How can you legally extract driftwood in Russia? Bog wood is a valuable ornamental, structural and building material Who owns the firewood in the river

In the late 70s of the last century, the pages of American publications flew around the story of the builder George Goodwin from Florida. His life was radically changed by chance: Goodwin, building a house for himself, wanted to build “something like that” in it, and one day his fisherman friend, instead of fish, brought him a pine log that had lain in the water for several decades as a gift. Goodwin was struck by the high quality of the wood, and he also realized that there were other connoisseurs of this material.

George invested $100,000 to buy a plot of land along the river bank and started catching logs, cleaning them, drying them, and selling them. His business is thriving to this day, bringing in $3 million a year. Now his company produces products from stained pine (parquet, furniture) that adorn hotels, galleries, universities in America, as well as homes and offices. famous people, including musician Paul McCartney and designer Ralph Lauren.

According to rough estimates by Russian scientists (no one will name the exact figure, since large-scale exploration work in this direction was not carried out - it is too expensive), more than 38.6 million m 3 of sunken and flooded wood rest at the bottom of Russian water bodies. However, so far none of the Russians has become as famous as Goodwin, and companies that are professionally and consistently engaged in the extraction and processing of driftwood (as a rule, this is wood sunk during mole alloys) can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Why is the mining of bog forest not being developed in Russia? And whether this business is profitable in the conditions of our country, we figured it out together with leading experts and scientists dealing with this problem.

Figures and facts about stained wood

According to the Central Research Institute of Timber Rafting, during the transportation of harvested raw materials, up to 1% of the alloyed volume sinks in water. For example, in the Volga basin, according to scientists, about 9 million m 3 of wood was flooded, in the Yenisei River - 7 million m 3, in the Ob and Irtysh basins - 6.5 million m 3. By preliminary assessment, from 30 to 50% of sunken wood is industrial (moreover, over 25% is coniferous, and about 5% is oak, the most valuable material). However, according to experts, wood of all species, which has not turned into dust, has value. Wood, which has been aged in water for decades, is a unique raw material for the production of decorative, building materials, technological chips, high-quality charcoal (200-300 kg of coal is obtained from one cubic meter of firewood). Mineralization of wood occurs in water, it becomes stronger, and with proper processing it acquires the strength of a stone. It does not rot, a bug does not start in it, and products made from such material are eternal.

But there is another side of the coin. Russian ecologists are sounding the alarm: the driftwood resting at the bottom has a detrimental effect on the state of the reservoir and its inhabitants. It releases phenol and mercaptans, displaces oxygen and thus causes fish to die. On Internet forums, stories are told about how foreigners (in one case it was about the Japanese, in another about the Finns, in the third about the Chinese) wanted to take on the cleaning of Russian rivers from driftwood and were ready to do it for free, however, provided that they take all the “catch” for themselves, but the local authorities did not give the go-ahead for such work. To be fair, it must be said that Lately the state begins to take measures to clean the rivers from driftwood. Not so long ago, on the Baikal Info portal, with reference to the Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the region, Oleg Kravchuk, a message appeared that they plan to build a fuel processing plant on the site of the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill. Since 2010, the transport company RusHydro has been cleaning the reservoir of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP from fuel oil, and its volume in the water area has decreased by almost two thirds - from 730 to 281 thousand m 3. Due to the poor quality of the wood, it is immediately disposed of, and in a very original way: it is covered with a layer of earth and gravel, and then sown with grass. However, this is only a drop in the ocean on the scale of our country. Scientists and enthusiasts have been thinking for several years how to make the extraction of driftwood attractive for business and thereby clean up water bodies from industrial waste(this is the official status of the drifter).

Toplyak is a delicate matter

Alexander Dupanov, director of GODO "Trans-Center" (Gomel, Belarus), which since 1998 has been engaged in the extraction and processing of natural bog oak on an industrial scale, witnessed a real boom in the extraction of bog timber. According to him, in the 90s of the twentieth century, many entrepreneurs tried to organize a business in this area, but they wanted to do it quickly, without significant investments, without involving highly qualified specialists. As a result, thousands of cubic meters of valuable material were mediocrely destroyed.

On the Internet, even now you can find many offers for the sale of bog timber, but, according to Alexander Alexandrovich, the overwhelming majority of these are one-time offers and, as a rule, entrepreneurs do not guarantee the shipment of material in the declared volume, and even more so of the declared quality.

“There are only a few enterprises in the post-Soviet space that can provide the entire cycle - from the extraction of firewood and its processing to the production of finished high-quality material. A number of companies simply do not have proven technologies, Mr. Dupanov says. - In addition, when organizing production, they do not take into account that the funds received from the sale of dry bog wood do not cover the long-term costs of producing high-quality material. For example, in order to obtain 100 m 3 of high-quality dry bog oak, it is necessary to find, extract and process at least 1000 m 3 of firewood.

Extraction and processing of stained wood is a complex and lengthy process. First you need to conduct reconnaissance, draw up maps of the location of the flooded wood. To do this, specialists have to explore 300-400 km of the river, then scuba divers get down to business - they go down to a depth of 30 m to find the exact location of the flooded forest. Sunken trunks must be brought ashore (and in such a way that they are not damaged), carefully transported, sorted and processed. Experts say that bog wood is a very capricious material, it can lose its properties after lying in the open air for several hours.

According to Vladimir Pushkarev, head of the Samrat company, which is engaged in the extraction and processing of driftwood, several million dollars must be invested in the business in order to engage in stained wood at an industrial level. “The extraction of stained raw materials is fraught with risk. It is necessary to create a team of like-minded people. And those who hope to get rich quick in this business will be disappointed, he says. - Our company is engaged in the extraction of firewood not for the sake of extracting huge profits and enrichment, but because we like this business. To do this, you have to be a fan."

