Natural Monument “Losovsky Forest”

The Institute of Biological Problems of the North proposes to create a specially protected area nearby the village of Snezhnaya Dolina - a natural monument of regional importance “LOSovsky forest”.

Planted trees of common pine, an honor of innovative experiment of 1958	Siberian spruce trees, brought from the river Yama, 1962

The territory proposed for SPNR (specially protected natural reservation) is located on lands previously occupied by the Forest Experimental Station (LOS). Few people remember about the work of LOS, the most important functions and tasks it performed. A brief history of LOS, as well as information on the work of the experimental station can be found  here.

The site proposed for SPNR includes 3 natural plant complexes of artificial and natural origin:

1. Planting of common pine - first in the region, existing since 1958

2. Group planting of fir-trees - Ayan, Siberian, European and their hybrid forms, planted in 1960-70. Beside spruces, plantings of other introduced trees, such as apples, Dahurian hawthorn, Siberian peashrub, Cotoneaster melanocarpus, are still preserved at this reservation.

3. The area of larch forest with undergrowth of Siberian dwarf pine adjacent to the cultural plantings.

The combination of artificially created evergreen conifers and deciduous larch forests of natural growth, including rare species, represent high ecological, cognitive and scientific value, significantly enriching our harsh northern nature.

Crowns of firs - a favorite habitat of the brown squirrel	Brown squirrel

The creation of SPNR implies the creation of an “ecological path” - a route, specially designed for the purposes of environmental education and training, with informational stands along it telling about the characteristics of vegetation and the general diversity of the local flora. The route can be visited independently and / or in organized excursions and demonstration lessons for schoolchildren, with the involvement of specialists in Botany and Ecology.

The environmental objectives for the creation of a specially protected natural reservation of ​​regional significance - the natural monument “LOSovsky forest” can be found  here.

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Amazing people of the North. "Farther Andrew".

Everyone knows that the North attracts special people. And it does not matter in what way somebody appeared in the North: by a twist of fate, the need of a heart or, perhaps, being lucky to be born here. Those who have spent many years here or have chosen the North “forever” rarely remain indifferent to this amazing land full of specific charm.

In the same way, random people rarely remain in science, especially the field science, where the most valuable data is often obtained in very difficult conditions.

The history of the development of northern science is directly related to these two circumstances, which gives it particular importance and interest. It is filled with the fate of remarkable scientists who selflessly dedicated themselves to the unexplored and complex northern territory.

One of such people who stood at the origins of the science development in the Northeast of our country was Andrei Aleksandrovich Mezhenny. This year, May 12, it would be his 100^th anniversary.

                           А.А. Mezhenny

He arrived in Magadan in the late 60s, as a member of the so-called "Yakut landing force" - people who formed the backbone of the emerging Institute of Biological Problems of the North.

Even in Yakutsk, he was called as “Father Andrew,” a nickname given to him by O.V. Egorov, being in charge of the Laboratory of Vertebrate Zoology and, a man who was not mistaken in matters of terminology. A. A. Mezhenny is still called “Father Andrew” in private conversations at the institute. This was facilitated both by a very colorful character and a special patronizing approach in communicating with colleagues.

Andrei Alexandrovich Mezhenny was born on May 12, 1919 in the village of Lyubytino of the Novgorod region in a family of the village teachers. Soon their family moved to Petrograd and lived in Lesnoy. Since childhood, he was fond of studying nature and participated in the study group of V.V. Bianki, where his friends were E.V. Bianki (illustrator, naturalist, daughter of V.V. Bianki), N.I. Sladkov (Russian Soviet writer-naturalist), A.A. Liverovsky (professor, forestry chemist, naturalist), J. Mellup (sculptor, master of monumental-decorative sculpture), O.I. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky (naturalist, Dr. of Biol. Sciences, one of the founders of the Lapland Nature Reserve, grandson of P.P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky). In 1938 he entered the University of Leningrad. He was a good skier, and in the winter of 1939, in formation of a ski company, he came to the front line of the “winter war”. During one of the attacks somewhere near Vyborg, he was wounded in the neck by a bullet of a Finnish rifleman.

