Екологічні наслідки створення системи полезахисних лісосмуг в Україні відповідно до «Великого плану перетворення природи»

Abstract

Досліджено екологічні аспекти полезахисного лісорозведення на теренах України від повідно до «Великого плану перетворення природи». Показано політику українського уряду, спрямовану на створення закінченої системи захисних лісонасаджень. Показано шкідливі наслідки пилових бур, завданих сільськогосподарським угіддям у повоєнний пе ріод. Доведено, що «Великий план перетворення природи» та його практичне виконання мали суттєві недоліки, викликані переважно недостатнім урахуванням і розумінням особливостей степових екосистем.

The environmental aspects of afforestation shelter in Ukraine according to «The great plan of nature transformation» are analyzed. The territory of Central and Southeastern Ukraine today is actually quite anthropogenically transformed. The process of landscapes sampling, long developed in a relatively slow pace, reaching its climax was only in Soviet years. Collective-state farm system was characterized by megalomania and monoculture of vast areas of agricultural landscapes. Any intermediate transition zones or areas began to be seen as superfluous, unnecessary and were simply destroyed. This quickly breaks traditional Ukrainian agricultural landscape, which celebrated the diversity of agricultural land – fields, pastures, belts, gardens, vegetable gardens, grasslands, ponds, their mosaic interweaving and interpenetrating fields and forest areas, natural grasslands and river floodplains. These features define its national characteristics. A direct consequence of such unification is that at the end of the twentieth century the country faced the problem of infraction of sustainability of agricultural landscapes, i.e. the capacity for self-healing and self-supporting of natural systems. The implementation of plans of shelterbelts system is characterized by inconsistency. There were revealed all new registry, blatant lack of training and lack of interest, lack of technology and scientific recommendations. From 1948 to 1953 in the country forests were planted 2.5 times more than in the previous 25 years. Instead, life itself convinced of the usefulness of the shelterbelts system. Thus, in 1984 severe drought spread all the Southeast of Ukraine. However, the greatest benefit left from belts was when a full network over wide areas was created, not only in the separate farm. After the collapse of plans implementation for large-scale afforestation, the duration and frequency of dust storms continued to increase, as a result of repeated tillage the soil increasingly lost its structure. The greatest harm caused by the dust storms was in farmland of Zaporizhia, Crimea, Kherson and other regions, where plowed area was 60–70 %, and in some places even more. In winter 1969 during a black storm, which covered eight steppe and forest-steppe regions of the republic, a lot of dust has been recorded in the areas of Polesia and even in Belarus and the Baltic States. In 1960 and 1969 in the midst of black storms in the fields, non-protected by forest belts, a hurricane blew poorly developed and even well-developed winter crops. In the mid-1960s after catastrophic by the effects dust storm of 1960 and the subsequent drought it became obvious that these phenomena, as well as the spread of water and wind erosion assumed the character of a national disaster and measures taken by the authorities were extremely inadequate. In 1967 the former USSR was forced to adopt a new decree «On urgent measures to protect the soil from erosion» which for some time has influenced the protective afforestation. Ukraine has organized 32 agroforestry stations and dozens of agroforestry spots. After the dust storm in 1969 the government decided to speed up the creation of the complete system of belts in Ukraine. On January 23, 1970 a resolution «On the creation of a complete system of protective afforestation» was adopted, it included increasing of agroforestry work. In 1971–1975 Ukraine has planted 82.2 thousand ha of shelter belts, in 1976–1980 – 32.6 thousand ha, in 1981–1985 – 18 thousand ha, in 1986–1990 – 21.7 thousand ha. However, the amount of work could not provide the completion of shelter system afforestation and in scale it was inferior to the «Great plan of nature transformation». After 1985 only 2 – 2.5 thousand ha of belts were planted annually, but in recent years they weren’t practically created. So far in the fields Ukraine there is no complete system of shelterbelts, only 440 thousand ha. After 1995 their number fluctuated at around 2 thousand ha, in 2007 – 0.3 thousand ha. So, unfortunately, the «Great plan to transform nature» and (even to greater extent) its physical implementation had significant shortcomings, caused mainly by insufficient considering and understanding of steppe ecosystems.