The problem of fire control on drained peatlands and its solution

ISSN 1064�2293, Eurasian Soil Science, 2011, Vol. 44, No. 8, pp. 919–926. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2011.Original Russian Text © F.R. Zaidel’man, 2011, published in Pochvovedenie, 2011, No. 8, pp. 1000–1009.

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CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF FIRES

In Russia, forests and peatlands (predominantlydrained) have been burning for more than 40 years.Fires formerly arose, but they were not so dangerous interms of their extension and destructive consequencesas in the last decades. Fires of forests and peatlands areinterrelated phenomena. A forest is a reproducibleresource, whereas peat soils (accumulators of carbondioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases) are notreproducible resources. The pyrogenic destruction ofdrained low�moor peat soils in the Nonchernozemicregion leads to an irreversible loss of one of the mostfertile soils in this vast region. There is a distinct trendof formerly increasing of the intensity of the fires fromthe 1960s–1970s (the beginning of the global climatewarming). One can say most probably that the fires areclosely related to the climate warming and to the peri�ods of higher solar activity. For instance, in 2010, thearea of fire�destroyed peat soils increased by 42% ascompared to the maximal area damaged by fires in theprevious years. In 2010, the consequences of the firesturned out to be especially severe. According to theincomplete preliminary data, in the long�term(>3 months) droughty period, in the central part of theEuropean Nonchernozemic region, fire caused greatdamage (20–50 billion rubles) to a territory of621 thousand ha. On the drained lands, the wholeyield burned; 2600 houses were destroyed, and 53 per�sons perished in the fires. The fires were accompaniedby toxic smog within many towns and villages, whichwas responsible for higher (by 1.5–2 times) mortalityand serious diseases of the upper respiratory tracts inthe residential areas of this region. The expenditures ofthe Ministry of Emergency Situations for the fire

fighting amounted to 12 billion rubles. In 2010, thelosses of agricultural production due to the droughtand fire exceeded 33 billion dollars. By this time,many irrigation and reclamation systems of the bilat�eral control of the water regime did not work. It isworth noting that the adverse effect of the fires is notrestricted to the areas of particular bog landscapes. Itcovers considerable territories causing not onlydestruction of fertile soils of the Nonchernozemicregion but also long�term smoke screening of townsand villages. The smoke screening and fires preventedmotor traffic and impaired the operation of airports.Fires of peatlands contaminate the atmosphere andcan be a reason for human diseases for those living at adistance of several dozens kilometers from the fire’ssource. Fires lower the diversity and numbers of thebiota. Nowadays, in the Russian Federation, fires ondrained peatlands cover great areas, thus becoming areal ecological catastrophe. They arise practicallyeverywhere in the Nonchernozemic region, Siberia,and the Far East.

The question of the reasons for the origin of thefires is quite expected. Fires are often suggested toarise as a result of camp�fires on drained bogs, sparksfrom tractors, lightning, lighted cigarette butts, bottlesserving as lenses, the spontaneous combustion of peat,etc. Spontaneous combustion is an improbable cause,since it is possible only at a temperature of 154–157°Cand above. One can suggest that, in the fire, the com�bustion temperature inside the organic mass reaches600–700°С, since maghemite was found in the peatash. This mineral is formed at this temperature [12].

As hydrological investigations of drained peatlandsshowed [6, 8, 18], the main cause of the fires and the

DEGRADATION, REHABILITATION, AND CONSERVATION OF SOILS

The Problem of Fire Control on Drained Peatlands and Its Solution

F. R. Zaidel’manFaculty of Soil Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, 119991 Russia

E�mail: [email protected] December 20, 2010

Abstract—Fires on drained peatlands arise as a result of lowering of the groundwater table and the rupture ofits capillary fringe from the peat soil horizons. Fires destroy the most fertile soils of the nonchernozemicregion, adversely affect the diversity and species composition of the biota and the work of transport, and causediseases and the death of people. A set of preventive measures against fires on the drained peatlands is pro�posed. It is important to use these soils only for meadow grass cultivation with rotations enriched in perennialgrasses. No cases of “black” crop growing are possible on peatlands. The reclamation of peat soils should beimplemented only with the bilateral regulation of the water regime. An optimal system of increasing the fer�tility of drained peat soils should be applied; their use should also be accompanied by sanding.