Good log - for the price of a car

Arkady Arakelyan in the late 1980s worked as the manager of a large construction trust, which carried out its own logging operations and included timber processing enterprises. When about 10 million m 3 of melted wood was found in the area of ​​the Gulf of Ob (something sank during the rafting, something during the ice drift), then, according to Arkady Arakelyan, there were several attempts to extract this wood from the bottom of the bay, but none one was unsuccessful: the costs were incommensurable with the result obtained.

“The best quality logs are usually found at the very bottom of the wood lying on the bottom, and in order to get them, you must first remove the entire top layer. Mostly it is dust, but you also need to manage to get the lower logs so as not to damage them. Yes, and pulling it out is still half the battle, the most difficult thing is to bring the extracted wood to the place of processing, - the specialist shares his experience. - In the water column, it did not come into contact with air, and after rising to the surface, it begins to crack. When we first brought the wood raised from the bottom for processing, we constantly moistened it with water, the second time - in a specially equipped aquarium. And still they didn't deliver everything. But it still needs to be sawn in its raw form, and then also competently dried. ”

Arkady Arakelyan confirms the words of Alexander Dupanov: the useful output was very small. For a good log, according to Mr. Arakelyan, in Soviet time they gave several thousand rubles (then you could buy a car for that kind of money). But even such a high price for the material obtained did not cover the costs of its extraction and processing. The management of the construction trust, where Arkady Arakelyan worked, considered the business unprofitable, and the work was stopped.

Today, the range of prices for stained wood is very wide. The cost of stained wood depends on many factors: species, its condition and quality, shipping conditions ... For example, 1 m 3 of stained birch is offered at a price of 2 to 15 thousand rubles, 1 m 3 of stained pine - 3-20 thousand rubles. rub., 1 m 3 larch - 4-15 thousand rubles, 1 m 3 stained aspen - 1.5-15 thousand rubles. The widest range of prices for bog oak: 1 m 3 of oak board can cost $200 or $30,000, the cost of an untreated log is from $500 to $3000.

"Expected that average price 1 m 3 of bog oak in solid trunks in 2014 will amount to 3,300 euros, and high-quality dry material - from 6 to 150 thousand euros, - Alexander Dupanov shares his forecasts. - But in order to sell a product at such a price, many conditions must be met: it must have excellent consumer qualities. The price below the market should alert a potential buyer. This may mean that the seller is either engaged in illegal mining of raw materials, or he accidentally got it. Moreover, in both the first and second cases, there is a high probability that the material has been in contact with air for a long time (which is detrimental to it), and could also be repeatedly dried and re-immersed in water (it is difficult to obtain high-quality dry material from such raw materials).”

Efficient way to extract driftwood for small rivers

A mechanical engineer from Barnaul, Vladimir Nevsky, devoted more than one year to finding an economically viable method of mining, transporting and transshipping sunken wood on small rivers (mole rafting was often carried out precisely on small, non-navigable rivers). And found it! Vladimir Alexandrovich developed the design of a small-sized floating crane - a mobile and compact unit that can pass where other equipment is beyond its power. The invention of Mr. Nevsky has been repeatedly tested on the small rivers of the Altai Territory.

“Blood littered both small and navigable rivers, where high-performance floating cranes can be used for mining. However, the costs of searching for logs scattered across the underwater expanses of rivers, their extraction, transportation and transshipment will be incommensurable with the end result. But on small rivers it is easier. There are driftwood logs in pooling pits, near the rifts of narrow streams, and it will not be difficult for a professional riverman to find them, ”says Mr. Nevsky.

The idea of ​​developing underwater deposits captivated Vladimir Nevsky back in 1992. Then he managed to gather a group of enthusiasts who, armed with archival information about timber rafting, set off on a voyage along the rivers of the Altai Territory. They determined the volumes of sunken timber, compiled pilot charts, plotted roads and maps on diagrams and maps. settlements. But when they began to calculate how much money needed to be spent to raise the forest out of the water, they realized that an attractive idea resulted in a difficult economic task.

According to Vladimir Nevsky, such common methods of mining sunken mole alloy wood on small rivers as diving, trawling from the shore, firstly, are ineffective, secondly, labor-intensive, thirdly, not always possible in difficult-to-reach coastal areas and, fourthly, they are economically unjustified. And the use of high-performance floating cranes, according to the expert, is impossible on small rivers due to the lack of fairway sizes that allow the use of such equipment.

“The domestic industry produces fuel-lifting units LS 65 and LS 41. But the cost of these units exceeds several million rubles. In addition, due to their large dimensions, they cannot be used on small rivers. But the operation of a floating crane with minimal dimensions is possible where a sparrow is knee-deep: on reservoirs with a fairway width of 4.5 m and a depth of 30 cm.

According to Nevsky's calculations, with the help of such a floating crane, 700-900 m 3 of driftwood can be mined per month. The productivity of the floating crane depends on the depth of the reservoir and the degree of silting of the logs. The consumption of diesel fuel for lifting the fuel oil, transportation at a distance of up to 50 km and transshipment to vehicles - 1500 kg / month. The average cost of 1 m 3 of raw materials is 550-600 rubles. (including lifting, transportation, transshipment and loading onto a timber truck), and the average price of round timber today is about 3 thousand rubles. “So judge for yourself whether it is profitable to engage in this business or not,” says Vladimir Alexandrovich.

How it works?

