SAKHA 226 By Newell and Zhou / Sources: Ministry of Natural Resources, 2002; ESRI, 2002. Ⅲ N Map 6.1 THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST e w S i b e r i a n I s l a n d s Yuryung-Khaya Republic of Sakha KY Sagastyr Lena 3,103,200 sq. km ANABARSUst-Olenyok Saskylakh Taimylyr Delta Sklad Tit-Ary Amakinsky ! Polyarnoe Logashkino Zhilinda Tiksi Chekurovka Nizhneyansk Oyotung NIZHNE Ust-Yansk Pokhodsk Kyusyur Khaiyr KOLYM Tumat Chkalov Chokurdakh Chersky! OLENYOKSKY SKY Kular U Siktyakh -YST Tenkeli Nychalakh Andryushkino NSA Nizhnekolymsk SK ALLAIKHOVSKY Kolymskoe Olenyok Ust-Kuyga Y Ermolovo BULUNSKY Namy Aleko-Kyuel Deputatsky Omchikandya Argakhtakh UKOTKA ! Oyusardakh Saiylyk Belaya Gora Svatai Sylgy-Ytar CH Dzhordzhan Aby Ebyakh Saidy Kuldino Aly Druzhina Nalimsk Kustur Syagannakh Srednekolymsk Udachny SREDNE BATAGAY-ALYTA ABYISKY VERK Aikhal ZHIGANSKY K KOLYMSKY Batagai-Alta OLYM Ulakhan-Kyuel Kuonara Satara HNE Tomtor Tamtor Eyik Zhigansk S Bala KY Suordakh Lena River Buor-Sysy Zyryanka Yunkyur Lazo Khonuu Bakhynai Ugolnoe MIRNINSKY VERKHOYANSKY MOMSKY KY VE S Barylas Nelemnoe Bestyakh Sasyr RKHNE Terbyas Sebyan-Kyuel YURBIN N Botulu Predporozhny Satagai Olchan Syuldyukar KOBYAISKY Malykai TOMPONSKY Elginsky ! Ust-Nera Chernyshevsky DalyrV Balagachy IL Tas-Tumus Oyusut Nyurba VILY Kysyl-Syr Artyk ! Y Mirny !. Mastakh Sangar Segyan-Kyuel Nelkan Almazny Toioku UIS Tompo Sheya UI Aryktakh Tas-Yuryakh S SK Batamai Oimyakon UNTARSK Elgyai Chagda UST-ALDANSKY KY Y Bulus Yuchyugei Suntar Ilbenge Khara-Aldan NAM Kylayi Orto-Balagan Kempendyai Orto-Surt Teply Klyuch Y S Namtsy Bulun MAGADAN Orto-Nakhara Bechencha Tuobuya GORNY KY Ogorodtakh Khandyga LENSKY Lensk Ert Magaras Us-Kyuelya !. Tongulakh Yaroslavsky Saldykel P! Cherkekh Dzhebariki-Khaya Tolon Nyuya KY Alysardakh ASS Tuora-Kyuel Okhotsky Perevoz Olom NGAL YAKUTSK TATTINSKY KHA Sinsk Myndagai Vitim Chapaevo Olyokminsk Olom CHURAPCHINSKY Macha ! Edei Darkylakh Allakh-Yun Sanyyakhtakh Abaga Delgei Tokko Bolugur Alexeevka Ulu Onnes Eldikan Byas-Kyuel ISKY AMGINSKY Ust-Maya Kudu-Kyuel MA Ynykchansky UST- Yur Tyanya Ugoyan Verkhnyaya Amga Ust-Mil Yugorenok k Khatystyr Tommot Belkachi Torgo ! s MINSKY Lappa ! Ust-Yudoma t OK Ugino Chagda Suon-Tit Aldan o OLY Bolshoi Nimnyr MEGINO-KANGALASSKY h Maly Nimnyr ALDANSKY k Mainline Kankunsky -Amur O Baikal Bolshie Khatymi ¯ Neryungri ! Chulman f !. ! Serebryany Bor o a km Zolotinka S KY e Nagorny S NERYUNGRIN KHABAROVSK 200 Russian Far East Newell, J. 2004. The Russian Far East: A Reference Guide for Conservation and Development. McKinleyville, CA: Daniel & Daniel. 466 pages CHAPTER 6 Republic of Sakha Location The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in northeastern Siberia stretches to Henrietta Island (77°n) in the far north and is washed by the Arctic Ocean (Laptev and Eastern Sibe- rian Seas). These are the coldest seas in the northern hemisphere, and are covered in ice for nine or ten months of the year. Chukotka and Magadan form Sakha’s mountainous eastern border, Amur and Khabarovsk its southern border, and Eastern Siberia its western border. The name of this republic has changed several times in recent years, and in Russia, the names Sakha and Yakutia are used interchangeably. To be consistent, Sakha is used in this text. Size Sakha accounts for almost one-fourth of the territory of the Russian Federation (3,103,200 sq. km) and is larger than the combined areas of France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Sweden, England, Greece, and Finland, or, fi ve times the size of Texas. It stretches 2,000 km north to south and 2,500 km east to west. SAKHA Climate Winter is prolonged and severe, with average January temperatures of about –40°c. Summer is short but warm; the average temperature in July is 13°c, and temperatures have reached 39°c in Yakutsk. In the northeast, the town of Verkhoyansk reaches –70°c (–83°f) and is considered the coldest inhabited place on Earth. There is little precipitation, rang- ing from 150 mm in central Sakha to 500 mm in the mountains of eastern and southern Sakha.1 Geography and ecology Forty percent of Sakha lies within the Arctic Circle, and all of it is covered by permafrost (permanently frozen ground), which limits forests mainly to the south. Sakha can be divided into fi ve great vegetation belts that merge very gradually into one another. The islands are mostly covered with snow for up to eleven months each year and are considered arctic desert, although scattered patches of tundra vegetation grow there in the spring and summer. Arctic tundra grows along the mainland coast, and subarctic tundra defi nes most of northern Sakha, where lichen and moss grow into great green carpets, favored pastures for reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). Tundra woodlands with scattered Dahurian larch (Larix gmelini) trees separate tundra from boreal forests further south. They are also the most widespread vegetation type in the intermontane valleys of northeastern Sakha. Relict patches of steppe grasslands are found 227 Newell, J. 2004. The Russian Far East: A Reference Guide for Conservation and Development. McKinleyville, CA: Daniel & Daniel. 