DOI: 10.1134/S1064229311080175

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ZAIDEL’MAN

complete burning of the organic horizons was the rup�ture of the groundwater capillary fringe from thedeeper horizons of the peatland. Drained bog massifscan become inflamed in periods of the summer lowwater and high temperatures. As a rule, fires arise ongravity irrigation systems and on polder systems. Pres�ently, many of the polder systems do not work becauseof the destruction of their energy and pump blocks.They work as ordinary gravity systems, i.e., only forthe discharge of water and the lowering of the ground�water level.

FIRE�FIGHTING BY WATER LOGGING ON PEATLANDS

Presently, the main method of fire�fighting sug�gested for drained bogs is their total flooding. Selectiveflooding of the burning areas is necessary in order toextinguish the fire at the moment. However, the totalflooding of burned areas is not always expedient forsome reasons. First, in the course of a fire over consid�erable territories, in a Poles’e, when the peat com�pletely burns, secondary structures (so called pyro�genic formations) are formed. Their profiles do nothave peat horizons. These formations often occupy30–35% and more of the total burnt area. These sec�ondary mineral formations are loamy sandy–sandy;within their boundaries, fires are impossible. Second,on the drained peatlands occupying considerable areasin the Nonchernozemic region, within some yearsafter their flooding, fires can be repeated, since, duringthe annual cycle, water outflows through the preservedand continually operating open and closed drains ofthe former irrigation systems. In addition, during thesummer low water, the groundwater level will be low�ered; in this case, the flooding will have to be repeatedevery year. Water outflow from the flooded peatlands isalso possible along the slope of the local confining lay�ers. Then, the bog areas flooded in the previous yearwill have to be flooded again. A way out of this situa�tion is the quick transformation of the gravity meliora�

tion systems into systems of bilateral regulation of thegroundwater regime. In this connection, it is worth not�ing that, before the irrigation and flooding of the peatsoils, the burned area should be investigated to revealthe plots with peat soils preserved after the fires. Onlythese areas (40–60% of the total area) before the fireshould be considered as objects for flooding in the yearof the fire and as promising agricultural land after thereconstruction of the hydrotechnical systems.

In the Nonchernozemic region, the drained low�moor peat soils are highly fertile. They mainly occur inPoles’e landscapes alternating with the predominantlow�productive sandy soils. This fact, in particular,determines the necessity of the reliable protection ofpeat soils against complete pyrogenic destruction.

The practice of melioration of low�moor peat soilshas faced the problem of the disjunction of thegroundwater table and the peat deposit in the late1950s–1960s, when a new method of gravity drainage oflow�moor bogs by deep channels as a fast and seeminglyeconomic and efficient measure was proposed [1]. Thepurpose of this method was to separate the capillaryfringe of the groundwater from the peat body usingchannels 3.5–5.0 m deep (Fig. 1). This method wasrecommended for soils of Poles’e landscapes, wherethe peat thickness does not exceed 2.0–2.5 m.According to this drainage method, after separatingthe capillary fringe from the peat deposit, the organicsoils always acquire a spontaneous water regime. Theirmoisture is determined only by the atmospheric pre�cipitation. As a result, the drying, decomposition, andpyrogenic degradation of the peat soils accelerates andusually ends with the complete destruction after fires.In 1960, the author of this paper investigated Kal’skoeBoloto in Ryazan oblast, where gravity drainage bydeep channels was applied for the first time. Then, theattention was first paid to the danger of this drainagemethod related to separating the capillary fringe fromthe organic layers and the simple discharge of ground�water [9]. The author emphasized that such reclama�tion will accelerate the organic matter decomposition

Hydrotechnical and reclamation measures for the optimization of the water regime of peat soils and their protection against fires

No. Soils and melioration conditions Obligatory measures for optimization of the water regime

1 Drained peat soils in territories where gravity systems work only for the removal of drainage water and lowering the groundwater table

Reconstruction of gravity drainage systems into systems of bilateral regulation of the soil water regime

2 Drained peat soils of polders with systems for drainage water remov�al because of the destruction of power lines, transformer substations, and pumps

Restoration of the polder and its capacity for the bilateral regulation of the groundwater regime

3 Peat soils outside the zone of melioration systems with bilateral regulation of the groundwater regime are protected against fires by irrigation in periods of low water