According to experts, the volume of annually floating wood at the Boguchansky reservoir will be up to 1 million m 3 per year

According to Vladimir Nevsky, there are no tricks and tricks in managing a floating crane. The unit moves along the reservoir with the help of deck winches, the cables of which are fixed to the coastal supports (natural or artificial). The so-called bottom trawl (like a heavy rake) is attached to the floating crane, which, when the crane moves, rakes everything that is at the bottom of the reservoir. When the resistance to the movement of the floating crane reaches the limit, it returns to the trawl and lifts everything assembled onto its deck. The raised wood is formed into a bundle. After the formation of a bundle of 10-15 ridges, a pontoon is attached to it. A beam with a fixed pontoon is dropped into the water and towed by a boat to the transshipment site, where it is lifted by a log hauling winch to the coastal warehouse and disbanded.

A big plus of this technology is also that the raised log is not immediately sent to the shore, but is in the water, being tied over the side of the floating crane. Vladimir Alexandrovich says that this helps to avoid the so-called caisson disease - cracking of logs.

“The log lifted from the depth seems to boil, clicks are heard. The gases contained in the wood, which has lain at the depth of the reservoir, where the pressure is higher than atmospheric, with a rapid rise can break it, - says Mr. Nevsky. “In addition, the crane swings during operation, the logs attached to it are in motion and thus washed from silt and sand.”

It is possible to deliver a floating crane to the place of work by towing along the river or by an ordinary truck without any approval from the traffic police, it fits into the road dimensions. And he gathers in three or four hours by the forces of three or four people. Vladimir Nevsky says he had experience joint work as with public organizations, and with scientific institutions, but neither the first nor the second wanted to develop his business.

“There were several meetings with potential investors, but they, as a rule, were interested in the final result, they demanded all the information up to the developed business plan, which takes into account all tax deductions, accounting calculations, investment risks... This work requires different knowledge and approaches than the work of a designer,” says Vladimir Aleksandrovich.

We determine the quality and quantity of firewood blindly

Implementation of the inventions of Alexander Rozhentsov, Ph.D. Alexander Pavlovich developed and patented two devices in Rospatent. The first helps to detect sunken wood under water (with limited visibility and even in its complete absence) and accurately point the load-gripping mechanism at it. The second device is designed to determine the hardness of sunken wood by the density of the structure: dust - firewood, conditionally hard - business. That is, in order to determine the quality of the driftwood, it is not necessary to raise it to the surface, and this is a serious saving of time and money.

“Both devices are quite simple, so their cost is low. Moreover, in order to use these devices, no additional equipment is needed, the scientist says. “The devices are installed directly on the jaws of the load-handling clamshell mechanism.”

At one time, Alexander Pavlovich defended his dissertation "Improving the processes of searching and evaluating accumulations of sunken wood at timber-rafting water bodies." The results of the research were used in the production at the timber enterprises of the Republic of Mari El: JSC "Mari Pulp and Paper Mill", woodworking plant "Zarya", State Enterprise "Mari timber merchant", JSC "Kozmodemyanskaya rafting office".

“With the help of the invented devices, the firewood was raised twice. True, bog oak was not found, but for me the main thing was to confirm the viability of the devices, which was done,” says Alexander Rozhentsov. According to Alexander Pavlovich, the firewood raised during the first tests was sold to the population for firewood, and the one that was raised during the second test was transferred to Mariysky PPM, where it was processed into corrugated cardboard and toilet paper. At that time, there was no suitable woodworking enterprise in the Republic of Mari El, where it would be possible to properly process the raised firewood.

“In our republic, now the extraction of driftwood, in fact, is not carried out. Previously, this was done by timber enterprises that were engaged in rafting, - says Mr. Rozhentsov. - However, at present, almost all large timber enterprises have gone bankrupt. Small private entrepreneurs are trying to do something, but they lack experience and special tools.”

According to Alexander Pavlovich, the raising of the driftwood is an urgent and profitable business. But in order to seriously engage in it and achieve success, you need to strictly follow the technology, without missing a single stage: invest money not only in the extraction of raw materials, but also in exploration, quality processing material. According to Alexander Rozhentsov, most of those involved in the extraction of flooded wood, trying to save money, do not follow the technological chain. The scientist says that he was approached more than once by enterprising fellow citizens who wanted to buy maps of sunken wood in the Republic of Mari El, but no one came with an offer to invest in exploration work.

“From a business point of view, this business certainly has prospects. After all, stained wood is ten times more expensive than freshly cut wood, and if you sell it not just in logs or boards, but make some kind of product out of it (furniture, home accessories, souvenirs), you can develop quite well, - Mr. Rozhentsov believes. - There are a lot of rich people in Russia who are ready to pay for furniture made of stained wood, especially oak, and it would be much more profitable for these people to buy it here than to bring it from overseas. Yes, and we must take into account that in Europe the stocks of stained wood are exhausted.

Marina SHEPOTILO

Geoffro Witto
creates his sculptures from driftwood found on the ocean coast

James Doran-Webb
originally from the UK, but for the last 20 years he has been living in the Philippines. From branches thrown by the sea, he makes graceful creatures.

Bog oak wood is considered the most expensive in the world. A simple frame for a small photo from this natural material can cost hundreds of rubles. Furniture made of material conserved by nature itself can only be afforded the richest people planets. In our country, there are impressive reserves of this wood, there are technologies for its extraction and processing. That's just the extraction of a valuable resource is often illegal and goes beyond the budget. Why is this happening?