466 pages on southern slopes in this zone. Boreal forests defi ne the fi fth vegetation belt. Dahurian larch dominates—about Key issues and projects 90 percent of the forest cover is larch,2 though stands of fi r (Abies), spruce (Picea), and Scots pine (Pinus silves- Sakha’s diamond industry tris) begin to appear in the south. Alrosa Corporation and government agencies Isolated stands of Siberian spruce (P. obovata) also are all angling to capitalize on Sakha’s immense grow along the western border and in sheltered canyons diamond reserves, estimated to be the world’s of Verkhoyansk Range in the northeast. An unusual fea- second largest (see p. 244). ture of the lowland forests in central Sakha is that they grow in an arid climate and depend on permafrost for Natural gas exports moisture. Large meadows, locally called alas, also grow Japan, China, and South Korea are all potential in this area. consumers of the region’s oil and natural gas, The great Lena River watershed begins in the steep which would be transported by pipeline (see mountains that border the western shores of Lake pp. 253–54). Baikal. The river then meanders northeast and is joined by the Vitim River, followed by the Olyokma, Aldan, Japanese investment in coal mining Amga, and Vilyui Rivers, before fl owing through a wide Russia and Japan, with government fi nancing and delta into the Arctic Ocean. It spreads through Sakha support, began joint coal-development projects in like a huge pitchfork and, with its tributaries, forms the 1974 in the Neryungri region (see pp. 251–52). great river network that supports this immense region’s ecology. The Lena River is over 4,000 km long, and the Foreign investment in gold mining entire basin covers 2.5 million sq. km. Canadian and Irish mining companies are investing Mountains, highlands, and plateaus cover 70 per- millions of dollars to exploit gold reserves (see cent of the republic. Sakha’s longest mountain range, p. 249). SAKHA the Verkhoyansk, runs parallel to and east of the Lena, forming a great arc that begins not far from the Sea of Okhotsk and ends in the Arctic Ocean (Laptev Sea). This great range gives rise to the hundreds of small tributaries that feed the Lena. The Chersky Range runs east of the Verkhoyansk and has the highest peak in Sakha, Mount Pobeda (3,147 m), as well as one active and many extinct volcanos. Between these two ranges lies the Yana-Oimyakon Plateau. Even further east are the spurs of gold-rich Kolyma Mountains, which stretch all the way to Chukotka, but enter Sakha only on the eastern fringes. All three major ranges are connected by the Suntar-Khayata (Misty Mountains) Range. The edge of the great central Siberian plateau is found in the west. In the remote northwestern part of Sakha lies the Popigai Meteor Crater, which is 70 km in diameter and surrounded by a circular mountain ridge. The Arctic coast and islands are fl at, with hundreds of thousands of lakes. The volcanic De Long Islands in the extreme northeast are covered with ice shields. One of them, Bennet Island, which recently erupted, is the northernmost active volcano on Earth. Geologically, mainland Sakha is very old, and its complex and diverse geological structures are rich in minerals. In the western part of the republic is one of the most ancient portions of the Earth’s crust, the source of its massive diamond reserves. Sakha is well known throughout Russia for its mineral wealth. Besides diamonds, it has gold, tin, natural gas, and oil. The full extent of its mineral resources is not completely known. 228 Ⅲ THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST Newell, J. 2004. The Russian Far East: A Reference Guide for Conservation and Development. McKinleyville, CA: Daniel & Daniel. 466 pages Flora and fauna The fauna includes 64 species of mammals, 285 species of birds, 4 species of amphibians, 2 species of reptiles, 43 species of freshwater fi sh, and some 4,000 species of insects. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) den and hunt in Arctic regions. Each year over thirty thousand geese migrate to the wetlands between the Yana and Kolyma Rivers, and between two and three hundred thousand ducks migrate to the region between the Kolyma and Alazeya Rivers.3 Siberian cranes (Grus leucogeranus), sandhill cranes (G. canadensis), Ross’s gulls (Larus roseus), geese, and other waterfowl nest on the left bank of the Khroma River and along the lower Indigirka and Alazeya Rivers. The Siberian crane is the unoffi cial na- tional symbol of Sakha (the offi cial symbol is the horse). The population in Sakha is one of just two isolated nesting populations; the other is in the lowlands of the Ob River and is almost extinct.4 Sakha’s Red Data Book contains sixteen species of mammals and fi fty species of birds.