Molten timber rafting, both in the Kama region and in other regions of the country, has always been the easiest and most economical way to deliver felled timber to consumers. In the spring flood, logs harvested in winter were simply pushed into the water, and they floated downstream to the place where they were caught.
Thus, the transportation of raw materials was carried out from places where it was possible to reach only on foot. However, in the process it became clear that this type of alloy violates the normal living conditions of the ichthyofauna, up to the complete death of its most valuable representatives and can be used only on non-navigable rivers. But the main disadvantage is losses.
According to the most approximate estimates of scientists, at least 38.6 million cubic meters of timber have been drowned in Russia as a result of molten timber rafting. And this is only for the last 50-60 years (molten rafting in the Perm Territory was banned in 1992. - Editor's note.). How many logs have disappeared forever in the depths of the river for hundreds of years - no one knows. Moreover, no one kept records especially. The snags made dozens of rivers-tributaries of large waterways - the Kama and Volga, Ob and Irtysh, Yenisei, virtually non-navigable. Meanwhile, the lifting of the timber resting on the bottom would not only solve the problem of water transport, but also give the industry huge volumes of raw materials.
The main rivers along which the mole rafting was carried out in the Perm Territory are Sylva, Vishera, Kolva, Yaiva, Kosva, Chusovaya and their tributaries. For more than two or three decades, a significant part of small rivers is impassable not only for any displacement vessels, but even for inflatable floating craft. For example, the Koiva, a tributary of the Chusovaya River, in the 1920s had a navigable length, as well as a length suitable for timber rafting, of 200 kilometers. On the river were located iron mines, Kusye-Aleksandrovsky and Bisersky iron foundries. Today, Koiva has a shallow and winding bed.
It is believed that in the course of molten rafting, up to one percent of the launched forest drowns. In the Kama-Volga basin, science suggests, about nine million cubic meters of timber have been flooded, in the Yenisei - seven, at the bottom of the Irtysh and Ob - up to 6.5 million cubic meters.
Of these, from 30 to 50 percent is the so-called commercial timber. A quarter of the "drowned" - coniferous tree trunks, and five percent - dyb, the most valuable building material.
About half of the logs lost during the rafting ended up in shallow places and are of no value. They regularly go under water, then lie for weeks in the wind and sun, and in such conditions they quickly rot and turn into dust.
The gold mine is wood, both coniferous and deciduous, which has been lying in water without air access for several decades. And even better - under a layer of silt and mud, where the oxygen content is extremely low. Under such conditions, wood mineralization occurs, it becomes several times stronger than the original material, acquires a characteristic color - it becomes stained.
This material does not rot, the larvae of insect pests do not start in it, and a house built from stained logs will last longer than a larch one. However, until now, the rise from the bottom of the rivers and the production of high-quality wood have not been established not only in the Perm Territory, but also in Russia.
The first attempts to do this business, including in the Kama region, were made in the 90s of the twentieth century. However, they quickly suffered a fiasco - it turned out that just lifting a log from the bottom was not enough. It is necessary to have specially equipped storage facilities, drying chambers, special sawing machines: ordinary ones simply cannot cope with hard, like stone, wood. If you just throw the snags on the shore, so that someday later they will be processed, then literally in a month or two they will lose their properties and become an ordinary rotten piece of wood.
However, a properly treated stained forest costs quite a lot of money. The range of prices is from 2 thousand rubles per cubic meter of stained birch to two million per cubic meter of oak. Of course, there are no oaks in the Kama region, but a huge number of spruces, birches and pines have been floated along our rivers.
Despite the obvious profitability of projects for the extraction of stained wood, no one is engaged in this business in the Kama region. Moreover, both the Ministry of Industry and the environmental department of the regional government do not have any data on the volumes and locations of molten alloy. That is, even if entrepreneurs have a desire to organize a log-lifting enterprise, it will be necessary to make significant investments in this "geological exploration".
by the way
As reported to "RG" at the Kamskaya hydroelectric power station, the dam has to regularly clean the hydromechanical equipment from the firewood stuffed into the grates. In principle, the once drowned and now floating trees cannot inflict damage on metal elements, however, in order to remove the accumulation of logs, a grab bucket was even installed at the station. The expenses, they say at the hydroelectric power station, are small, but they take up time and energy, which can be spent profitably. In addition, snags have a negative effect on the state of water bodies, flora and fauna. Rotting wood releases phenolic compounds and mercaptans, which is especially detrimental in winter - these toxic substances accumulate under the ice, causing fish to die.