Raising an oak tree from the bottom of a river is not an easy task. The trunk can weigh up to 4-6 tons

Chair for the price of a car

There are dozens of ads on the Internet for the sale of bog oak products. For example, a slab of this wood (a sawn trunk or, simply, an unedged board) is traded at $440 per linear meter. The simplest coffee table is offered for $1,700, and a more powerful TV console for $6,300. A decorative book rack will cost an immodest $3,400. For a square meter of floor board or wall panel, you will have to pay about $ 700. A bar 20x5x5 cm can be bought for 10-15 dollars. There are more radical proposals on our market. For each cubic meter of round timber, they ask for 2-4 thousand euros. And there are buyers.

Bog oak is a unique material, the creation of which nature has spent millennia. In those days, when mammoths walked around the planet, a mighty tree grew on the banks of the river. The water washed away the shore, the oak fell to the bottom. It was covered in silt. For thousands of years, it has been "stained" under exceptional conditions, with little or no access to oxygen. As a result, its structure has changed - it has become much stronger, acquired a noble dark color with silver veins. And the main thing that attracts people is the age of such material. Agree, few people refuse to touch the table, knowing that it is thousands of years old. Where are the antiques!

The fishery was covered with silt

In a unique and, speaking professionally, narrow market, only a few firms work legally in our country. One of them is headed by Alexander Dupanov. Back in the 1990s, by sheer chance, he became interested in this topic. He was visited by foreign friends who casually asked about the opportunity to buy a few cubic meters of bog oak. In the end, nothing came of the idea - too many intermediaries had to be involved. But Alexander realized that this business, with a competent approach, has more than real prospects. Since then, for 20 years, the company has been working on technologies for finding, extracting and processing firewood. And along the way, like every businessman, the director of the enterprise with his team carefully monitors the activities of competitors.

Right now we can drive along the banks of the Sozh, and I will show you about a dozen places where stained wood was recently developed - there are traces of heavy equipment, oak fragments, sawdust, and so on - Alexander met me at his base in Gomel. - The question is how legally the miners operated. I used to travel for days along the section of the river allocated for exploration and production. And invariably met lovers to profit. They tore the wood with tractors, sawed it off in pieces, loaded it into trucks, carts, horse-drawn carts and tried to take it out.

There are no digestible statistics on the world production of valuable raw materials today. Some figures “emerge” only from Soviet times. At that time, the turnover of stained (fuelwood) wood and, in particular, oak, was regulated by the Department for Precious Metals under the Ministry of Finance. In 1937, the Council of People's Commissars even gave instructions to study the issues of stocks and methods of timber extraction. Such studies were carried out on the Sozh, Dnieper and Iput rivers, from where over 3 years even about 2 thousand “cubes” were lifted - a fantastic volume for this type of material!

Alexander Alexandrovich shows a log, which is 7150 years old. He says that these are still old stocks. Since 2015, the enterprise has not been entitled to engage in its main activity - exploration and production directly. The new edition of the Water Code banned the extraction of valuable wood:

Stained wood is a non-renewable resource. What we extract from the water will never be replenished. Its reserves around the world are more than modest. The account goes to hundreds of thousands of "cubes"

We used to arrange the whole package permits and operate legally. New law it seems that it does not prohibit the extraction of oak, in any case, there is no direct ban and the term “fuelwood” does not appear there, however, the procedure for legalizing such activities has become impossible to go through.

Perhaps this could be an end: it is forbidden to get stained wood out of the water and there is nothing more to talk about. However, for “black” miners, as in other profitable areas, prohibitions are a side effect.

Vendors with a tarnished reputation

On the Internet I find such offers: “I will sell bog oak, about 2 cubic meters”, “Soiled oak-round timber, 4 trunks, butt diameter from 55 to 88 cm”, “Selling firewood (bog) oak, almost black on the cut, 2 dry logs. Pickup".

I'm calling under the guise of a buyer. Interested in a number of questions. First, is there any guarantee that it is oak and not aspen? Secondly, will there be evidence that it is bog oak, and not soaked in the nearest puddle? And, thirdly (and most importantly), when and where was the wood mined? After all, it has been impossible to legally conduct this trade for 4 years already.

Dialogues are standard. A seller from the Zhlobin region wants to get as much as 150 dollars for each cubic meter of his production. For reference, a “cube” of high-quality lumber from ordinary pine costs about the same:

Hello, is wood available? Where is it stored? Is that really oak?

In the yard under a canopy. It has been lying since June, it has already dried up. What am I, I can’t tell the oak? Yes, see for yourself.

Where was it obtained?

The boys swam in the Dnieper, groped near the shore. Pulled out of there. The lads will confirm if you don't believe me.

Is it possible to pull out oaks just like that? Or do you have documents?

What documents do I need? Consider that I prepared firewood for myself and at the same time did a good deed - I cleared the beach.

Mozyrian fished out oak trunks from Pripyat in the spring:

The water came down and they appeared. Probably washed out from under the shore. What is the price? You understand that this is not some kind of birch, this is bog oak! It is very expensive. I won't give you less than a thousand dollars for a "cube".

He also has no production documents, as well as other evidence of the purity of the transaction.

Image - in the furnace?

Sellers are trying to softly dictate terms, which means that there is demand. But something else is curious: all their activities, it turns out, are illegal. Moreover, it can be regarded not only as theft, but also clean water sabotage.

It is not enough to find and raise a tree from the bottom, - says Alexander Dupanov. - After all, under the influence of oxygen, the processes of its destruction immediately begin. For example, the natural moisture content of an ordinary tree is about 70 percent. Firewood can have 150-200 percent. In the process of improper drying, waterlogged wood tears, it crumbles into chips.

