Forestry farming - restoration of ruined lands

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The first and only forest farmer in Russia, Gusman Minlebaev, is converting depleted land into forest land.

When planting a forest of 100 hectares, you can contact the Committee for Geodesy and Cartography with a request to name the forest. And experts will put the name of the forest on the map. Gusman Minlebaev wants to name his forest after his mother - Razia. Until his wish was fulfilled, he had nothing left: to annoy another 20 hectares of trees. And he already has 80 hectares of forest.

Guzman plans to plant the 20 hectares necessary for the name of the forest, including one of the most beautiful trees - Amur velvet. Actually, the thickets of Amur velvet in his forest are already considerable, but Guzman loves this tree for its medicinal properties. Its berries are very useful for the prevention of diabetes. And the beneficial substances of the bark correspond to a complex of antibiotics. Gusman plans to collect in buckets the precious berries of the Amur velvet in the vicinity of the thickets of Manchurian aralia, horse chestnut, pavia, hazel, thickets of walnuts, ailantholus, Manchzhur, gray, black, Lancaster, under the crowns of yellow pine, Siberian, Korean and Korean … When experts put the forest named after Guzman's mother on the map and indicate the tree species growing in it, they will certainly be surprised. All these types of vegetation grow on the American continent or the Korean Peninsula, but certainly not among the sands and stones of the steep and yellow shores of the cold Kama, where the view rather resembles a Martian landscape. Isn't this fantastic?

“Friends joke that if a piece of gold falls from the sky, then it will be on my finger,” laughs Guzman. Then he becomes serious and admits that he decided to plant and grow this wonderful forest during the nights in the hospital sleepless from excruciating pains. Then he came up with the idea of calling him after his mother.

Ginseng like parsley

The diagnosis, which put Gusman Minlebaev in a hospital bed for three years, was bleak: radiation sickness. Guzman was on alert near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant at the moment when a terrible disaster occurred at the nuclear power plant in 1986. For three long years in a hospital ward in front of Guzman, 30 people died, suffering, like him, from radiation sickness.

Doctors, looking at the notes and books on Guzman's bedside table, called him the most cheerful patient and set him up as an example to other patients. And Guzman, as he believes, was helped to survive by the goal that appeared in life. He could not work in his former specialty, which was related to radio engineering. So, while he was in the hospital, Guzman began to study forestry literature to make his dream come true.

And what is strange: his parents were not even particularly fond of gardening. Guzman himself was associated with technology all his life. But the dream of the forest did not appear just like that. It became a consequence of the vital need for medicinal plants: lemongrass, ginseng, aralia, eleutherococcus. And then I was lucky: next to the hospital there was an institute of agriculture with a large and good library. Guzman borrowed books there. He was interested in learning the details about medicinal herbs, which terminally ill people are ready to come up with magical properties. When his condition improved and the doctors let Guzman go home for a visit, he drove on the Oka to his parents' dacha near Kazan and spent hours digging in the ground. The first ginseng root he cultivated turned out to be slightly better than parsley in its qualities. Guzman found a way out. The fallen leaves of Manchurian walnut and aralia collected in botanical gardens and arboretums were taken to their beds. Three years later, the ginseng grown by him began to match the Far East. It was then that Guzman came to the conclusion: to grow ginseng and other effective medicinal herbs, you need to plant a forest. And not just a forest, as outside the city outskirts, but a special forest.

Witch

After studying the relevant laws, he found that they allow you to get a plot of depleted, so-called waste, or killed, land for farming. He found such a site on the banks of the Kama River, 50 kilometers from Elabuga and 300 kilometers from his native Kazan. The average slope of the site ranged from 5 to 15 degrees. The entire fertile layer from it was washed off into the river, since it was plowed up earlier from the bottom up. Most of the site was occupied by ravines. On this waste land, where even birds did not sit down, but only vipers crawled, on this land scorched by the sun and fertilizers, from which the passengers of motor ships sailing along the Kama even averted their eyes, Guzman promised to plant a forest of valuable food crops. In 1999, the administration of the Elabuga region of Tatarstan handed over 500 hectares of this killed land on the banks of the Kama River to Gusman Minlebaev. But she set a tough condition: if in three years the desert remains a desert, the land will be taken away from him. The disabled person, whom the doctors predicted a quick death, accepted the condition.

