even if it is very winding, never attempt to make a shortcut across the bog.

** (I intentionally preserved the glitch in numeration of the original text - Billie)

4. The more problematic are lowland swamps, which collect subterranean waters and covered with lush vegetation, including dense sedge, reed, willow, birch, alder. Transitional cranberries moors and upland moss bogs, which fed by rain water, are usually easier to pass, but they are the most treacherous.

Before crossing a bog:

1. Find a strong, wide but light pole 2.5-3 meters*** long and keep it in hands.

*** (Holy shit! Be careful with Google translation - it changes "meters" for "feet", "kilometers" for "miles", but doesn't change the numbers! OK, I use only meters, kilograms, etc. 1 foot = 0.305 m, 1 m is about 3 feet - Billie)

2. We advice to loosen all straps of your backpack, and wrap things inside it in plastic. In case of trouble they will be protected from getting wet and provide greater buoyancy.

3. Fix shoes as firmly as possible.

4. Particularly difficult areas can be crossed over mat - chop branches or even reeds and throw them crosswise, creating a dam.

5. In winter bogs easier to cross on skis, in summer one may made a light "bog shoes"**** from thin branches. Swamps are the most dangerous in summer and fall, critically dangerous after rainfalls that pour after a long drought.

**** (I don't know exactly if the term "bog shoes" is used, I used it as analog of "snow shoes" - Billie)

(Photo 2: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_jX9LqrLSOQo/S ... i_bogs.JPG)

When going across the bog:

1. Probe the way ahead with the pole; on upland bog - very carefully.

2. Going in a group without a trail, keep spacing of 5 meters between the members of the group, and don't follow each other, go in row.

3. The best way in a bog closer to the roots of trees. Also try to step on the undergrowth or lane of moss.

4. The particular option of walking on bog with tussocks (but to say the truth, there is only one such bog in the region - Syra Pogonya in Rivne Oblast) - gently stepping from tussock to tussock, setting feet at the center of each tussock and leaning on a pole. Never jump from tussock to tussock!

4. On shaky ground one should go in small steps, without delay; stop to rest on solid places only.

4. Avoid bright green spots - usually water "windows" hide under them. Remember - where is more verdure, there is more water. Also avoid areas that are completely without vegetation, especially during drought ("mochazyna"). Never even dream to jump over "mochazhyna"! But most of all one should beware "mochara" that looks like a lovely green glade between trees. Under a thin layer of moss or grass there may be the whole quagmire lake. In it - a sure death.

(Again I preserved the glitch in numbering. Also I can't find any translation or equivalents of local therms for some peculiar places in the bogs - but I hope that the description is rather clear - Billie)

5. If you make a step and the ground around begins to wobble like waves, or water begins to quickly gather around the foot - that means it is "splavyna". Smoothly, but quickly get out of it.

When you go across a lowland swamp - the main danger is closer to its center, on an upland swamp - on the contrary, be especially vigilant on its side, when you come in the mire and out of the mire.

If you sink in the swamp:

1. Don't flounder! You must NEVER, under any circumstances, wave your legs or hands or head!

2. Instantly roll on your back, at the worst - to the stomach

3. Drop off the backpack

4. Leaning on a pole, or on your hands, slowly try to reach some tree branches or roots, or just solid ground nearby. Even if the bushes are uprooting, lay them under yourself.

5. If you plunge in instantly quickly and deeply - do not frighten, probably at 95% that you fell in the lake water from which it's easy to swim out. However, the remaining 5% that you plunged in a very deep quagmire, then, unfortunately, there are almost no chances of saving.

7. Rescue in a group - toss a rope or your pole to the victim and slowly pull them out of the swamp. It's important to pull smoothly, but without weakening efforts.

If nothing helps, there is nobody around, and the swamp slowly sucks you down:

1. Pray! *****

***** (Someone commented this article: "about 'Pray!' - well said. In such moments you really want to pray" - Billie)

2. Try to call

3. Put the pole in front of you and try to slowly crawl on it on your stomach

4. If you have no pole - try to take your clothes off very slowly and distribute them in front of you, then try to move on them.

Signs of passable marshes
1) Fully covered with thick grass with sedge
2) Has even a little pine undergrowth
2) Completely covered with moss

Signs of problem marshes
1) Has enough of apparent "mochazhyns"
2) Covered with birch, alder

Signs of impassable swamps
1) Covered with reeds
2) The islands of grass are floating
3) Peat is very mellow, liquid, flows through fingers while compressed in the hand

Also remember about good things: if you press a cup into the peat - you can get wonderful delicious water. Furthermore, sphagnum****** - an effective antiseptic, and you can also use it to wash your hands or clean clothes.

****** (Sphagnum was surprisingly suggested by Google translation, in the original text it was "white peat moss". It seems, the translation is correct - Billie)

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OK, that's it. I hope, this is interesting. Comments and suggestions are welcomed!

[Nessie]

It was very interesting! Nice job. I find your English perfectly understandable.

I was surprised at how much of this advice I already do. I did have one very good "mud mentor" who taught me good ways to hike through wilderness but there was a catch...the mud trips I was on with him were way in the South and I live North. So I had to take what I learned in the South and adapt it to terrain of the the North, and it was quite a conversion.

The rest? I'm quite happy to learn more from this article!

They're dead right about maps. Even Google Earth is just a general guide. Basically, it'll tell you that there's water and marshland there. It won't reveal the most recent patterns.

I got a kick out of the part about the roads going through swamps.

Where I am, we have snowmobile trails in many of the major parks. It doesn't look like much in January, just a flat trail through brown weeds and deep snow, but come spring, you'll see a ten-foot-wide path going right into a huge sea of cattails and marsh grass.