Indeed, the process of “drying” bog oak is very long and painstaking. Lasts, as they say in some sources, almost a year, moreover, under certain conditions. Few home-grown businessmen will wait that long, and therefore the amount of initially high-quality, but hopelessly damaged wood is simply catastrophic, Alexander says, based on his personal experience. As a result, more than 90 percent of raw materials go to waste. He tells cases when the logs were sent by wagons to the customer, but along the way they managed to lose their characteristics and were sent to the furnaces. In 2006, at one reputable woodworking enterprise, they successfully sawed round timber into boards, but then about 100 “cubes” were already finished products burned. And from the next batch of 150 cubic meters, in the end, only 30 were saved. As a result, the cost of the remaining material was simply crazy. But in these cases, experienced people worked, not like the majority of small “predators”. As a result, the country is rapidly losing one of its most valuable natural resources, although it could make it its own brand and improve its image on the international market of precious materials.

Stained wood is a non-renewable resource. What we extract from the water will never be replenished. Its reserves around the world are more than modest. The account goes to hundreds of thousands of "cubes". According to Alexander Dupanov, only in the last 20 years and only our country has lost tens of thousands of “cubes” of oak. Most of it, no matter how blasphemous it may sound, went to firewood. In particular, not a single coastal dweller will pass by a huge oak tree, which is perfectly sawn when raw, and burns perfectly when dried. A lot of raw materials are spoiled by miners and processors. How many? Every week Alexander receives 2-3 calls supposedly from oak buyers. Interested in cost. And they disappear. In the vast majority of cases, these are sellers who monitor the real prices for relic wood. There are dozens, if not hundreds, Alexander estimates. And, therefore, you can imagine the real volume of trade. At the same time, not so much raw material is physically “thrown out” on the market. Most likely, everything else is lost:

The extraction of bog oak can often be compared with the harvesting of non-ferrous metals: if it lies poorly, then they will definitely “whistle”. I wouldn't be surprised if every other sawmill owner in the area major rivers firewood is stored, - says Alexander Dupanov. - Many customers among the owners of cottages. And what master cabinetmaker refuses to work with unique material? And if there is demand, there will be supply. Which is exactly what we are seeing. It is enough to turn to the guys from any coastal village, and they will drag the required amount of wood to order.

In the legal vein

As a rule, the "black" market develops in special conditions. On the one hand, it must be admitted that the circulation of bog oak today is not regulated in any way. On the other hand, under the new Water Code, even official producers were forced to curtail their activities. Demand has remained the same.

Earlier, according to BelTA, Andrei Khmel, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, said that the reserves of bog oak in Belarus were not officially calculated: “But this resource exists. This is evidenced by studies of individuals, we own this information. This is a rather expensive material, specific in processing.” Outcome - in this moment Department specialists have prepared a draft document “On some issues of extraction and circulation of amber and firewood”. In turn, the head of the main department of natural resources of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Vasily Kolb, confirms that the decision to establish legal order in this area was not spontaneous:

From time to time we were approached by individuals and commercial structures. We understood that sooner or later the issue would be posed point-blank, and therefore we carefully prepared for changes in legislation. In particular, the notorious Water Code, which actually banned the fishing of firewood, can be regarded as a pause. We needed time to collect data on this resource.

There are several leitmotifs of the draft of the new decree. For example, the Ministry of Natural Resources proposes to completely ban the export of round oak abroad - firewood, as a particularly valuable raw material, must be processed domestically, creating goods with high added value. And when fishing, you will need to be guided project documentation, which has passed an environmental impact assessment without fail, and coordinate actions with local authorities. In the case of extracting firewood without excavation or dredging, the fisherman will also need to acquire a technological map.

The "roll" of the project is obvious - towards the protection of nature. It is understandable - any intervention in the regime of the river, especially such a rough one, inevitably entails Negative consequences. In addition, says Vasily Kolb, after the extraction of wood to the surface, in many cases, the troubles of the watercourse and adjacent territories do not end:

Under water, it is impossible to distinguish a bog oak from the same birch or Christmas tree. Appropriate analyzes can only be carried out after the tree is brought ashore. But fishermen need only oak. Q: Where does the rest of the wood go? I can assume: either it is dumped back into the water, or it litters the shores, or (and this is the best, but unlikely option) is given to the locals for firewood.

These barbaric methods should no longer be used. Moreover, stained wood is recognized as a particularly valuable resource on a par with, say, amber. This can be judged at least by the rates of the environmental tax on the extraction of driftwood. For comparison: the withdrawal from the bowels of the earth of each ton of building sand for a business entity according to the Tax Code costs 5 kopecks, rock salt - 75 kopecks, facing stone - 1.65 rubles, brown coal - 1.7 rubles, grape snail - 30 rubles. And bog oak - 69 rubles. However, in the 1990s state enterprise"BelGeo" assessed the predicted reserves of stained wood on the territory of the country. It was about 500 thousand cubic meters of resource. It is easy to calculate what the benefit can be.

For now, there is nothing to brag about. According to available data, in the period from 2010 to 2014, only 1.5 thousand cubic meters of firewood oak were actually identified for industrial production. And raised - again, according to some sources - only 123.8 "cubes". If there is movement in this area, then it is deep in the “shadow”, Vasily Kolb sums up:

It does not matter how many organizations and for how long have been working in the field of driftwood fishing. There are facts. Starting to study this issue, we made appropriate requests to the tax authorities. In 2014, one payer paid taxes for the extraction and removal of bog oak. There were two in 2015. There is no information about exports at all.