From the memories of A.A. Mezheny: “... fell on the snow in front of a white shield, behind which sat a Finnish rifleman. I lay bleeding and began to freeze. Then I got up and walked toward our troops. I thought, let him shoot, I would die in any case... The Finnish soldier led the barrel in my direction, but did not shoot. "

A.A. Mezhenny got to the hospital, after recovery he continued his studies at LSU, but in July 1941 he again went to the front line. In August 1941, in the first battle under Strelna, he was seriously wounded by a bursting bullet in the leg. After prolonged treatment in the hospital, he again went to the front line, where again in the first battle he was wounded in the arm. As a result of this second injury, the hand was so crippled that Andrei Alexandrovich remained disabled for the rest of his life and after recovering to the end of the war, he worked as a forester in the Perm Region. After the war, having returned to Leningrad, he continued his study at the Vertebrate Zoology Department in LSU. Oleg Vasilyevich Egorov and Nikolay Nikolayevich Danilov were his course mates.

                                                                                                 photo from: http://pobeda.spbu.ru

Front-line picture, А.А. Мezhenny is rightward

After graduating from the University, he worked at the Pechora-Ilychsky Nature Reserve (until its closing), was an employee at the ornithological station ZIN in Rybachy (Rositten station) directed by Belopolsky. In 1954, he moved to Yakutsk, to the Institute of Biology of the Yakutsk Branch of the USSR AS, the Laboratory of O.V. Yegorov. The first wife of Andrei Alexandrovich was Germain Yanovna Mellup, a famous Leningrad sculptor (1919-1973); they had two sons - Ivan and Andrew.

In the early 1960s one of the field seasons Father Andrew spent on Lake Khair in the lower reaches of the Omoloy River, where he witnessed a manic search by geologists for the "monster" who allegedly lived in this lake. Then and later Father Andrew most actively fought against this kind of pseudo-scientific statements.

In May 1969, A.A. Mezhenny moved from Yakutsk to Magadan, where he worked in the Laboratory of Vertebrate Zoology under the guidance of O.V. Yegorov . In 1970, after the death of O.V. Egorov, he worked in the Laboratory of F.B. Chernyavsky, collecting and processing data on the population dynamics of voles and lemmings. He spent one or two field seasons on Chaun field station together with S. Leonov, and later worked on Wrangel Island together with G. Krasnoshchekov and other employees of the IBPS.

In 1974 he retired and settled in Lisy Nos near Leningrad, worked at the forestry farm, cultivating the dwarf pine. In 1978, he moved to "the watershed, Nikandrovo village, Lyubytinsky district, the Novogorod region. There he became a beekeeper obtaining his own apiary.

Andrei Aleksandrovich Mezhenny is a vivid example of the “northern explorer”. A born naturalist, a precise and thoughtful observer, a man who loves and feels nature. He was the one who mastered the North by the need of a heart. He is still remembered as a proud and straightforward man, distinguished by conscientiousness and intolerance to meanness. He is an example of a reliable friend and principled, true to himself man!

A. A. Mezhenny died in January 1990 of pneumonia in Sestroretsk. He was buried at the cemetery in Lisy Nos.

Information was provided by A.V. Andreev and A.V. Krechmar, friends and colleagues of A.A. Mezheny

Article issued in Nature

An article about the population history in North-Eastern Siberia from the late Pleistocene up to the present day (about 40,000 years) was published in Nature by the international group of scientists, with the participation of the experts from IBPN FEB RAS and NECRI FEB RAS .

The results showed a complex population dynamics during that period and allow identifying three main migration events: (1) the initial settlement of Northeastern Siberia by a previously unknown population of “ancient northern Siberians” that are genetically related to the Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers of Western Eurasia; (2) blending of this population with tribes of East Asian origin, which led to the formation of "ancient Paleo-Siberians" genetically close to some modern groups of the population of Northeast Asia (for example, Koryaks) and American Indians; (3) the integration of this population in the Holocene with the new migration wave from East Asia (which we called “Neo-Siberians”), resulted in formation of the main groups of the modern population of Siberia. Each of these migration waves led to almost complete replacement of the previous population, which determined the mosaic character of the genetic structure observed in modern populations of Siberia and America.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1279-z#article-info