Bog oak wood is considered the most expensive in the world. A simple frame for a small photo made from this natural material can cost hundreds of rubles. Furniture made of material preserved by nature itself is affordable only for the richest people on the planet. Our country has impressive reserves of this wood, there are technologies for its extraction and processing. But the extraction of a valuable resource is often illegal and goes beyond the budget. Why it happens?
Raising an oak tree from the bottom of a river is not an easy task. The trunk can weigh up to 4-6 tons
Chair for the price of a car
There are dozens of advertisements on the Internet for the sale of bog oak products. For example, a slab made from this wood (a trunk cut or, simply, an unedged board) trades at $ 440 per linear meter. The simplest coffee table is offered for 1,700, and the more powerful TV console for $ 6,300. A decorative book rack will cost an immodest $ 3,400. For a square meter of floorboard or wall panel, you will have to pay about $ 700. A 20x5x5 cm bar can be purchased for $ 10-15. There are more radical offers on our market. For each cubic meter of round timber, they ask for 2-4 thousand euros. And buyers are.
Bog oak is a unique material, the creation of which nature has spent thousands of years. In those days, when mammoths walked the planet, a mighty tree grew on the banks of the river. The water washed away the shore, the oak fell to the bottom. He was covered in silt. Over the course of thousands of years, it has been “stained” in exceptional conditions, with practically no oxygen available. As a result, its structure changed - it became much stronger, acquired a noble dark color with silvery veins. And the main thing that attracts people is the age of such material. Agree, few people will refuse to touch the table, knowing that it is thousands of years old. Where are there antiques!
The fishery is covered with silt
In a unique and, in professional language, a narrow market, only a few companies legally work for us. One of them is headed by Alexander Dupanov. Back in the 1990s, he became interested in this topic by pure chance. He was visited by foreign friends who, in passing, inquired about the possibility of buying a few cubic meters of bog oak. In the end, nothing came of the idea - too many intermediaries had to be involved. But Alexander realized that this business, with a competent approach, has more than real prospects. Since then, for 20 years, the company has been developing technologies for the search, extraction and processing of fuelwood. And along the way, like every businessman, the director of the enterprise with his team carefully monitors the activities of competitors.
Right now we can drive along the bank of the Sozh, and I will show you about a dozen places where stained wood was recently developed - traces of heavy equipment, fragments of oak, sawdust and so on, - Alexander met me at his base in Gomel. - The question is how legally the earners were operating. It used to be, I traveled for days on a section of the river allocated for exploration and production. And I always met those who like to profit. They tore wood with tractors, sawed off piece by piece, loaded it into trucks, carts, horse carts and tried to take it out.
There are no digestible statistics on world production of valuable raw materials today. Some figures have been "emerging" only from Soviet times. Then the turnover of stained (fuelwood) wood and, in particular, oak, was regulated by the Department of Precious Metals under the Ministry of Finance. In 1937, the Council of People's Commissars even gave instructions to study the issues of reserves and methods of timber extraction. Such studies were carried out on the rivers Sozh, Dnieper and Iput, from where, over 3 years, about 2 thousand "cubes" were even raised - a fantastic volume for this type of material!
Alexander Alexandrovich shows a log, which is 7150 years old. He says that these are still old stocks. The company has no right to engage in its main activity - exploration and production itself - since 2015. The new edition of the Water Code banned the extraction of valuable timber:
Stained wood is a non-renewable resource. What we extract from the water will no longer be replenished. Its reserves all over the world are more than modest. The account goes to hundreds of thousands of "cubes"
Previously, we executed the entire package of permits and legally engaged in our activities. The new law does not seem to prohibit the extraction of oak, in any case, there is no direct prohibition and the term "driftwood" does not appear there in any way, however, the procedure for legalizing such activities has become impossible to go through.