Precious but not metals

Despite the colossal cost of bog oak, there are more valuable tree species on the planet. And it's not just about them. technical specifications but also distribution.

Grenadil is an African ebony native to Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and is endangered due to poaching. Its matte black wood is very beautiful. Today, according to some information, the cost of a cubic meter of this material (if, of course, it appears on sale) can easily exceed 100 thousand dollars.

Ebony. There are in Africa, South India and Ceylon. The market value of a cubic meter is up to 100 thousand dollars.

Buckout (iron tree). It grows in Haiti, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Jamaica, Guatemala and Cuba. The cost of a cubic meter in some years reached 80 thousand dollars.

Rosewood, originally from Brazil, has long been in demand among cabinetmakers for its unusual pink or red wood structure. Hence the price - more than 50 thousand dollars per "cube".

Agarwood from South Asia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam or Laos has exceptional aromatic properties. The most exquisite incense is made from wood and resin in India, Japan and the Arab countries. Of course, agar is not sold in “cubes”, and a kilogram of it costs an average of about 5-7 thousand dollars.

To the point

Maxim Ermokhin, candidate biological sciences, Leading Researcher, Institute of Experimental Botany, National Academy of Sciences:

Bog oak actually has an increased value, but not so much that a hype is created around it. Judge for yourself. From the point of view of physical and chemical properties, it is not much different from ordinary oak wood. Thanks to the tannins contained in the structure, it is simply preserved, the decomposition processes slow down, in fact, the wood only changes color. This material mainly attracts people with its appearance. In the usual nature of our country, a similar color of wood - from dark brown to almost black - does not occur. And the same furniture from exotic natural materials always highly valued. Once upon a time, oaks were even artificially stained - they were immersed in water for 20-30 years, so that children and grandchildren could use them at one time.

Is bog oak worth the increased attention we are seeing at the moment? Definitely, however, more in terms of nature conservation. If some private structures will be engaged in the extraction of stained wood, the role of the state in this process is to control the careful use of natural resources.

Autumn shallow water on the Ob. The hydroelectric power plant has seriously reduced the discharge of water, storing it in the reservoir for long periods of time. winter months. The river became shallow and exposed the monstrous state of its coastal part.

A huge amount of driftwood is the result of timber rafting (moth and rafts) and the hard work of the river, year after year washing away the unfortified banks of the Ob reservoir.

There are quite approximate estimates of scientists that in Russia, only as a result of mole rafting - which was almost universally banned back in the 90s of the twentieth century - at least 38.6 million cubic meters of forests were drowned. At the bottom of the Ob and Irtysh - up to 6.5 million "cubes". Nobody kept a record of such losses.
Why is melted wood harmful and dangerous? First, it makes shipping dangerous. The risk of running into a log on the bottom is very high - the driftwood often floats in the river at an angle, when one end of the log is much lower than the other. To run into such a forest is a guaranteed hole and an accident. Remember the scene from the old film comedy "Volga-Volga", where a drift log pierced the bottom of a steamboat... It is known that driftwood made dozens of Siberian rivers, tributaries of the Ob Irtysh and Yenisei, virtually unnavigable.

Secondly, it significantly reduces throughput rivers: tree trunks lying in the channel significantly increase the hydrostatic resistance.
Thirdly, the quality of water is seriously affected by wood decomposing at the bottom and in the water. The process of decay consumes a large amount of oxygen, which is necessary for the normal existence of fish and the growth of underwater plants. In addition, rotting wood releases compounds of phenol, methane and mercaptans (derivatives of hydrogen sulfide), which is especially detrimental in winter - toxic substances accumulate under the ice and lead to fish kills.
Already now, the wood lying on the bottom causes serious damage. environment. Fish of valuable breeds will not live in the places of driftwood deposits, and the movement of ships is impossible there. In addition, a large amount of driftwood provokes coastal erosion processes - the channel becomes very shallow, coastal structures suffer from seasonal floods. It is known that after about 20 years, a pond clogged with driftwood practically dies.

Ideally, raising a sunken forest from the bottom of the rivers can not only solve the problems of navigation and ecology, but also become a highly profitable business that provides the industry with huge volumes of raw materials.

It is known that even "under the tsar-father" rafts were specially flooded for several months - certainly with butts against the current - and then "eternal" furniture was made from this "stained" wood. Such a tree does not rot, pest larvae do not start in it, and a house made of stained logs will stand and last longer than a log house made of larch.

Today, the rise from the bottom of the rivers and the production of high-quality wood in Russia has not been established, and many secrets of processing have been lost.

Despite the prospect of solid profitability of projects for the extraction of stained wood, no one is engaged in this business. Moreover, we can safely say that not a single regional department has any data on the volumes and places of rafting, on the basis of which it would be possible to predict the places of accumulation of driftwood. So, even if the entrepreneur has a desire to organize a log lifting enterprise, he will need to spend money on “subsoil exploration”.

A kind of "gold placer" is wood (larch, birch, aspen, oak), which has lain in water without air for years, and even better - for decades. It is quite good if the tree lay at the bottom under a layer of silt and dirt - with minimal access to oxygen. Under such conditions, the tree mineralizes, becomes several times stronger, and acquires a characteristic “stained” color. Properly processed stained wood costs very decent money.

However, it is not enough just to raise the firebox. It must be washed from pebbles, sand and dirt. And most importantly - very quickly, without delay, recycle: cut and dry properly. Otherwise, it will just rot very quickly. This means that it is necessary to have specially equipped warehouses, drying chambers, special sawing machines ...
This probably explains why timid attempts to engage in such production quickly came to naught.