4 Secondary pyrogenic formations are not dangerous due to repeated fires. Irrigation is not recommended

5 In zones with water pressure, the irrigation of peatlands may be inexpedient at its close location to the surface and stable position in the warm period


THE PROBLEM OF FIRE CONTROL ON DRAINED PEATLANDS 921

in peat soils and cause their erosion and fires. Our fearswere proved in a short time. By the middle of the1970s, in Belarus, where the above�mentionedmethod was used, drained low�moor peat soils disap�peared in an area of 200 thousand ha due to erosionand fires. The fertile peat soils that were used in agri�culture burned, and considerable financial means werespent for their development and amelioration. Thefertile soils were substituted for by weakly fertile andpoor sandy and strongly gleyed formations—gleyzems(in essence, analogues of pyrogenic sandy forma�tions).

In the late 1970s, the deep gravity drainage of low�moor peat soils was abandoned everywhere, since itsadverse aftereffects became evident. However, untilrecently, there has not been any prohibition of thismethod. In the conditions of a Poles’e, where thedrainage can cause the disjunction of the groundwatercapillary fringe from the organic peat soil horizons inthe period of low water, fires of different intensities arecaused. In the low water periods of the years with nor�mal precipitation, drainage by channels with a norma�tive depth causes the lowering of the groundwater tabledown to the marks when the capillary fringe, as in deepdrainage, is separated from the peat horizons. There�fore, the water regime of the drained peat soilsbecomes spontaneous almost every year. With the cli�mate’s warming, the threat of repeated fires on peat�lands increases. In the 1960s–1970s, some publica�

tions of soil scientists and agronomists emphasized thehydrothermal and pyrogenic danger from the unregu�lated deep drainage of low�moor bogs using gravityameliorative systems [5, 6, 9, 21, 23]. However, in thisperiod, some measures for the protection of these soilswere not applied.

Thus, nowadays as earlier, two problems remaintopical: the elimination of the possibility of fires andthe long�term preservation of peat soils for their use inagriculture.

Is there any way out of this situation? Can thedraining of peat soils be absolutely fire�safe? Theanswer to these questions may be positive. The way outof this controversial situation consists in the exclusionof these soils from using them in agriculture and alsothe refusal of gravity drainage. First of all, a throughtransition to the bilateral regulation of the waterregime for the melioration is necessary. The use of thisameliorative system is aimed at raising the groundwa�ter table in droughty periods and its lowering underexcessive moistening in the spring and autumn. Inaddition, the use of peat soils is feasible only for thearrangement of meadows with perennial grasses withsome measures against fires, for instance, sanding.

In order to consider these methods of ameliora�tion, it should be revealed how peat soils change in thecourse of and after fires.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Fig. 1. A scheme of the drainage of low�moor soils using deep (4–5 m) canals that provide the interruption of the groundwatercapillary fringe in poles’e landscapes. Designations: 1—low�moor peat; 2—gleyed quartz sand; 3—light friable loam; 4—moistsand; 5—Jurassic clay; 6—capillary fringe; 7—the initial groundwater table.

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CONSEQUENCES OF FIRES

The results of long�term field studies showed that,after fires on drained bogs, pyrogenically changed peatsoils and different pyrogenic formations develop [11,19]. In the peat soils changed in the course of fires,shallow organic horizons are usually preserved. There�fore, they can be easily returned to agriculture aftermechanical mixing (when plowing) of their fire�dam�aged upper peat layer enriched in ash with the under�lying peat layers not exposed to the thermal effect.These soils should be first used for the arrangement ofmeadows composed of perennial grasses. These kindsof pyrogenically changed peat soils are often formedon drained bogs under a table of pressure water close tothe surface (particularly, in the Yakhroma River flood�plain). Unlike fire�changed peat soils, the pyrogenicformations result from the complete burning of thepeat horizons to the mineral bottom of the bogs. Thesesecondary mineral formations have no peat horizonsand are characterized by low and very low natural fer�tility. They are widespread on the drained agriculturallands in Poles’e. They mainly predominate on burnedindustrial intensely worked peat deposits under millingand other kinds of peat extraction (for instance, in theShatura peat massif providing fuel for the Shatura heat

and electric power station). After fires, in the territoryof this massif, pyrogenic–sandy formations prevail[15]. Let us consider the most widespread pyrogenicformations that were first found and investigated in theMakeevskii Mys polder located in the Oka–Mesh�chera Poles’e (Ryazan oblast) (Fig. 2). In this territory,the peat soils burned three times. The first case was inan area of 60 ha in 1998; the second one, in an area of140 ha in 2002; and, in 2007, the drained peat soilswere destroyed almost over the whole territory of thispolder (1.5 thousand ha). The following pyrogenicformations were found on the burned bog, which wasdrained prior to the fire [11, 18, 19].

