EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Habitats and Border Tension

Grasslands and woodlands
Khasan (sometimes spelled Hassan) Rion, Far East Russia

Explanation:  Sometimes conservation can inadvertently benefit from cultural and military tension along international borders.

This week we are visiting a location seldom seen even by locals.  This is extreme Far East Russia at the meeting of three international borders.  A stone's throw to the west is China and a river's wade to the south is North Korea.  We are formally in Khasan Rion ("rion" is roughly the same as a county in the U.S.), in Primorski Krai ("krai" is roughly the same as a state in the U.S.). 

I arrived here after 2 day's travel from Vladivostok in southern Primorski Krai.  My wonderful Russian hosts, another American team member, and I boarded a large, high-speed, passenger-only ferry out of Vladivostok that cut across Amur Bay -- the ferry can run only on calm seas, because it has a "flying keel" that acts like an airfoil beneath the surface, whereby the entire boat rises up out of the water at speed.  

We docked across the bay at the marine port town of Slavyanka, met by Russian team members in the giant Russian lorry truck, who had to spend a day driving around the Bay to meet us (the ferry does not take vehicles).  We are well past the end point of the Trans-Siberian Express.
  

Roads of this region are few, unpaved, and generally require four-wheel drive.

From there, we drove south and west, at one point reaching the extreme tip of Gamov Peninsula to explore a patch of rare and little-studied grave pines (Pinus funebris, sometime denoted as the variety Pinus densiflora var. funebris) along the coastline of the Far-Eastern State Marine Preserve.

From there, our drive, all on unimproved mud roads, took us to the port villages of Zarubino and Posyet, along Posyet Bay ... then into the village of Kraskino along Expedicia Inlet ... 
  

The amazing floodplains and wet grasslands of Khasan Rion!
Over the years, the region has seen several invasions and battles
between Japan, Russia, Korea, and China.  

... and finally down to the Tumen River (Tumanaya Ryeka; "tumen" means fog, as this area commonly experiences dense, damp fog conditions) along the border with China in the hills to the west, and the North Korean border at mid-river.  Perhaps the fog has aided the escape of some North Korean refugees along the Tumen River corridor, as that is a known route.  
  

Hiding in fog, here is where China and North Korea meet the Russian Far East.
It is a border where military eyes vigilantly watch for incursion.
Yet it is a land of white-naped cranes and other wildlife, dotted by
fresh-water lakes, deserving of international protection.

International tensions run high along these borders, but here persist amazing and extensive coastal floodplains, wetlands, and woodlands ... in part conserved by the lack of settlements due to such tensions.  It is ironic that, at times, conservation of native environments is due to such tensions.  It is a precarious situation, but I viewed it as an opportunity for some day developing international peace parks.
  

We are standing in Russia, looking at woodlands that straddle the border with China. 
These woodland patches consist mostly of Daimyo oaks (Quercus dentata), the only
place where they are found in Russia.  Most sources do not even list Russia as part of
their distributional range, but here is proof.
 

This border region provides habitat for some amazing wildlife, some found nowhere else in Russia, such as the Oriental fire-bellied toad, the Oriental tiger snake, and the deadly mamushi.
  

Of concern to Russians is the over-exploitation of these woodland and grassland 
resources by the Chinese.   

A proposed project will have this region developed as a trade-free zone.

But may this region remain mostly undeveloped, and its fragile landscapes conserved for their rare and incredible plants and animals.

Acknowledgment:  My sincere thanks to my Russian hosts, especially Sergei Ganzei, for having hosted me and arranged this most incredible expedition.  This work entailed multiple visits to Russia and China during the 1990s as part of a trinational team to help develop a land-use plan for sustainable use of natural resources.