Three years later, a delegation of regional officials with foresters and foresters arrived on the bank of the Kama. At that time, the following grew on the site: walnut, bear nut (it has valuable wood and does not grow anywhere else on the Kama), tree hazel (three centners of nuts can be collected from one tree), Manchurian pear (in addition to fruits, it gives valuable wood), velvet Amur, persimmon, aralia …. The prudent Guzman guessed to invite the director of the Raifsky arboretum of the Volzhsko-Kamsky reserve and a forensic expert on biological expertise on this journey around his site. They confirmed to the commission not only the breeds and species themselves, but also testified that the plants have taken root here. The guests looked around the plantings, realized that a lot of work had been done. The specialists, however, said that the work done was not just great, but simply extraordinary. The district officials here, on this formerly depleted land suitable for a garbage dump, immediately shamed their foresters and foresters. They ask for money every year, but here a man and his wife are planting a forest on abandoned land, and even Amur velvet has begun to grow! And his nut is growing! And even persimmon! Foresters and foresters crumpled in front of the formidable authorities, looked at each other and … said about Guzman what was customary to say about such people a thousand years ago: "This Guzman is a sorcerer!"

“All my witchcraft is here,” the emotional Guzman tapped himself on the forehead.

Moss for walnut

Today, walking in the shade of his trees, the owner of the forest can calmly laugh at the nickname given to him. And then, to magically transform the dead land into living, he first shed sweat on foreign lands. Having received a plot on the banks of the Kama, Guzman wrote an advertisement in agricultural magazines in West Germany asking him to be hired as a farm laborer. He is a former captain of the Soviet army, a farmer, owner of so many hectares, wants to work as a laborer for the Germans to study their farming methods. He was especially interested in the farm where medicinal plants are grown. This advertisement was printed among others - for the sale of tractors and horses. And letters came - a bunch! Guzman, who had gained experience, returned from Germany with the main conclusion: one should not rush and chase profit.

Today, the border of the onset of heat in the Middle Volga region is growing by 12-14 kilometers every year. For the future forest, it is necessary to plant heat-loving species in advance. Guzman grew seedlings for his future forest at his parents' dacha. Most of the seeds and seedlings with the appropriate certificates, he ordered from abroad. For thermophilic trees, the first three years are important. Therefore, inside his nursery, he kept the level of snow three times higher than that of his neighbors. For this he planted bushes and trees as a fence. Guzman covered the crops of his future forest for the winter with an advertising banner from a store. He set up a brick cellar in the garden, which he carefully covered with moss from the inside. In moss, walnut seeds do not get sick and give good germination. Guzman has a special attitude to nuts. Walnut restores soil fertility better than all other plants. Back in sleepless nights at the hospital, Guzmán calculated that the state was unable to rebuild the depleted land in the way it is doing it now. Even the total manure of the Republic of Tatarstan is not enough to restore the fertility of its land. Therefore, having decided to restore his site with the help of forest reclamation, he was looking for trees that give the largest mass of fallen leaves. Among them were trees from the walnut family. And most of the walnut trees belong to the species listed in the Red Book. This is even beneficial for Guzman. You don't have to pay taxes. He also came up with this when he was lying in the ward for the terminally ill.

Hawks and eagles

Since autumn, on the banks of the Kama, Guzman prepared the beds, and in April he skied to the southern slope of his site and planted seedlings along the theodolite. First he planted the tops of all the ravines. Then their edges. I planted the forest perpendicular to the ravines so that they would not grow further. He had no buildings on the site, he left the car on the highway, spent the night in roadside motels or in a tent on the slope of a ravine. I followed the growth of my plantings more than my three children. Gradually, sod appeared on the ravines, the slopes began to be covered with grass, new collapses stopped appearing. Previously, water oozed in ravines only until May, and the springs dried up by mid-June. And now there is water all summer long. Water stopped flowing into the Kama, but began to penetrate into the soil and replenish the aquatic horizons and springs. It was they who fed the forest planted by Guzman. In total, 14 springs have started working. He planted some of them with oak trees, for the acorns of which he specially went to Chuvashia, where ancient, "tribal" trees remained. Each of these oak trees is included in the international register. Of these, Peter I built his fleet. Close to these oaks are not allowed, acorns are given from them reluctantly, and only those that the foresters themselves collect. But Guzman managed to break through and independently choose and collect the acorns he needed.

While still in the hospital, Guzman decided to plant trees in forest belts, which run in rows along the slope, and alternate them with different species so that the varieties would not be pollinated by one species. These forest belts will not only stop soil erosion, but also contribute to the emergence of meadow vegetation. And so it all happened.

As soon as the area on the site "came to life", Guzman began a struggle with intruders. The invasion of vipers has begun! In the early years of his work, he even adapted to making soups for himself from snakes caught on his site. But the main trouble was not the vipers. A lot of mice appeared. And they are the primary carriers of any infection, including ticks. "I will not let my children and grandchildren into your forest!" - said his wife, but Guzman during his sleepless nights in the hospital foresaw this too. Mice must be exterminated by birds of prey! On spruces and pines, Guzman began to make nests from old car tires. He cut off the top, put on a rubber circle of the bead from the KamAZ wheel and bent the branches over it. In such "advanced" nests, hawks began to settle, including sparrowhawks. Two white-tailed eagles once settled. Even representatives of the Wildlife Fund came to see this miracle. Hares and wild boars entered the new forest lands, and even moose appeared. But now the residents of the surrounding villages and towns have looked after the transformed picnic area.