Perhaps, this could put an end to it: it is forbidden to get stained wood out of the water and there is nothing more to talk about. However, for “black” earners, as in other lucrative areas, bans are a sideline.
Sellers with a tarnished reputation
On the Internet I find such offers: “I will sell a bog oak, about 2 cubic meters”, “A bog oak, 4 trunks, diameter at the butt is from 55 to 88 cm”, “A bog oak (fumed) oak for sale, almost black on the cut, 2 the logs are dry. Self-pickup ”.
I called under the guise of a buyer. Interested in a number of questions. First, is there any guarantee that this is an oak and not an aspen? Secondly, will there be evidence that this is a bog oak, and not soaked in a nearby puddle? And thirdly (and this is the most important thing), when and where was the wood obtained? After all, it is impossible to legally conduct this fishery for 4 years already.
Dialogues are standard. The seller from the Zhlobin region wants to earn as much as $ 150 for each cubic meter of his production. For reference, a “cube” of quality sawn timber from ordinary pine costs about the same:
Good afternoon, is there wood? Where is it stored? Is it really an oak tree?
In the courtyard under a canopy. Lies since June, has already dried up. What am I, an oak cannot be distinguished? Look for yourself.
And where is it mined?
The Maltsy swam in the Dnieper, groped near the shore. Pulled out of there. The lads over there will confirm if you don’t believe.
Is it possible to pull out oaks just like that? Or do you have the documents?
Why do I need documents? Consider that I was collecting firewood for myself and at the same time I did a good deed - I cleared the beach.
Mozyryanin fished oak trunks from Pripyat in the spring:
The water came down, and they appeared. Probably washed out from under the shore. What is the price? You understand that this is not some kind of birch, this is a bog oak! It is very expensive. I won’t give it up for less than a thousand dollars per “cube”.
He also has no documents for production, as well as other evidence of the purity of the transaction.
Image - into the furnace?
Sellers are trying to softly dictate terms, which means there is demand. But something else is curious: all their activities, it turns out, are illegal. Moreover, it can be regarded not only as theft, but also pure sabotage.
It is not enough to find and raise a tree from the bottom, - says Alexander Dupanov. - After all, under the influence of oxygen, the processes of its destruction immediately begin. For example, the natural moisture content of ordinary wood is about 70 percent. Fuelwood can have 150-200 percent. In the process of improper drying, waterlogged wood tears, it crumbles into chips.
Indeed, the process of "drying" bog oak is very long and painstaking. It lasts, as some sources say, almost a year, moreover, under certain conditions. Few home-grown businessmen will wait so long, and therefore the amount of initially high-quality, but hopelessly spoiled wood is simply catastrophic, says Alexander, based on his personal experience. As a result, more than 90 percent of raw materials are used for scrap. He tells the cases when the logs were sent to the customer by carriages, but on the way they managed to lose their characteristics and were sent to the ovens. In 2006, at one reputable wood-processing enterprise, they successfully sawed round timber into boards, but then about 100 “cubes” of finished products were burned. And from the next batch of 150 cubic meters, in the end, only 30 were saved. As a result, the cost of the remaining material was simply insane. But in these cases, experienced people worked, no match for the majority of small "predators". As a result, the country is rapidly losing one of the most valuable natural resources, although it could have made it its own brand and improve its image on the international market for precious materials.
Stained wood is a non-renewable resource. What we extract from the water will no longer be replenished. Its reserves all over the world are more than modest. The account goes to hundreds of thousands of "cubes". According to Alexander Dupanov, just over the past 20 years and only our country has lost tens of thousands of "cubes" of oak. Most of it, no matter how blasphemous it may sound, went to firewood. In particular, not a single coastal dweller will pass by a huge oak tree, which is excellently sawn in its raw state, and burns perfectly when dried up. A lot of raw materials are spoiled by miners and processors. How many? Every week Alexander receives 2-3 calls, allegedly from oak buyers. Interested in cost. And disappear. In the overwhelming majority of cases, these are sellers who monitor the real prices for relict wood. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of them, Alexander estimates. And, therefore, it is possible to represent the real volumes of trade. At the same time, not so many raw materials are physically “thrown out” on the market. Chances are, everything else disappears:
The extraction of bog oak can often be compared to the harvesting of non-ferrous metals: if it is not lying well, it means that they must “whistle”. I would not be surprised if every second owner of a sawmill has fuelwood stored in the vicinity of large rivers, - says Alexander Dupanov. - There are many customers among the owners of cottages. And what master cabinetmaker would refuse to work with a unique material? And since there is demand, there will be supply. What, in fact, we observe. It is enough to contact the guys from any coastal village, and they will haul the required amount of timber to order.
