Where is the Mezen River: source, tributaries, flora and fauna

The Mezen River belongs to the basin of the White Sea. The length of the river, which carries its waters to Mezenskaya Bay, reaches 966 kilometers. This makes it the longest waterway among all the watercourses flowing into the White Sea. In the European North of Russia, it, along with Pechora and the Northern Dvina, belongs to the largest rivers. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that in the upper reaches and closer to the central part Mezen flows south, and only in the Arkhangelsk region it turns and rushes to the White Sea.

In inaccessible places there is always good fishing and hunting

About an impressive size says the area of the river basin, equal to 78,000 square kilometers. Mezen flows through the territory of the Arkhangelsk Region and the Komi Republic, in the sparsely populated area of which on the slopes of the Timan Ridge, at an altitude of 370 meters above sea level, among the marshes and rocks of the Chetlas stone, is the source of the Mezen River. Considering the height of the total drop (370 m) and the length, it can be stated that the slope of the river is 0.383%. The name of this waterway does not have many variants of origin - from the Finno-Ugric language it is translated as a place of successful fishing and fishing.

Hard-to-reach places

As noted above, the territory along which the Mezen River flows was uninhabited in ancient times. They are also less populated today - settlements appeared here only in the second half of the 14th century. The first is the village of Lampozhnya, as the point on the trade "through-the-stone" (from the Pechora basin "through the stone", that is, the Ural Mountains) to Siberia. And this is explained not only by the severe northern climate, but rather by the fact that the area of the river basin, as it were, is fenced off from the rest of the world by a powerful Northern Dvina from the west, and from the south by its largest tributary - Vychegda. Of the dozens of small settlements located from the source to the mouth, the cities of Usogorsk and Mezen, as well as the village of Leshukonskoe, are more or less large.

Message paths

Ways of communication with this region, as well as between its settlements, leave much to be desired. Up to the city of Usogorsk from the Kotlas-Vorkuta highway stretches the railway line. The Mezen River itself is navigable almost throughout its entire flow, and the site from the village of Koslan to the village of Belyi Nos is included in the list of navigable waterways of the country. On the river and its tributaries there are powerful, but not year-round ferry crossings. They stop their work for quite long periods of the off-season, mainly from October to January, that is until the moment when ice crossings are established on the river.

Air and auto messaging

In the city of Mezen, located at the confluence of the river of the same name in the Mezenskaya Bay of the White Sea, airplanes of local airlines fly. Vaskovo Airport, from where planes fly to Mezen, is located near Arkhangelsk. The only highway connecting the huge northern region with the rest of the world is the Arkhangelsk motorway - the city of Mezen, passing through the settlements of Belgorod, Pinega and Sovpole. Asphalt coating exists only on a small initial section of the Arkhangelsk - Belgorod highway. Further down to the final point is a road with a primer coating, sometimes of quite poor quality.

Tributaries

The land, where the Mezen is located, is rich in water resources - 15187 tributaries fill this waterway. The main tributaries include 103 rivers, 53 of which are left-handed, and, respectively, 50-right. The largest are Mezenskaya Tansy and Sula, Kyma and Pesa, Vashka and Pyssa, Us, Bolshaya Loptyuga and Irva. The longest of them - Vashka, stretches for 605 km, the shortest, Us - on 102. These are the main tributaries of the Mezen River. One of them is interesting for its bifurcation, or bifurcation of the channel. Mezenskaya Pizhma (236 km), due to this phenomenon, flows into Pechora and Mezen, and connects the latter with the Pechora water basin.

Natural watershed

The soils of the Mezen basin are mainly podzolic and marshy (marshy of the whole territory is 17%). There are sand here, which are a wide strip from the slopes of Timan to the watershed of Mezen and its tributary Vashka. And on Timan itself there are humus-calcareous soils. To the sights of this region are the amazing rock remains. The Timan Ridge, on which the Mezen River originates, is the natural natural watershed of the entire Dvina-Pechora Basin. It stretches for 900 kilometers, the highest point is at a level of 471 meters. One of its spurs blocks the Mezen path in its middle reaches, because of which the river makes a 500-kilometer hook. Starting from the source, which is located on the plateau-like Upland of Chetlassky Stone, covered with fir and spruce and rising to 463 m above sea level, the river is a fast mountain river with rapids and rapids. And as it is supposed to be a typical mountain river, the banks of the Mezen are tall and rocky here, and the width varies from 8 to 15 meters. Because of the spurs of the Timan Ridge, the river always turns and changes direction.