Take the land

The perimeter of its site includes the Kama bank and two deep ravines. Ravines converge tops. Between the ravines Guzman plowed a deep furrow, dug metal posts - here, they say, is the border of a private forest. Often he found traces of uninvited guests next to them: debris, broken bumpers, dark spots of engine oil spilled onto the ground. Sometimes I found the guests themselves, with whom I had to enter into verbal skirmishes. True, they could not always recognize in a person in dirty and shabby clothes the owner of the forest.

To be honest, Guzman himself would not have believed, if someone had told him twenty years ago, that he would become the first forest farmer in Russia and a preacher of transferring waste lands into ownership so that they could be planted with aralia and sequoia. Guzman measures his forest with steps and says: “The legislation allows it. But not all local administrations are ready to do this. This is too unusual. And the law departments of agricultural and forestry universities do not teach their students the possibility of private work in the forestry sector. There are laws in this regard, but there is no interpretation of them!"

Guzman has small double nurseries in the Mari Republic, in the Tver region. Recently he was invited to the Kirov region to share his experience. And he is invited to read lectures and talk about his business in all major cities of Russia. People turn to Guzman for advice: how to write an application for obtaining waste land as property, how to grow a forest, how to deal with officials. The benefits of this business are undoubted, well, if only because one adult tree provides oxygen to 50 people. Guzman now has more than 10 thousand trees. In an area where many chemical plants operate, he provided oxygen to half a million people.

There is also a material benefit for a private logger. For example, when joining the Kyoto Forests project, a private person who has created cages with an area of at least 150 hectares of his forest at the age of 20-25 has the opportunity to receive about 15 thousand USD from the organizers and managers of the project. for carbon deposited by plantings from the atmosphere. And the work done increases the price of the site. And every year the cost of the territory will increase due to the cost of the increase in timber, the cost of the work performed and the cost of increasing soil fertility. Guzman proudly says that state institutions have recognized his activities as nature conservation, that he has created a valuable private collection of natural objects from valuable foreign-regional woody plants, including medicinal ones, in the Middle Volga region. His introduction collection was recognized for medicinal and economic properties and the ability to create forests in the Middle Volga region to obtain new types of valuable wood. But the greatest significance of the Guzman forest is that green areas have been created in an ecologically unfavorable area with a high concentration of industries. With undisguised pleasure, Guzman looks around his forest and recalls the assessments of his work: “They say it's fantastic! And why? We are not used to this! But you have to get used to it! Such as mine can be created everywhere on waste lands!"

For yourself and for Russia

According to Guzman, his experience is the only thing that can preserve and revive Russia's forest wealth. Honored Forester of Russia, Chief Researcher of SPbNIILKh, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Professor Igor Shutov was the first in academic circles to recognize the useful and promising activities of a forester from Kazan.

Minlebaev's reports on the role of forests in the restoration of water bodies were noticed by Russian water managers and even sent specialists to him to learn from the experience. And recently, Cossacks from the Don came to him. They have fires, Don dries up. Minlebaev advised them to plant black walnut as fire-fighting forest belts. There is phenol in its leaves, and when they fall off, weeds do not grow under them. And the fire spreads over the weeds.“Right from the nursery, the Cossacks dug two large beds of black walnut and took them to save the Don,” says Guzman and proudly demonstrates the place from which the salvation of the great Russian river will begin. Here are just the beds with planted ginseng and other valuable medicinal plants, for which he began to plant the forest, Guzman will never show anyone to anyone. Even my wife. The hunt is already under way for this gold storeroom of his.

Therefore, we carefully walk past green spaces, where not a single leaf, despite the heat, has a yellow speck. Guzman lovingly lists the names of shrubs and trees, speaks of his desire to plant 2,000 hectares of forest for the rest of his life (and then help with forests and Australia!) And suddenly remembers two plugged boreholes. In the early 70s of the last century, here, on the banks of the Kama, they were looking for oil. Metal pipe mouths with tablets serve for Guzman not only as a landmark in the growing forest, but also as a symbol that our wealth is not only in oil. Without oil, Guzman managed to make this piece of waste land practically gold-bearing. Already several times he refused tempting offers to build cottages for foreign tourists in his forest on the banks of the Kama. Guzman's eldest son, Marat, regularly sends him clippings from foreign magazines, which tells about foreign loggers, and carefully hints how the grown wood could be used. But Minlebaev does not involve his children in his affairs. To the heirs, Guzman announced his decision about the forest he had grown. For every healthy grandchild who will live to be 3 years old, he bequeaths 200 hectares of land with forest - on condition that the grandson is given to him for upbringing. And he will teach them how to legally grow a couple of hundred hectares of forest for themselves and for Russia.

And he also came up with this will when he was in the hospital, sentenced to death.

Evgeny Rezepov