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Chukot-TINRO
Tens of thousands of walruses make their home in Beringia, including these seen last fall at Cape Serdtse-Kamen in Chukotka, Russia.
You might have missed it, but the ancient land of Beringia has gotten some extra protection from superpowers Russia and the United States.
That's right, Beringia -- 2,800 miles stretching from Siberia, across the Bering and Chukchi seas, through Alaska and into Canada's British Columbia. For thousands of years, Beringia even had a 1,000-mile-long land bridge that emerged when sea level dropped.
OK, so it's not an actual nation, but Beringia does have its own heritage of people divided by borders but united culturally -- and a natural kingdom of whales, polar bears, walruses and seals.
"From the diversity of its Arctic wildlife, both on land and within its waters, to the bounty it provides that sustains cultures on both sides of the U.S.-Russian border, Beringia is home to a kingdom of wildlife and cultural riches, deserving of protection in perpetuity," Cristian Samper, president of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, told NBC News.
"This announcement," he added, "brings us one step closer to that reality."
Samper was talking about a meeting between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Russian peer earlier this month, where both nations agreed to work toward "a transboundary area of shared Beringian heritage" by 2013.
National Park Service
That designation would create closer ties between two U.S. national parks -- the Bering Land Bridge Natural Preserve and the Cape Krusenstern National Monument -- with Russia's soon-to-be-designated Beringia National Park.
"Park managers and researchers from both countries will be able to increase their efforts to conserve this unique ecosystem as well as the cultural traditions and languages of the indigenous people on both sides of the (Bering) strait," Clinton said at the meeting on Sept. 8.
Even before the announcement, the U.S. National Park Service has had a program since the 1990s to promote Beringia, a term first coined in 1937.
Bob Gerhard / National Park Service
Anadyr, the capital of Russia's Chukotka Autonomous Region, is part of Beringia and faces the Bering Sea.
"As one of the world's great ancient crossroads, Beringia may hold solutions to puzzles about who were the first people to populate North America, how and when they traveled, and how they survived under such harsh climatic conditions," a website dedicated to Beringia reads.
Watch a video on Beringian petroglyphs.
The park service program stems from a 1990 announcement by then President George H. W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhael Gorbachev to establish an international park spanning the Bering Strait.
A full-fledged international park never came about, in part because of suspicions by native groups. But the new, smaller approach is aimed at easing those concerns.
Vic Knox / National Park Service
Native festivals like this one are typical in Anadyr, a city in Russia's autonomous region of Chukotka that is part of the wider region known as Beringia.
The Wildlife Conservation Society is among the environmental groups excited about stronger cross-border ties. It already has a "Beringia Program" that looks at:
- How shipping in formerly ice-covered seas will affect marine life and indigenous people who rely on that for food.
- The threat walruses face from shrinking sea ice, which they rely on to rest while at sea. Less sea ice has led to overcrowding and even walruses crushed to death as they "haul out" by the thousands to rest on beaches.
- The impacts of human development on birds from around the world that nest and breed in the Arctic tundra.
Chukot-TINRO
Scientists are seeing more of these massive "haul outs" by walruses. These were seen last fall on Russia's Cape Serdtse-Kamen, part of the larger Beringia region.
The organization's "Beringia Program" manager sees the U.S.-Russia effort as keeping recent momentum moving forward. Both native peoples and wildlife, Martin Robards told NBC News, face living "in a region warming at twice the global average, while at the same time, adjusting to a rapid influx of new development interests."
As for the variety of wildlife, "it's phenomenal," Robards said. "In the fall and spring animals come through the Bering Strait -- whales, polar bears, walruses and seals."
That wealth makes it easy for Robards to spend his time on Beringia. But getting its importance across to others can be problematic, so having two superpowers raise Beringia's profile is a big plus.
"It does need explaining at times," he admits.
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Leave a Comment:
Interesting Map. So Sara Palin could have theoretically seen Russia from her place. LOL
Always 1 a$$hole I the group.
I-belive
You CAN see Russia from Alaska, that's a FACT!