In a legal vein
As a rule, the “black” market develops in special conditions. On the one hand, it must be admitted that the circulation of bog oak today is not regulated in any way. On the other hand, under the new Water Code, even the official procurers were forced to curtail their activities. The demand remained the same.
Earlier, according to BelTA, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Andrei Khmel stated that the stocks of bog oak in Belarus were not officially counted: “But this resource exists. This is evidenced by the research of private individuals, we own this information. This is a rather expensive material, specific in processing ”. The result - at the moment, the department's specialists have prepared a draft document "On some issues of the extraction and circulation of amber and fuelwood." In turn, the head of the main department of natural resources of the Ministry of Natural Resources Vasily Kolb confirms that the decision to establish legal order in this area was not spontaneous:
From time to time we were contacted by individuals and commercial structures. We understood that sooner or later the question would be posed bluntly, and therefore we carefully prepared for changes in legislation. In particular, the notorious Water Code, which actually banned the fishing of fuelwood, can be regarded as a pause. We needed time to collect data about this resource.
There are several leitmotifs of the draft of the new decree. For example, the Ministry of Natural Resources proposes to completely ban the export of round oak abroad - fuelwood, as a particularly valuable raw material, must be processed domestically, creating goods with high added value. And when fishing, it will be necessary to be guided by the project documentation, which has passed the environmental expertise without fail, and to coordinate actions with the local authorities. In the case of extracting fuelwood without excavation or dredging, the fisherman will also need to acquire a technological map.
The "tilt" of the project is obvious - towards the protection of nature. This is understandable - any interference with the river regime, especially such a rude one, will inevitably entail negative consequences. In addition, says Vasily Kolb, after the extraction of wood to the surface, in many cases, the troubles of the watercourse and adjacent territories do not end there:
It is impossible to distinguish a bog oak from a similar birch or Christmas tree under water. Adequate analyzes can be carried out only after the tree has been lifted ashore. But the fishermen only need an oak tree. Question: where does the rest of the wood go? I can assume: either it is thrown back into the water, or litters the banks, or (and this is the best, but unlikely option) given to local residents for firewood.
These barbaric methods should no longer be applied. Moreover, stained wood is recognized as a particularly valuable resource on a par with, say, amber. This can be judged at least by the rates of the environmental tax on the extraction of snags. For comparison: the removal from the bowels of the earth for each ton of building sand for a business entity, according to the Tax Code, costs 5 kopecks, rock salt - 75 kopecks, facing stone - 1.65 rubles, brown coal - 1.7 rubles, grape snail - 30 rubles. And bog oak - 69 rubles. At the same time, in the 1990s, the state enterprise BelGeo carried out assessments of the forecast reserves of stained wood in the country. It was about 500 thousand cubic meters of resource. It is not difficult to calculate what the benefit might be.
In the meantime, there is nothing to boast about. According to available data, in the period from 2010 to 2014, only 1.5 thousand cubic meters of oak firewood was actually identified for industrial production. And raised - again, according to some information - only 123.8 "cubes". If there is any movement in this area, then it is deep in the “shadow”, sums up Vasily Kolb:
It doesn't matter how many organizations and for how long they have been working in the field of snorkeling. There are facts. Starting to study this issue, we made the appropriate inquiries to the tax authorities. In 2014, one payer paid taxes for the extraction and removal of bog oak. In 2015, there were two of them. There is no export information at all.
Precious, but not metals
Despite the colossal cost of bog oak, there are also more valuable tree species on the planet. And the point is not only in their technical characteristics, but also in their distribution.
Grenadil is an African ebony that grows in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and is endangered due to poaching. Its matte black wood is already very beautiful. Today, according to some reports, the cost of a cubic meter of this material (if, of course, it goes on sale) can easily exceed $ 100,000.