Pyrogenic–mucky sandy formations occur withinthe areas where the soils had a thick peat horizon (>1 m)prior to the fires. Their bright ocherous�brown upper(6–12 cm thick) horizon consists of ash. This horizonis exposed to deflation and lies on black carbonaceousmaterial. The latter rests on the shallow mucky layeroverlying the deep gleyed quartz sand. In the first–sec�ond year after the fire, the ashy horizon has an alkalinereaction (pH 10–11) [13, 14]. Therefore, on its sur�face, a few Artemisia plants have settled. Only on thethird year after the removal of potash (K2CO3) fromthe ashy horizon do some other plants (predominantly

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Fig. 2. Profiles of the burned peatland in the territory of the Makeevskii Mys polder and the structure of the pyrogenic formationsin different years: (a) before fires; (b) after the first fire, 1996; (c) after the second fire, 2002. Pyrogenic formations: I—pyro�genic–mucky; II—pyrogenic–sandy; III—sandy; IV—pyrogenic–wood–sandy; V—pyrogenically changed sandy soils; 0—shallow peat soils before fires; 1—the surface before a fire; 2—the groundwater table; 3—peat horizon; 4—horizon of cakedhydrophobic peat; 5—gleyed sand; 6—loam; 7—loamy sand; 8—ash horizon; 9—carbonaceous horizon; 10—mucky horizon;11—layer of burnt wood; 12—sapropel.



Calamagrostis epigeios) occupy the surface of the pyro�genic–mucky formations. This grass produces a lowyield of coarse hay. However, the mechanized harvest�ing of the yield on these pyrogenic formations is com�plicated by the secondary waterlogging of the pyro�genic–mucky formations because, after the fires, thehypsometric level of the surface was lowered by 70–120 cm and more relative to the initial thickness of thepeat deposit [7, 8, 10].

The pyrogenic formations are formed on elevatedtopographic elements of the mineral bottom of burnedbogs. Here, in natural conditions, soils with shallow(30–50 cm) peat horizons develop. After fires, on theirsurface, a thin layer of ash remains; it is fast spread bywind over the whole burned area. The pyrogenic for�mations are distinguished by the accumulation of acarbonaceous mass in the upper 5� to 10�cm layerunderlain by infertile gleyed quartz sand. Artemisiaprevails on these pyrogenic formations; it produces alow yield (<500–1000 kg/ha) of low�quality hay.These pyrogenic formations spread on the elevatedtopographic elements on the mineral bottom of theburned bog have a very low fertility and a deeper freshgroundwater table as compared to that in the areaswhere pyrogenic–mucky bodies are formed.

Wood–pyrogenic formations develop within thepeatlands when the peat mainly consists of stem wood.In fires, the stems are caked forming a wood armor onthe surface of these formations. By their propertiesand fertility, the wood–pyrogenic formations are closeto the pyrogenic formations. Thus, fires lead to thedegradation of drained peat soils and significantlyreduce their thickness or completely destroy them. Inthe latter case, pyrogenic formations appear in theplace of fertile low�moor soils.

A complex of reclamation measures is necessary toreturn the areas occupied by pyrogenic formation toagriculture [8, 15]. Evidently, it is easier to preventfires than to fight them and to restore the fertility.Therefore, in projects on the reclamation of naturalbogs and the reconstruction of gravity drainage sys�tems, some special measures for the protection of peatsoils against pyrogenic degradation should be pro�vided. It is necessary to find out what preventive mea�sures to protect the peat soils against fires and destruc�tion should be elaborated in the projects of reclama�tion in order to exclude the peatland’s degradation.The following four obligatory measures should beimplemented in the ameliorative systems under con�struction on peat soils when reconstructing the gravityand polder objects for peat and pyrogenically changedpeat soils.

