The sand is coming: from the history of protective forest planting in the Astrakhan region

The article highlights the major developments in the history of human fight against the advancing desert in the Astrakhan region in the 20th century. The focus is made on the activities of Mitrophan A. Orlov (1881 - 1955), the Russian scientist who was called “the conqueror of Astrakhan sands”, and the work of Bogdinskaya Research Agro-Forest Melioration Station (NIAGLOS named after M.A. Orlov). The author refers to documents from M.A. Orlov’s private 110 archive as well as the archive of the Bogdinskaya NIAGLOS which were not used by historians before. The shifting sands in the Astrakhan semi-desert are seen as a dire threat to man and the entire man-made environment at present as it was at the end of the 19th and throughout the 20th centuries. Protective forest planting in the form of forest belts helps to block sand advancement. The 20th century saw a success in the fight against sands, dust storms and drought as a result of ceaseless and unsparing efforts made by the staff of the Bogdinskaya NIAGLOS. This research centre achieved significant results in the study of wind erosion, meliorating role of different species of protective vegetation and methods of immobilizing sands. Of special value is its expertise in turning sand areas into agricultural ones, growing planting protective forests and feed crops on pasture lands through protective afforestation. This unique experience of the Bogdinskaya NIAGLOS is still indispensable for people to counteract the expanding sands.