Ebony. There are in Africa, South India and Ceylon. The market value of a cubic meter is up to 100 thousand dollars.
Backout (iron tree). It grows in Haiti, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Jamaica, Guatemala and Cuba. The cost of a cubic meter in some years reached 80 thousand dollars.
Rosewood is native to Brazil and has long been sought after by cabinetmakers for its unusual pink or red wood grain. Hence the price - more than 50 thousand dollars per “cube”.
Agarwood from South Asia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam or Laos has exceptional aromatic properties. The finest incense is made from wood and resin in India, Japan and the Arab countries. Of course, agar is not sold in "cubes", and a kilogram of it costs on average about 5-7 thousand dollars.
To this topic
Maxim Ermokhin, PhD in Biology, Leading Researcher at the Institute of Experimental Botany of the National Academy of Sciences:
Bog oak actually has an increased value, but not enough to create a buzz around it. Judge for yourself. From the point of view of physical and chemical properties, it differs little from ordinary oak wood. Thanks to the tannins contained in the structure, it is simply preserved, the decomposition processes slow down, in fact, the wood only changes color. This material mainly attracts people precisely with its appearance. In the ordinary nature of our country, a similar color of wood - from dark brown to almost black - does not occur. And the same furniture made from exotic natural materials is always highly valued. Once upon a time, oaks were even artificially stained - immersed in water for 20-30 years, so that in due time they could be used by children and grandchildren.
Is bog oak worth the increased attention we are seeing at the moment? Definitely, but to a greater extent from the point of view of nature protection. If some private structures will be engaged in the extraction of stained wood, the role of the state in this process is to control the careful use of natural resources.
Saw cut of bog oak logs (www.teltinc.com)
Over the millennia of using wood, artisans, inventors and engineers have discovered, invented and brought to perfect technologies a variety of methods of wood processing. The most productive and efficient ones have been developed over the past century, they are focused on mass production, they provide repeatability, reliability and safety. But there are techniques that, having appeared long ago, have not reached the mass level. They served as a source of interesting ideas, went down in history, but themselves, for objective reasons, did not become industrial. One of these techniques is the extraction and processing of stained (from the French marais - swamp) wood.
Natural long-lasting natural staining gave the craftsmen a material that connoisseurs often call black gold - this is how bog oak is called, and they buy expensively. In addition to real value, the modern attitude to it is based on adherence to antiquity, belief in miracles and the nature of some and the desire of others to sell more expensive invented jewels that no one will ever turn into mass consumer goods. The same attitude was formed, for example, towards the pair of natural / artificial pearls, natural / artificial diamond.
Products made of stained (in water, in an oxygen-depleted environment) wood are a product of processing logs raised from under the water. Basically, these are naturally sunken tree trunks long ago. However, it happened that equally valuable logs, extracted during the reconstruction of long-built bridges, dams, canals, sluices, and mills, fell into the hands of the craftsmen. Most of the wood that ended up in the water after the death of the trees simply disappeared. Moisture and air are what biota, usually living on wood, needs to process living tissue into rot. Why are some of the logs lucky?
Wood, which has been in the water for hundreds of years, has become a valuable material. Quickly flooded trunks from recent (decades ago) alloys, with skillful drying, are not too inferior in quality to normal wood and differ little from it. Since it is impossible to trace the entire process of transformation in a reasonable time, all that remains is to simulate and accelerate the ripening conditions, to assess the role of various factors in this process.
Stained wood sculpture by Kevin & Michael Casey (www.bogwood.net)
The main factors that ensured the safety and transformation of wood into a valuable material are rapid flooding, prolonged stay under water and / or silt without access to the air necessary for rotting, the presence of preservatives in wood and water (which prevents spoilage at the initial stage of maturation) , the presence of wood-modifying components in water, the presence of components in the wood itself, which in a given environment give the desired result for use.
Bog oak and larch, renowned for their value, are prime examples of wood suitable for staining. They are heavy and sink quickly in water. The bark rich in tannins (and wood less rich in them) form an environment that is detrimental to decay. Also, a good protection at the first stages of staining is resin, and on land opposed to the enemies of the tree. If the trees do not end up in the air in the first hundreds of years and do not die from this (as a material) from cracking and decay, then the slow process of modification will continue.
