Forest Life

I am here today to tell my audience all about a new phenomenon. And that phenomenon is... FOREST LIFE! I am so happy to begin by telling you what I know about my favorite forest. There are several different types of forests all over the world. One of my favorite forests is in the Urals of Russia. The Urals are a huge mountain chain that span all the way through western Russia, from the northernmost point, to the southernmost point. The Southern Urals are well-populated, visited by tourists, and fairly high. The Middle Urals have the lowest elevations, so most trains and roads pass through this area. The Northern Urals are higher, have fewer people, and have fewer passes. The Polar Urals are the highest and tend to be slightly more easterly than their fellow mountains. There are almost no people here, and those that do live there live in seclusion. The forests I will be talking about tend to be in the Northern Urals, and they are called the Virgin Komi forests.

The Virgin Komi forests are located in the northern Komi Republic of Russia. The Komi forests belong to the taiga region of the Ural mountains. Diverse flora and fauna can be seen in these forests and they are some of the most interesting animals in the world. Unfortunately, many of these species are endangered or threatened. The arctic fox, the Ural mink, the Ural elk,Siberian weasel, and the Russian otter are some of them. Roe deer, badgers, and polecats thrive in the Southern Urals, and other birds such as the nightingale and the oriole. The rivers of the Northern Urals are full of fish like the nelma, common salmon, grayling, and sea trout. Animal life is less abundant in the regions toward the south, because of dense population and the overhunting/overfishing of the late seventeenth century, which was responsible for the decline in animal population. Another forest in the Northern Urals is the Lunsky Grove forest. It is the northernmost forest extension in the world. Ary-Mas is the name of another forest in Russia, located along the Taymyr Peninsula. The name Ary-Mas means forest island. This forest is isolated on an island in the middle of a river that is frozen solid for nine months of the year. The vegetation period (the time when the temperature is warm enough for plants to grow) is approximately 100 days. Because it is so far north, and separated from the nearest forest by a stretch of tundra 200 miles wide, the trees that grow there, called Dahurian Larch, are 5-7 feet tall. There are about 20 mammal species, 90 bird species, and 306 species of plants fouind in the Ary-Mas forest.

The Ary-Mas, Lunsky Grove, and Ural forests are all located in the Northern Ural mountains of Russia. They all contain very unique species of plants and animals that can only survive in their harsh climates. I enjoy learning about these forests because I love enjoying the natural beauty that has been preserved through these forests. They are some of the last landscapes on earth that still remain untouched by human civilization.

LILLY