And she can see Berengia too. I wonder if she knows that. And, I-believe, I guess expectations are a little higher when someone is a heartbeat away from being the most powerful person in the world.
LoL! Always 1 Sarah fan out there!
pj
Sarah, Michelle Buchanan, Ann Romney
or
Hillary, Pelosi, Moo-schele obama
Your choice...................................:)
yES
Please don't choose the second option!
Blabbermouth-schultz, Susan Rice and Sandra Fluke are included as a "bonus!"
Always 1 killjoy without a sense of humor in the group.
That map looks like Russia repossessed Alaska. I bet Putin loves that map.
If you see the speck between the words Bering and Straight on the map, those are the Diomedes. Big Diomedes (Russian) and Little Diomedes(American) are two and a half miles apart. There and only there, you can see Russia. It has nothing to do with this article but its interesting. I don't know about now, but there used to be an ice bridge between them in Winter and you could (if you dared) walk it.
You do know that those words were actually spoken by Tina Fey, who was trying to mock Palin?
http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2010/04/did-sarah-palin-really-say-you-can-see-russia-from-alaska.html
Good news for people, animals and the land. If there is a cultural unity it should be recognized.
It is good news. There is a fantastic museum in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada (that would be next door to Alaska) dedicated to Beringia called The Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre (www.beringia.com ). If you are headed up the Alcan, it is really worth stopping in to see. The centre also has teachers study guides available for free downlaod for anyone who wants to teach their children about Beringia.
It's about time the U.S. and Russia did something useful and productive together without acrimony and paranoia.
Save the environment, you hit the nail on the head on this one.
I agree....This is definitely a step in the right direction. I recall an episode years ago of Extreme Engineering on the Discovery Channel focusing on the remote possibilty of building a bridge traversing the Bering Strait. Maybe, one day, the United States and Russia can be friendly enough to consider both parks as one....imagine the benefits for flora, fauna, as well as the world! Working together is the only way we can save this planet!
I'm trying...every time I go to Moscow I show the Russian ladies useful things we can do together, that might be productive! If we knew what was on the other side of that border, the cold war would have been much shorter lived.
As the arctic is becoming dry - the seas are making way to new land. This land holds tremendous potential for rare earth metals and oil. So nations are in a mini-cold war over this. What Russia and US have done is pretty much they might have claimed joint sovereignty over a land that doesn't really belong to either.
Someone gets it!! But will joint sovereignty over Beringia threaten either nations" self sovereignty. Perhaps we, the Russians. Chinese, and the Canadians should form A new Nation called the Holarctic Confederation, with a Bill of Rights based on the US Bill. You think the Muslims are freaking out now, it would throw everyone else in the world into conniptions.
Oh sure, sounds like a good plan. wait til the drilling starts then it will be a competition in the region between the two.
Ed-NavDoc Well, we and the Russians have being cooperating in the space program for a while, our astronauts come and go in Russian spacecrafts, I guess you missed that "useful" thing.
What's the catch?? The United States does nothing unless there is a profit in it for the Multi-National Corporations and 1% elite. And since when does the US government care one iota about native peoples? This is the same nation in which many corporate and political elites are still denying that Global Warming even exists in order to stave off environmental regulation and continue the corporate looting and polluting of the planet. When I see it I will believe it not a minute sooner. After all this could be just another US propaganda ploy in an increasingly hostile world toward the United States.
Then sit in your basement and wait.
here is the catch -
As the arctic is becoming dry - the seas are making way to new land. This land holds tremendous potential for rare earth metals and oil. So nations are in a mini-cold war over this. What Russia and US have done is pretty much they might have claimed joint sovereignty over a land that doesn't really belong to either.
pj
so ice melting, the fanatic cry of the global whining crowd, is creating LESS water and the oceans are drying up? ..............:)
IA.ScooterTramp, just consider the source! That should explain all!
Step in the right direction.
WOW! Time to go back and read "People of the Wolf".
Do you mean People of the Deer, by Farley Mowat? A great book!
Good because China is heading that way!