To change the land use of organic soils. Presently, inRussia, the drained peat soils are mainly used for cul�tivation of tilled crops and cereals in black crop grow�ing. The black crop on drained peat soils comprises thecultivation of cereals, vegetables, and other plantswithout covering the surface with sand and growingperennial grasses [26, 27]. The surface is open to fires

and the fast destruction of the peat. In Europeancountries, drained peat soils are predominantly usedfor the arrangement of meadow and meadow–pastureareas occupied by perennial grasses. This pattern ofusing the peat soils decreases the rate of the organicmatter decomposition by 2–3 times and lowers theirdeflation and the threat of inflammation. The low rateof the peat decomposition is related to the fact thatperennial grasses form an organic mass consisting pre�dominantly (by 3/4) of roots restricted to the uppersoil layers. Only one�fourth of their organic mass isrepresented by the generative and vegetative organs onthe surface. In tilled crops, on the contrary, roots formonly 1/10 of the total plant mass, whereas their gener�ative and vegetative organs amount to 9/10 of the massabove the surface. Perennial grasses enrich the peatwith the organic matter of their roots and thus main�tain the carbon balance. Therefore, the currentmethod of using the drained peat soils should bechanged, and black crop systems should be forbidden.The areas with drained peat soils are recommended tobe turned into green fields with perennial grasses forthe development of intense stock breeding. The expe�rience of Germany, Denmark, Holland, and otherEuropean countries confirm precisely this land use ondrained peat soils [25–27].

To create melioration systems of bilateral regulationof the soil water regime providing stable maintenance ofthe meadow type of water regime instead of gravity sys�tems working only for the removal of water. Nowadays inRussia, the reclamation of peat soils is mainly imple�mented by gravity drainage systems, i.e., by systemsworking only for groundwater and surface water dis�charge. These systems do not regulate the drainagerunoff. Every year in the period of low water (July–August), the capillary fringe of the groundwater getsseparated from the deep horizons of the peat soils;hence, conditions for their inflammation are created.Presently, many bilateral polder melioration systemswork as gravity ones, since, under the absence of anoperating service, people destroy the cable networks,electric equipment, and pumping units. Therefore, thepeat soils on these polders burn as intensely as in theuse of gravity drainage systems. Taking into accountthe above mentioned, in the planning of reclamationmeasures on peatlands, the creation of systems withbilateral regulation of the water regime providing a riseof the water by the method of subirrigation in droughtyperiods and its discharge after flooding is recom�mended. Peat soils should be reclaimed using systemsof bilateral control that are capable of maintaining themeadow type of drained organic soils, i.e., a constantinflow of capillary moisture to the rhizosphere. In thiscase, the polder systems and gravity melioration oneswill have to be reconstructed. Thus, we emphasizethat, in Russia, the systems of bilateral regulation ofthe water regime are not an innovation in the hydro�meliorative practice. Even in early 1919, a large drain�age–irrigation system in the Shatura industrial peat

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deposit supplying the Shatura heat electric power sta�tion with peat was put into operation. The system wasdesigned for industrial (including milling) peat dig�ging. During a threat of the peat’s inflammation, thissystem provided a fast rise of the groundwater table,thus eliminating the development of fire in the peatdeposit.

In the early 1930s, under the supervision of Profes�sor A.D. Brudastov, melioration systems of bilateralregulation were built on agricultural peat massifs in theKud’va and Nerussa River floodplains [4]. Unfortu�nately, this practice was forgotten before and after theSecond World war, and only in the late twentieth cen�tury did our country began to implement an extensivemelioration program, including fire building of poldersystems with bilateral regulation of the groundwaterregime. These works stopped in the 1980s. At thepresent time, owing to the absence of the operatingservice, many polder melioration systems stoppedtheir work as systems of bilateral regulation of thewater regime and run as gravity systems working onlyfor water discharge and lowering the groundwatertable.

To raise the fertility of peat soil. An obligatory systemfor the drastic raising of the fertility of reclaimed peat(organic) soils by the application of full doses oforganic, mineral, and microfertilizers and of limingthe acid peat soils is necessary. The existing idea thatthe peat soils in European Russia do not need organicfertilizers is erroneous. In this case, organic fertilizersare not only a source of plant nutrition but they arealso of importance in the maintenance of a positivecarbon and nitrogen balance and inhibit the biochem�ical decomposition of the organic matter in the peatsoils.