Natural tree saps will be washed out with water and oxidized, the surrounding aquatic environment will be saturated with preserving toxic phenolic compounds (tannins are just from this category), its acidity will change (acidify). Such conditions develop in lakes and swamps, in which trees accumulate for a long time.
During staining, processes occur to varying degrees affecting the wood. On the one hand, due to leaching and oxidation of natural wood preservatives, the level of protection of the wood itself will decrease. On the other hand, and the need for it will decrease - in the skeleton of resistant cellulose, there will be less and less low molecular weight carbohydrates suitable for the development of pathogenic organisms. Also, the loss and oxidation of soluble fillers of the cellulose-lignin skeleton of wood will lead to a deterioration in mechanical properties (flexibility, strength will deteriorate) and greater permeability to water (as a result, hygroscopicity, swelling in a dried state, greater than that of normal wood). At the same time, organic matter will be petrified, which will increase the hardness and resistance of the wood in case of drying to rotting and processing by grinders.
The transformation process is slow, and the stagnant waters of lakes and swamps will be the best cradle for it. The process of interaction of the components (the same tannins) of wood with salts is important for the visual qualities of the future material - it is believed that it is iron salts from water that give bog oak a dark to blue color with a characteristic shine.
Natural underwater preservation is also optimal for the further use of such wood in underwater conditions. But who is interested and needs the details of locks or ships now? How to use stained wood on land? Modified wood that has been under water for a long time is defenseless against a dry air environment. A log quickly extracted from a depth of several meters at normal atmospheric pressure will be destroyed by actively emitted liquid and gases. Uneven drying will lead to cracking and warping. Moreover, due to the loss of soluble binder components during staining, destruction will be faster and deeper than that of normal wood. The network of small cracks and the porous wood itself will eventually be filled with atmospheric moisture, fungi and bacteria - the wood will rot.
In order not to spoil the valuable material, it must be properly dried. The log taken out from under the water is well closed from air before being sent to drying, protected from high / low temperatures. Then slowly (over a period of months) they are dried at a normal stable temperature and controlled humidity (in artisanal conditions, they surround the drying place without drafts and active ventilation with containers with water). After the material reaches normal moisture content, it is sawn and processed. The initial sawing into planks can also be carried out at the site where the timber is still wet.
At the final stage, the product is protected with natural coatings. While natural staining is believed to preserve wood, this is not entirely true. With a prolonged stay under water, natural wood destroyers and a breeding ground for them are eliminated. Therefore, properly processed wood is really healthy, but also less protected than normal wood from the penetration of disease. The advantages of dense (fine-pored) oak and larch are also manifested during processing - even the increased hygroscopicity of stained wood will not be so destructive for them.
Stained pine table by sculptor and artist Pieter Koning (www.pietkoning.com)
Products made of valuable stained wood are piece goods. Such wood itself can be considered just as piece - it is formed in natural conditions with a combination of many different factors. Therefore, it is only a stretch to talk about industrial extraction or harvesting of stained wood. An oak or larch soaked in suitable conditions for hundreds of years is not at all like a snag raised from the bottom of a flowing river, which is tens or hundreds of years old. Of course, wood is a valuable product in itself. Under a certain set of circumstances and from well-processed firewood, you can get a beautiful, durable material. However, it is better to consider it than modern products of deep processing of wood (for example, thermowood) just because it is natural, it is not worth it.
The desire to reproduce the visual features of the valuable stained wood has led to the emergence of accelerated chemical staining techniques and their use to replicate counterfeits. Rapid methods of even deep impregnation / etching with stains are now well developed technologies. With their help, you can change not only the appearance of wood, but also carry out its conservation. But such staining only in name is similar to natural, and its product should be distinguished from natural stained wood as well as consumer goods from a collectible.
Since the end of the 20th century, such a craft began to gain popularity in foreign countries. So one businessman invested about 100 thousand dollars to buy a site near the bank of a river and began to engage in logging. That is, he simply set some installations so that the logs did not float far away and caught them. Then he simply dried them, and then processed them, for example, into some kind of furniture or other wooden products. To this day, this business brings in about $ 3 million a year.