Another nuance is that the driftwood has an uncertain status to this day. Toli is garbage that needs to be disposed of, toli natural resource, for the extraction and processing of which you have to pay ...
Obviously, the logs that ended up in the shallow waters of the Ob are of no value. After all, more than once they went under water, then lay for weeks in the wind and under the sun. Under such conditions, the tree will quickly rot and poison the water.

But the rise of the driftwood and the sale of the same stained birch (a million rubles for 20-25 "cubes"), if the authorities had taken care of this, could quickly recoup all the costs of floating cranes, barges and work to clean up the Ob and improve it. Wood at the bottom of the river - hundreds and hundreds of thousands of cubic meters.

It is known that under the “anti-people” tsarist regime, the authorities regularly gave contracts for the cleaning of rivers. They say that there was even a case when a certain enterprising manufacturer took a contract to clean up the river from driftwood. He solved the problem in a merchant-savvy way: having caught several logs, he hollowed out holes in their ends, into which he laid several gold coins, after which he lowered the logs back into the river. That same evening, a rumor was spread about this in a local tavern. A few days later, the entire riverbed was cleared of driftwood.

Saw cut logs of bog oak (www.teltinc.com)

Over the millennia of the use of wood, artisans, inventors and engineers have discovered, invented and brought to perfection technologies various methods of its (wood) processing. The most productive and efficient have been developed over the last century, they are mass-produced, repeatable, reliable and safe. But there are techniques that, having appeared a long time ago, have not reached the mass level. They served as a source of interesting ideas, went down in history, but, due to objective reasons, did not become industrial. One of these techniques is the extraction and processing of moraine (from the French marais - swamp) wood.

Natural, long-term natural staining gave the craftsmen a material that connoisseurs often call black gold - that's what bog oak is called, and they buy it expensively. At the heart of the modern attitude to it, in addition to its real value, is a commitment to antiquity, faith in miracles and the nature of some, and the desire of others to sell an invented jewel at a higher price, which no one will ever turn into mass consumer goods. The same attitude has formed, for example, towards a pair of natural/artificial pearls, natural/artificial diamond.

Products from stained (in water, in an oxygen-depleted environment) wood are a product of processing logs raised from under water. Basically, these are long naturally sunken trunks. However, it happened that equally valuable logs, extracted during the reconstruction of long-built bridges, dams, canals, locks, and mills, fell into the hands of craftsmen. Most of the wood that ended up in the water after the death of the trees simply disappeared. Moisture and air are what the biota, usually living on wood, needs in order to process living tissue into rot. Why are some logs lucky?

Wood that has lain in water for hundreds of years has turned into a valuable material. Quickly flooded trunks from recent (tens of years ago) alloys, with skillful drying, are not much inferior in quality to normal wood and differ little from it. Since it is impossible to trace the entire process of transformation in a reasonable time, it remains only to model and accelerate the conditions of maturation, to evaluate the role of various factors in this process.

Bogwood sculpture by Kevin & Michael Casey (www.bogwood.net)

The main factors that ensured the preservation and transformation of wood that got into the water into a valuable material are rapid flooding, prolonged exposure to water and / or silt without access to the air necessary for decay, the presence of preservative substances in wood and water (which prevents damage to initial stage maturation), the presence of wood-modifying components in water, the presence of components in the wood itself, which in a given environment give the result desired for use.

Bog oak and larch known for their value - bright examples rocks suitable for staining. They are heavy and sink quickly in water. The bark rich in tannins (and the wood less rich in them) form an environment that is detrimental to decay. Also, resin remains a good protection in the first stages of staining, and on land it resisted the enemies of the tree. If the trees in the first hundreds of years do not end up in the air and do not die from this (as a material) from cracking and decay, then the slow process of modification will continue.

Natural tree sap will be washed out by water and oxidized, the surrounding water environment saturated with preservative poisonous phenolic compounds (tannins just from this category), its acidity will change (acidify). Such conditions develop in lakes and swamps, in which trees accumulate for a long time.

When staining, processes occur that affect the wood to a different extent. On the one hand, due to the washing out and oxidation of natural wood preservatives, the level of protection of the wood itself will decrease. On the other hand, the need for it will also decrease - in the skeleton of resistant cellulose, there will be less and less low molecular weight carbohydrates suitable for the development of pathogens. Also, the loss and oxidation of soluble fillers of the cellulose-lignin skeleton of wood will lead to a deterioration in mechanical qualities (flexibility and strength will deteriorate) and greater permeability to water (as a result, greater hygroscopicity than normal wood, swelling in the dried state). At the same time, fossilization of organic matter will occur, which will increase the rigidity and resistance of wood in case of drying to decay and processing by grinders.

The process of transformation is slow, and the stagnant waters of lakes and swamps will be the best cradle for it. Important for the visual qualities of the future material is the process of interaction of the components (the same tannins) of wood with salts - it is believed that it is iron salts from water that give bog oak a dark to blue color with a characteristic sheen.

Natural underwater conservation is also optimal for the further use of such wood in underwater conditions. But who is interested and needs now the details of locks or ships? How to use stained wood on dry land? Modified wood that has lain under water for a long time is defenseless against dry air. A log quickly extracted from a depth of several meters at normal atmospheric pressure will be destroyed by actively released liquid and gases. Uneven drying will cause cracking and warping. Moreover, due to the loss of binder soluble components during staining, the destruction will be faster and deeper than that of normal wood. The network of small cracks and the porous wood itself will eventually be filled with atmospheric moisture, fungi and bacteria - the wood will rot.