Well, this is excellent news, indeed. It is a good sign that mankind can actually tell the difference between moving forward and stepping backwards. This will be a good step forward for all mankind. Congrats to all involved.
Maybe the Soviet Union has fallen after all? Maybe ...
this is good news, and of course the chinese head in any direction to feed their population - gas for their 220 million vehicles and still counting, even tho they are imposing car restriction sales, and cooperation between the usa nd russia is rare, at least what is known about. i am glad that this micro state can be further examined as a teaching aspect for what is obviously going on - global warming, made more severe by emissions, pollution, deforestation, land abuses, soil erosion, and full scale water thievery by china as they seek more water from the Himalayas, denying viet nam and India their natural resources.
i see this as a good move to hold off a voracious consumer of the environment.
great work Hillary and your Russian counterpart.
Mexicans are really Asians, just look at their faces and jet black hair -- Chinese kissing cousins -- before you snicker do your DNA research...amazing what Science can tell us...
Of course the Chino that were imported for labor way back then 1880-1910, might have helped with the Asian features.
Did Mexico really import Chinese (Chino)?
The land bridge opened up about 14,500 years ago and was submerged again about 10,500 years ago. Evidence suggests that people first began coming across the bridge about 13,500 when the river valleys through the Rocky Mountain chain began to open up. The paleo-indians then followed the herds of animals into the great plains of North America and they spread out from there. There are three identified periods of migration. Roughly, the first wave of migration brought the people who moved into South and Central America, the second brought the people of North America, and the third brought the people of the High Arctic. There is also mounting evidence that some populations moved along the ancient shore lines and may have used wood or skin boats rather than come the interior routes. The Yukon Beringia Centre (www.beringia.com ) has a lot more information if you are actually interested.
Regardless of political aspirations, pulling this combined effort off would be good for all. Like it or not, we will all have to work together before long. Times are gonna get tough.
what a load of you know what...must have been a quiet news day....
Preservation of Native People & Wildlife will bring Russia & the U.S. together. Putin's only redeeming quality is his interest in birds - maybe that's a start. Obama needs a strong Wildlife Preservation spokesperson on his staff with a "Teddy Roosevelt" view of the World. People need to step back, take a deep breath of air, & enjoy the Heaven which is Earth - this is it, don't make it a Hell.
sure thats just what he needs... another czar................:)
if putin's on redeeming quality is his affection for birds, then i say flip him one.
Ancient land of 'Beringia' gets protection from US, Russia. So that's what they call it these days, Protection?
Quick! Let's send troops over to it, and have them battle those damned walruses and show them who's boss!
John... There are and have been troops all over up in the Far North for a very long time. Where did you go to school, Chicago?
Yes, and I was raised by wolves.
John... Tens of thousands of American military have served in the arctic and subarctic of Beringea since and including WWII, to include the Japanese invasion of the Aleutians. The aboriginals of the Alaskan area were scouts for the Army because of their skills. The US Air Force flies patrols, the Navy has submarine patrols and has a contingent of arctic Marines, and the US Coast Guard of which which I was a member has air and water patrols. This is due to the COLD WAR. I've been up in the ice with the walrus and the storm petrels, the bowhead whales, the seals and sea lions just because of the Soviet Union's military presence on the other side of the Alaska boarder. I think what you consider a wolf, the arctic military veterans would term a beagle.
Dude, don't you recognize sarcasm or even irony when you see it? SHEESH!
Nice Troll, John. Got em snappin' at the bait!
Although I'm thinking the walruses (walrusi?), holding the beachhead, have the advantage. We should probably use Napalm.
And this is a headline story why?
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain of fail on foreign policy. Perhaps it'd be more interesting concerning the selling of US soil to the Soviet ---er I mean Russians?
If you had half a brain, which is obvious you don't, you'd actually do a little research and know that no U.S., soil was sold to the Russians. But why bother being informed, it's much easier to take some nimrod's sound bite and carp about it.