Some analysts claim that there are about 38 million cubic meters of drowned trees at the bottom of various reservoirs (there are no exact figures, since there were no full-scale studies due to the high cost). At the same time, no one in Russia is doing this, at least to the same extent as business from Western countries. Maybe the position is at a disadvantage, unprofitable or something else, leading experts spoke about this in various speeches.
Let's analyze everything in fact and in a visual way.
When transporting various raw materials, somewhere in the hundredth of these volumes simply drowns in a water body. For example, scientists suggest that there are about 9 million cubic meters of trees on the Volga River. Meanwhile, it is worth noting that only those trees will be valuable if they have left an integral look at least a little, otherwise few people will need woody "porridge". Meanwhile, trees that have been under water for decades are a kind of unique product for the production of various goods. Being in water, this wood becomes very durable, due to the saturation of various minerals. Experts note that if such wood is properly processed, it will be similar in strength to stone. In addition, it does not rot, and insects will not climb into it, so such goods will be almost eternal.
Meanwhile, timber extraction will help the ecology in some role.
The fact is that the driftwood located at the bottom of any water body negatively affects both the general water system and its inhabitants. While there, they release some substances that displace oxygen, which can cause fish to die out. There are rumors that foreign companies already wanted to deal with the sinkhole, and completely free of charge, they seem to help us with the environment, and take the raw materials for themselves, but our authorities did not agree. At the same time, this decision is completely correct, if only we ourselves begin to engage in its production, so we clean the environment and earn extra money.
Just note that the state began to fight the snag. At Baikal, they are planning to create a plant for processing this product. Due to the low quality of wood products, they are immediately subjected to the recycling process, and in a rather interesting way: they take this wood and bury it under the ground and gravel, and then sow grass. But this, of course, is only a minimal percentage of what is being done on the scale of a state like ours - it is a drop in the ocean. At the same time, scientists have been planning for several years to make the driftwood quite attractive for business, which should lead to an automatic improvement in the environment and an increase in income.
Another expert, who is directly involved in underwater oak mining in rather large volumes, told us a story about how there was a real push in this direction. In the 1990s, there were a lot of different businessmen who wanted to tackle this issue, but they planned to do it as quickly as possible and at the same time not invest serious investments, but rather without relying on professional labor. But it didn’t go so smoothly, because after all, it’s not such a simple business.
Now, you can also search for many different ads for the sale of firewood, but at the same time these are most often one-time promotions and at the same time there is no guarantee that the manufacturer has a sufficient volume, as well as the declared quality.
After the collapse of the USSR, a meager number of enterprises were able to extract fuelwood, then process it and produce ready-made material. Most organizations simply didn't have the technology. In addition to all this, for some reason, when forming production, no one takes into account the fact that there is also a lot to spend. Thus, harvesting good stained wood takes 10 times more freshly mined raw materials. And this is a lot of effort to develop, search for a snag. Then there is a lot of effort to process it, and only then a finished product is obtained, ready for use. Moreover, it is not so easy to get such raw materials. First you need to scout everything in order to know where this wood is at all. Next, you need to conduct a study at a distance of 200-500 kilometers, then you also need to hire scuba divers in order to find out what is at the bottom. Then the sunken pillars of trees still need to be pulled out somehow, and even so that they do not damage them. Then all this needs to be packaged, transported and properly processed. At the same time, before processing, you literally need to take care of it, since in a few hours it can simply lose all its necessary properties.
On the Ob there is autumn shallow water. The hydroelectric power station has seriously reduced the discharge of water, storing it in the reservoir for the long winter months. The river became shallow and exposed the monstrous state of its coastal part.
A huge amount of snag is a consequence of the rafting of timber (molar and rafts) and the diligent work of the river, which from year to year washes away the unfortified banks of the Ob reservoir.
There are rather rough estimates of scientists that in Russia, only as a result of molten alloy - which was almost universally banned back in the 90s of the 20th century - forests have sunk at least 38.6 million cubic meters. At the bottom of the Ob and Irtysh rivers - up to 6.5 million cubic meters. No one especially kept track of such losses.