East Bay

In the lower reaches, its width sometimes reaches 1 kilometer, while the low shores are often swamped. It was mentioned above where the Mezen River flows into Mezenskaya Bay, which is one of the four largest bays of the White Sea, such as Kandalaksha Gulf, Dvinskaya and Onega Bay. The Mezenskaya lip lies to the south of the Kanin peninsula, its length is 105 meters, its width is 97, its depth varies from 5 to 25 meters. In addition to the waterway, in honor of which the lip is named, the Kula River flows into it. This most eastern bay of the White Sea has the most opaque water, since the Mezen River is rather turbid, although because of the sparsely populated coasts, the anthropogenic factor is almost absent here, and Mezen is recognized as the cleanest in Europe among the large rivers flowing directly into the sea.

So long and so different

All the while winding, Mezen runs through three natural subzones - along the entire route, the middle taiga, northern taiga and forest-tundra follow each other. The basin of the river is wooded - 80% of its territory is covered with green plantations, mostly coniferous forests. The richness and diversity of flora and fauna is explained by the great length of the river. In the south, magnificent high-coniferous coniferous forests grow, in the north there are scant communities of mosses and lichens, while in the valley of the Mezen basin there are altogether 1,300 species of plants (without lichens).

The rich animal world

There are more than 400 species of vertebrates in this region, there are even more invertebrates. In the Red Book is introduced a wild subspecies of the reindeer. The fox is depicted in the center of the emblem of the Mezen district. Arctic fox, wolverine, wolf, hare, muskrat, squirrels are the most numerous representatives of the Mezeni fauna fauna. A huge number of birds of this region allow hunting for black grouse, grouse, grouse, ducks and geese. Under protection are the following species of birds - eider and swan, falcons (gyrfalcon and peregrine falcon), Barnacle goose and osprey, golden eagle and white-tailed eagle.

Numerous inhabitants of the river

Water animals of the Mezen River are represented by a huge variety. Here in large quantities there are salmon, or Atlantic salmon, whitefish and nelma. Naturally, despite the huge availability of other species of fish, from the uncontrolled illegal catch mostly valuable species. So, salmon stocks have significantly decreased. This is to blame as an unfavorable social situation (lack of well-paid work) in the villages scattered along the banks of the Mezen, and unreasonable deforestation in the territory of the municipal formation of Udor. These felling led to a change in surface runoff, which, in turn, led to the deposition of sand and the overgrowing of the riverbed by aquatic vegetation. As a consequence, wintering pits disappear, in which Atlantic salmon spawns. All of the above leads to an increase in the river of the order of predators - pike and perch, which also reduces the amount of salmon. Other species of fish that inhabit Mezen in sufficient quantities include European grayling and roach. There are many here and bream, dace and burbot, river flounder and lamprey. All kinds of fish, including pike predators and perch, are objects of both legal and unauthorized capture.

Revived Old Time

On the banks of the purest Mezen there are also tourist centers, such as "Udorchanin" (the village of Koslan). In this place in the north-west of the Komi Republic, alloys are possible along the river.

Extremely beautiful nature in the places where the Mezen River flows. The Arkhangelsk region, on the territory of which, especially in the Mezen region, has unique historical settlements such as Kimzha, personifies the culture of the Russian North and preserves the historical layout of the settlement and ancient wooden architecture. The peculiarity of this region was the windmills, the most northerly in the world. In such settlements, the historical way of life, folklore and folk culture are preserved. Mezensky district is the northernmost in the Arkhangelsk region, and part of it enters the border zone. That's why it's just not possible to get here - it's only to enter the passes. Crafts are developed in the Mezen district. The murals on birch bark decorated with Mezen painting are the best souvenirs of this region.