To bring sanding of drained peat soils into use. In thecountries of middle and western Europe, drained peatsoils do not burn not only because they are under aregulating bilateral water regime and under a cover ofperennial grasses but also due to the application ofmixed, mantle, or German mixed�layer sanding there

[3, 12, 26, 27]. Sanding partially or completely(depending on its kind) excludes the inflammation ofpeat soils (Fig. 3). Therefore, a project of meliorationshould provide sanding of drained peat soils. Sand onthe surface of these soils has a high thermal conductiv�ity and low thermal capacity [11, 28]; therefore, thetemperature of all the soil horizons increases, and themoisture becomes lower. Under conditions of themeadow type of water regime, this process is inhibitedto a great extent. The bilateral control of the waterregime reduces the decomposition of the peat organicmatter. Under this hydrological regime, the use ofsanding should be considered as an expedient proce�dure for the protection of drained peat soils againstfires and raising the fertility. In Russia, various meth�ods of sanding were known long ago [22, 24]; theywere mainly used in the European North in the1920s–1930s. Later on, sanding was not used in agri�culture on the drained peat soils.

Thus, for organic protection of drained peat soilsagainst fire, melioration projects should contain thefollowing complex of measures: (1) the creation andmaintenance of the water regime of the meadow typeunder bilateral regulation of the groundwater table;(2) the use of these soils for meadow grass cultivationwith rotations enriched in perennial grasses or long�term cultivation of meadow grasses with the followingdevelopment of high�productive stock breeding;(3) the application of complete doses of organic andmineral fertilizers and microfertilizers, the liming ofacid soils, and the plowing in of green mass, stubblyremains, and straw; and (4) the use of various sandingsfor the protection of peat soils against pyrogenic deg�radation.

The above�mentioned measures are necessary andsufficient in order to exclude the possibility of fires ondrained peatlands. They were verified by internationalpractice in the countries where drained peat soils areof great importance in the development of agriculture.Unfortunately, no protective measures were applied inRussia during several years after the Second WorldWar. In this connection, it is worth noting that the sug�gested system of melioration and agromelioration mea�sures will either protect organic soils against pyrogenicdegradation and fires and it will also inhibit the biochem�ical decomposition of their organic matter in the courseof long�term exploitation as meadows [2, 20].

Since the natural conditions of the Noncher�nozemic zone significantly differ in their climate, par�ent rocks, the reasons for waterlogging, and other fac�tors, in each project on the reclamation of peat soilsand the building of melioration systems, the above rec�ommendations should be introduced taking intoaccount the local features of the particular areas.Undoubtedly, these works will need additional finan�cial support. However, the latter is very small as com�pared to the enormous damage caused by regular dev�astating fires on drained peatlands. It is significant thatthe expenditures for the protection measures are

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Fig. 3. A scheme of the soil profiles using different methodsof sanding on drained peatlands: (a) black crop growing;(b) mixed sanding; (c) mantle (Rimpau) sanding; (d) Ger�man mixed layered sanding; 1—peat; 2—peat mixed withsand; 3—sand, loamy sand.



granted only once. Every year, the repeated fire fight�ing and liquidation of their consequences will requirebillions of rubles without any ecological–economiccompensation.

RECLAMATION AND USE OF PYROGENIC FORMATIONS

The peat soils burned to the mineral bottom of adrained peatland are impossible to restore, since thepyrogenic formations are weakly fertile or infertile.Nevertheless, their use in the economy is possible andexpedient. Let us consider this situation with theexample of poles’e territories. The latter are usuallycomposed of sands and have a shallow groundwatertable. One can recommend two approaches for the useof these territories. The first extensive approach con�sists in the use of the territories occupied by pyrogenicformations with a shallow groundwater table for thecreation of farms intended for breeding of waterfowl,the arrangement of ponds for fish farming and areasfor game keeping, tourist fishing, plantations of osierfor furniture, and fast�growing woody species for fuelusing particularly the experience of Austria andPoland.