Why is baked wood harmful and dangerous? First, it makes shipping dangerous. The risk of hitting a log with the bottom is very high - the snag often floats in the river at an angle, when one end of the log is much lower than the other. To run into such a forest is a guaranteed hole and an accident. Remember the scene from the old comedy film "Volga-Volga", where a sinker log pierced the bottom of a steamer ... It is known that the sinkers made dozens of Siberian rivers virtually unnavigable - the tributaries of the Ob, the Irtysh and the Yenisei.
Secondly, the carrying capacity of the river is significantly reduced: the tree trunks lying in the channel significantly increase the hydrostatic resistance.
Thirdly, the quality of water is seriously affected by wood decaying at the bottom and in the water. The decay process consumes a large amount of oxygen, which is necessary for the normal existence of fish and the growth of underwater plants. In addition, decaying wood gives off phenol, methane and mercaptans (hydrogen sulfide derivatives), which is especially detrimental in winter - poisonous substances accumulate under the ice and lead to fish deaths.
Even now, the wood lying at the bottom is causing serious damage to the environment. Fish of valuable species will not live in the places where the snag is found, and the movement of ships there is impossible. In addition, a large amount of driftwood provokes processes of erosion of the banks - the channel becomes very shallow, coastal structures suffer from seasonal floods. It is known that after about 20 years, a body of water littered with driftwood practically dies.
Ideally, lifting a sunken forest from the bottom of rivers can not only solve the problems of shipping and the environment, but also become a highly profitable business that provides industry with huge volumes of raw materials.
It is known that even “under the tsar-father”, rafts were flooded specially for several months - by all means with lumps against the stream - and then “eternal” furniture was made of this “stained” wood. Such a tree does not rot, the larvae of insect pests do not start in it, and a house made of stained logs will stand and last longer than a larch frame.
Today, the rise from the bottom of the rivers and the production of high-quality wood in Russia has not been established, and many of the secrets of processing have been lost.
Despite the prospect of solid profitability of projects for the extraction of stained wood, no one is involved in this business. Moreover, we can safely say that not a single regional department has any data on the volumes and places of rafting, on the basis of which it would be possible to predict the places of accumulation of driftwood. So, even if an entrepreneur has a desire to organize an enterprise for lifting logs, he will need to spend money on “exploration of the subsoil”.
A kind of "gold placers" is wood (larch, birch, aspen, oak), which has been lying in water without air access for years, or even better - for decades. It is very good if the tree was lying at the bottom under a layer of silt and mud - with a minimum access of oxygen. In such conditions, the wood becomes mineralized, becomes several times stronger, acquires a characteristic "stained" color. Correctly treated stained wood costs a lot of money.
However, simply raising the driftwood is not enough. It must be washed from pebbles, sand and dirt. And the main thing is to process it very quickly, without delay: cut it and dry it properly. Otherwise, it will simply rot very quickly. This means that it is necessary to have specially equipped warehouses, drying chambers, special sawing machines ...
This probably explains why timid attempts to engage in such production quickly came to naught.
Another nuance is that the snag has an undefined status to this day. Roofing felts are garbage that must be disposed of, roofing felts are a natural resource, for the extraction and processing of which you have to pay ...
It is obvious that the logs caught in the shallow water of the Ob are of no value. After all, they more than once went under the water, then lay for weeks in the wind and under the sun. Under these conditions, the tree will quickly rot and poison the water.
But if the authorities dealt with the raising of the firewood and the sale of the same stained birch (a million rubles for 20-25 "cubic meters"), the authorities could quickly recoup all the costs of floating cranes, barges and work on cleaning the Ob and its rehabilitation. The wood at the bottom of the river is hundreds and hundreds of thousands of cubic meters.
It is known that under the "anti-popular" tsarist regime, the authorities regularly gave contracts to clean up rivers. They say that there was even a case when an enterprising manufactory took a contract to clean the river from the driftwood. The problem was solved in a smart way by a merchant: having caught several logs, he gouged holes in their ends, into which he laid several gold coins, and then lowered the logs back into the river. On the same evening, a rumor was spread about this in a local pub. A few days later, the entire river bed was cleared of driftwood.