In order not to spoil the valuable material, it must be properly dried. The log extracted from under the water is well closed from air before being sent for drying, protected from high / low temperatures. Then it is slowly (over the course of months) dried at a normal stable temperature and controlled humidity (in artisanal conditions, they surround the drying place without drafts and active ventilation with water containers). After the material reaches normal humidity, it is sawn and processed. The initial cut into a board can also be made at the site of extraction of still wet wood.

At the final stage, the product is protected with natural coatings. Although it is believed that wood conservation occurs during natural staining, this is not entirely true. With a long stay under water, the natural destroyers of wood and the nutrient medium for them are eliminated. Therefore, properly treated wood is indeed healthy, but also less protected than normal wood from the penetration of the disease. The advantages of dense (finely porous) oak and larch are also manifested during processing - even the increased hygroscopicity of stained wood will not be so destructive for them.

Stained pine table by sculptor and artist Pieter Koning (www.pietkoning.com)

Products from valuable stained wood are piece goods. Such wood itself can be considered just as piece - it is formed in natural conditions with a combination of many various factors. Therefore, industrial production or harvesting of stained wood can be discussed only with a big stretch. Soaked in suitable conditions for hundreds of years, an oak or larch is not at all like a driftwood raised from the bottom of a flowing river, which is tens or hundreds of years old at best. Of course, wood is a valuable product in itself. Under certain circumstances, and from a well-processed firewood, you can get a beautiful, durable material. However, it is not worth considering it better than modern products of deep wood processing (for example, thermal wood) just because it is natural.

The desire to replicate the visual features of a valuable moraine tree led to the emergence of accelerated chemical staining techniques and their exploitation to replicate fakes. Quick Ways even deep impregnation/etching with stains are now well developed technologies. With their help, you can change not only appearance wood, but also to carry out its conservation. But such staining is similar to natural staining only in name, and its product should also be distinguished from natural stained wood, like consumer goods from a collectible item.

Since the end of the 20th century, such fishing began to gain popularity in foreign countries. So one businessman invested about 100 thousand dollars to buy a plot near the bank of a river and began to catch logs. That is, he simply set some installations so that the logs did not float far and caught them. Then he simply dried them, and then processed them, for example, into some kind of furniture or other wooden products. To this day, this business brings in about $3 million a year.

Some analysts claim that there are about 38 million cubic meters of drowned trees at the bottom of various reservoirs (at the same time, there are no exact figures, since there were no full-scale studies due to the high cost). At the same time, no one in Russia is doing this, at least to the same extent as business from Western countries. Maybe the position is unprofitable, unprofitable or something else, leading experts spoke about this in various speeches.

Let's analyze everything factually and visually.

When transporting various raw materials, about a hundredth of these volumes simply sinks in a water body. For example, scientists suggest that there are about 9 million cubic meters of trees on the Volga River. Meanwhile, it is worth noting that only those trees that have left a holistic view at least a little will be valuable, otherwise few people will need wood "porridge". Meanwhile, trees that have been under water for decades are a kind of unique product for the production of various goods. Being in water, this wood becomes very durable, due to saturation with various minerals. Experts note that if such wood is properly processed, it will be similar to stone in strength. In addition, it does not rot, insects will not climb into it, so such products will be almost eternal.

Meanwhile, the extraction of wood in some role will help the environment.

The fact is that the firewood, located at the bottom of some water body negatively affects both the overall water system as well as its inhabitants. While there, they release some substances that displace oxygen, which can cause fish to die. There are rumors that foreign firms have already wanted to deal with fuel oil, and completely free of charge, they seem to help us with the environment, and take the raw materials for themselves, but our authorities did not agree. At the same time, this decision is completely correct, if only we ourselves begin to engage in its production, we will clean up the environment and earn extra money.

Let's just note that the state began to fight with the driftwood. On Baikal, they plan to create a plant for processing this product. Due to the low quality of wood products, they are immediately subjected to the recycling process, and in a rather interesting way: they take this wood and bury it under the ground and gravel, and then sow grass. But this, of course, is only a minimal percentage of what is being done on the scale of a state like ours - this is a drop in the ocean. At the same time, scientists have been planning for several years to make the driftwood quite attractive for business, which should automatically lead to an improvement in the environment and an increase in income.

Another expert who is directly involved in the underwater extraction of oak in quite large volumes told us a story about how there was a real push in this direction. In the 1990s, there were a lot of different businessmen who wanted to deal with this issue, but they planned to do it as quickly as possible and at the same time not make serious investments, but rather not rely on professional labor. But it did not go so smoothly, because after all, this is not such an easy business.

Now, you can also search for many different ads for the sale of firewood, but at the same time, these are most often one-time promotions and there are no guarantees that the manufacturer has a sufficient volume, as well as the declared quality.

After the collapse of the USSR, a meager number of enterprises could mine firewood, then process it and produce finished material. Most organizations simply didn't have the technology. In addition to all this, for some reason, when forming production, no one takes into account the fact that there is also a lot to spend. So, it takes 10 times more freshly mined raw materials to harvest good stained wood. And this is a lot of effort to develop, search for a driftwood. Then a lot of effort is put into its processing, and only then is the finished product ready for use. Moreover, obtaining such raw materials is not so simple. First you need to scout everything in order to know where this wood is at all. Next, you need to conduct a study at a distance of 200-500 kilometers, then you still need to hire scuba divers in order to find out what is at the bottom. Then the sunken tree poles still need to be pulled out in some way, and even so that they are not damaged. Then it all needs to be packaged, transported and properly processed. At the same time, before processing, you need to literally take care of it, since in a few hours it can simply lose all its necessary properties.