No. Don't go in there. That's not a walking trail. You'll get your feet wet at the very least...and it could be, you'll sink.

Unless you're me...then you use those to get in!

Yes. I too trust the animals. In the spring and fall their trails are very apparent, and they're a great help in navigating land that's not touched by humans. Animals help me get into things.

I figure, I've seen plenty of deer tracks in the mud but never, not even once, have I encountered a stuck deer.

Nessie

[Nessie]

Oh, yeah, one more thing...

Also remember about good things: if you press a cup into the peat - you can get wonderful delicious water. Furthermore, sphagnum****** - an effective antiseptic, and you can also use it to wash your hands or clean clothes.

Ya know, I've been told by some people...

"After you sink, you need a full shower. You really do. You gotta clean your whole self...every little crack and crevice."

But I always KNEW I didn't really mind if I didn't get every little fleck off me!

So, according to this...today, I drenched my whole body in antiseptic.

Right?

Nessie

[bart1997]

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[Billie Bonce]

Thank you for the comments!

never, not even once, have I encountered a stuck deer.

There are many wild animals that I can hardly imagine being stuck in mud. But from what I read in the Internet I know that domestic cows get stuck rather often - in bogs, in mud pits, in quicksand at river shores, etc.

I have also read about Africa that, say, hippopotamus never get stuck in bogs, but this often happens to elephants. Do you think this has no relation to this topic? A few years ago an elephant escaped from a traveling circus in Russia. Has been found the next day hopelessly stuck in a bog. It took time to get necessary equipment to pull the animal that weighed 4 tons from almost 3 meters deep mud. Unfortunately, the animal died from hypothermia soon after it was pulled out of mud. To say the truth, it happened farther to the North than Polissya region.

Over here in the central/western part of the old continent the countries are just too densely populated and about 95% of the wetlands have been drained, even my personal "huge" bog (although there a some wild, natural parts that look exactly like in the photos) is surrounded by parking lots, covered in trails and even worse, sometimes patrolled by rangers.

A large part of wetlands has been drained in 70-s here as well. But then they stopped it. Peat is considered as important resource and its formation and mining (or extraction - don't know how to say it) are controlled. The drained lands were intended for agriculture, but fortunately they ceased that barbarous demolition of forests that took place in 70-s. Partly the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 helped - the Polissya region was seriously hit by radioactive pollution and the lands became unusable for agriculture. So they remained as forests and peat bogs.

Of course we don't have much of parking lots and I have no idea what rangers can patrol here. Well, I know. They protect forests from illegal lumbering and illegal hunting (or just attempt to), and they may attempt to prevent wildfires in dry season by attempting to keep people out of forests, what doesn't not work well.

On that "just pray" part: I did break through those layer of deceptive vegetation myself multiple times, ending deeply mired in either almost clean water, peaty water, watery peat or muddy peat with never finding a bottom and even flooding my waders sometimes. With help of the long stick the auther describes, one should be able to handle such a situation. In fact i do carry two of these poles when exploring a new area, so you are able to build a cross in front of you.

You know, the advice to pray has a serious background. In such situation as described (nobody around, several attempts to get out failed) the victim may panic. The purpose of the prayer is to stop moving, cease panic, formulate the problem in words (that helps to understand the problem), and finally to build a hope that somebody or something will help to survive. After praying, the victims may act more effectively to rescue themselves.

[schlamm]

*

[bart1997]

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[Billie Bonce]

Ah okay, it's meant just like "calm down and think about your situation".

In the original text it probably had more than one meaning. But what you said should be useful to anybody.

Reminds me of that quite frightening experience i had, when i foolishly did throw away my stick too early.

Referring to the literature, in the famous scene in "Dawns are quiet here" the girl drops her stick and falls from the path when she is get scared by a bubble that bursts right in front of her. Then she can't reach the stick, and can't reach anything solid. The author did know what the bog is, and how such accidents happen there.

I'm just a bit wondering about your comment regarding these park rangers (also your last comment on that scouting off the highway-topic). Over here most often those remaining wetlands are protected areas with some certain rules (no camping, no fires, dumping garbage and the like) and those people do act as the law enforcement. I even read in a newspaper that people get fined when they are found collecting edible mushrooms at my local forest. I think it has something to do with the amount of "relatively untouched" nature a country possesses, how they regard these areas. I went to poland one time and was totally impressed of the vast, still wild-looking forests they have. I guess this is pretty much the same in canada and some parts of the us. Over here, well >1000 years of dense civilization can change a landscape a lot. Unfortunately only sometimes for the better.

You are right. Actually, in my comment I didn't mean park rangers. I meant foresters, huntsmen (in places dedicated for hunting), and other representatives of authorities. I'm not sure we have park rangers anywhere, at least we call them foresters and/or jaegers even in national parks.

I would say, Poland has much denser population and much less wild and unregulated areas than we have in Ukraine.

But one thing made me very sad. By mentioning the dumping of garbage you hit the most painful point. I'm very, very ashamed of what you can see in my country. Our people use to dump garbage everywhere, all those tons of plastic bottles are everywhere around cities and along roads, everywhere where you may want to stop. It's really horrible. The most stupid thing - the people who go hiking never drop garbage, they take it with them, they carry it for many miles in their backpacks, but the people who travel by cars just throw the packs with garbage out of windows, despite they can easily bring it to a garbage container somewhere along the road. Sorry, it's off-topic, but it's really painful to me.

[schlamm]

*

[Boggy Man]

The drained lands were intended for agriculture, but fortunately they ceased that barbarous demolition of forests that took place in 70-s. Partly the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 helped - the Polissya region was seriously hit by radioactive pollution and the lands became unusable for agriculture. So they remained as forests and peat bogs.

So, the bogs there are radioactive?