The second intense approach consists in the cre�ation of new fertile mineral soils in the place of pyro�genic formations. This is a way of intense rehabilita�tion of fertile soils in places of devastating fires [8, 12].If poles’e landscapes with local burning and pyro�genic–mucky sandy formations are the objects for thereclamation, the following measures should be pro�vided: (1) raking up the material of the ash, carbon�aceous, and mucky horizons; (2) raising the hypso�metric level of the ground’s surface by earthening;(3) coulisse planning; (4) leveling of the filled materialof the ash, carbonaceous, and mucky horizons; (5) theapplication of small doses of loam (300–400 t/ha) intothe surface soil layers to increase the water�holdingcapacity; (6) the application of organic and mineralfertilizers and their plowing in; (7) the sowing ofgrasses and their plowing in; and (8) the sowing ofperennial grasses and their watering by sprinkling(including synchronous–impulse sprinkling) based onthe daily moisture deficit in the soils.

This complex of melioration and reclamation mea�sures will permit creating fertile mineral soils insteadof burned organic ones. Earlier, schemes of reclama�tion of other pyrogenic formations under differentnatural conditions were elaborated and published [9,16], and we will not consider the problems related totheir reclamation.

FIRE�CONTROL MEASURES AND RECLAMATION OF PYROGENIC FORMATIONS ON POLDER SYSTEMS

AND NATURAL PEATLANDS

The results obtained show that the territoriesexposed to fire are characterized by various soils—changed and unchanged by fire, drained and und�rained, and weakly fertile pyrogenic formations.Therefore, some of these areas require a complex ofmeasures for the prophylaxis of the fires and the resto�ration of the soil fertility. Projects aimed the protectionof peat soils against fire and their reclamation shouldbe based on the results of ground monitoring, aerialphotography, and cosmic images. The maps obtainedshould contain units reflecting the distribution of thesoil groups and pyrogenic formations (table).

ORGANIZATION PROBLEMS

Melioration, an integral part of agriculture, isdirected at the improvement of the soil properties, soilfertility, and stability of agricultural production. Now�adays in Russia, the area of reclaimed soils amounts toless than 5% of the total agricultural lands. In theUSA, the area of meliorated areas is more than 60%;in Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and Poland,50, 85, 100, and 40, respectively. In Belarus, 32% ofthe lands are reclaimed, i.e., every third hectare of theagricultural area.

In Russia, the soils of almost all the natural zonesrequire reclamation. The formation of agrarian pro�duction without any risk is possible only on this basis.Therefore, as the necessity of creating stable agricul�tural production irrelative of unfavorable natural con�ditions is evident, the problem of reconstructing themelioration service in Russia should be consideredand solved. The construction of melioration systemsmust be adequate to the environmental conditions,first of all to the properties and regimes of the soils,parent rocks, and the hydrological situation. In thiscase, the gross errors of the 1960s–1990s (the period ofmass building of melioration systems) should beescaped.

In our country, in the last twenty years, all the ele�ments of melioration systems were destroyed—melio�ration research and projecting, building and exploita�tion, and material support. The research institutes forreclamation and the experimental stations are in a dif�ficult state; nowadays, many of them do not exist. Inthis situation, the consolidation of efforts for the rees�tablishment of the reclamation service in Russia isnecessary. According to the example of Belarus, itshould be recognized to be expedient to restore theMinistry of Reclamation and Water Management andthe Ministry of Silviculture. The necessity of this solu�tion is confirmed by the agricultural practice in 2010not only in the forest zone of our country, where firesdestroyed considerable massifs of drained soils, but

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also in southern Russia, where, in the steppe and drysteppe zones, drought regularly damages vast areas ofcereals and other crops. If this organizational problemis positively solved, efficient agriculture can be devel�oped on the reclaimed fields, the lives of many peoplewill be preserved, and the soils and landscapes will besaved from full destruction. Presently, this problemdeserves both discussion and a rational solution.

One can conclude that, if all these proposals areimplemented in a complex and in due time, fires willbe rare or they will be absent in a short time period.This phenomenon will occur not because the pyro�genic degradation was stopped by people but onlybecause all the drained organic soils (that recentlyproduced considerable yields) will completely burnand their place will be occupied by infertile or weaklyfertile secondary pyrogenic formations.

REFERENCES

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Documents

The problem of fire control on drained peatlands and its solution