I'll have more leeway after the elections...............................:)
rodneys wrong about one thing however, you simply cannot have a failed anything if you dont have one in the first place.........................:)
IA.ScooterTramp: Your Obama quote was in reference to negotiations on the US missile defense system being installed in Europe, which is opposed by Russia. Who gave you the idea that it refers to selling US territory to Russia? FYI,the US doesn't own any territory in Europe.
The sad part is as soon as oil or natural gas if found, here come the land grabbers. I hope we do protect the area. Keep the green paradigm shift moving and unleash the benefits. As far as ancestors, PBS had a program of testing DNA of people in Southwest or South America and their ancestors came from Kyrgyzstan so they crossed that are centuries ago and migrated south. Live healthier and green. Be responsible and it's rewards to you, your family, and society. Watch the trailer on Global Spirit
Now if we could only get that global warming problem mitigated.
yep just gotta stop that global whining..................................:)
So can Caribou Barbie see 'Beringia ' from her back porch ?
sure would like to see her on my back porch, coming in of course.......................:)
We are all Pangeans. Before tectonic plates separated the world into distinct continents. There was one. Call Pangea. Tectonic plates never stopped. That is why stories likes this makes more sense than nation building. If we all thought about life in geological time, our local concerns would seem less important. Perspective is what it is all about.
RE-UNITE PANGEA!!!!!
Stop man-made continental drift!
Canadian jack?
Any relation to Yukon Jack or Jack Daniels? they both will do a number on your"perspective".......................:)
brent
The FAD of the 80s was CFCs, the 90s was the Ozone layer, last decade was Global Warming, I think you just started us all on the next one... I Agree, ban shovels, Prevent Continental Drift!
I can only hope this effort on both sides will be hugely successful. I have grown tired of 'hating' people I don't even know.
Make it work, prove to ourselves we can work together
Actually, this should the the way to solve many problems that affect, not only animals but also humans. If powerful nations care so much and they should, for their fauna and humans, should'nt all nations behave in such manner, not just one one part of the world but all around? If we are humans, that is what we should do. And the same protection afforded here by both governments, should be afforded equally to Gypsies, native Americans, "illegals", "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
Only one thing should matter and that is we all are humans, ergo, behave as such, not like the Attilas and huns of barbaric times. How beautiful would be if instead of wars we all solve any problems this way instead of invasions, bombs, torture, genocide. Yes, I know, I'm dreaming, fortunately dreaming doesn't cost a cent. I don't care what tea partiers, republicans, the KKK crowd say, we all deserve better and right behind us, the animals, the flora.
let me guess...your unicorn farts rainbows...............................:)
Of all the gin joints in the all the towns in the world, you walked into mine. This means you found my commentary too close for comfort, ergo, you are a tea partier, racist to the nth degree and just as stupid.
Let me ask scooter store hobo, why you people can't handle the truth. Give that racism a break, rmember the life you might save could be yours. Oh, well, the world is full of crap and you prove it abundantly and for that I thank you. You make my job, spreading the truth, much easier.
Hell no: Thanks for your post. Appreciate your reminder to respect the world and inhabitants. We belong to each other.
P.S. It appears scooter isn't old enough to frequent a gin mill.
Evidently, neither side found any oil deposits in the area.
depends on how yet that many walrus's are bound to leave allot of oily deposits..............:)
LOL.
Krakondack,
That is probably a more honest account than, "we all decided to get along".
If there is going to be some agreement between the countries about a large, very valuable sea passage that involves a large portion of one of our states, how about some information about just what kind of restrictions they are planning on placing on Alaska and the US. This would have a major impact on oil production and movement of oil from that part of the world not to mention other natural resources including the entire north pacific fishing industry. Do you really want to have Russia controlling the economy of Alaska?
Historically, Russia has tried repeatedly to exert control over that region. Call me cynical but I suspect there is more to this than some altruistic ecological protectionism. What does Alaska have to say about it? What does Canada have to say about it?
Russia controlled the Alaska region in the 18th century.
America bought the territory in 1867 for $7.2 million.
Russia was trying to be sneaky.
Figured the natives would drive us out and re-unite themseelves with "mother country."