Volunteers will clean the coast for a walrus rookery

This year the ecological expedition to Vilkitsky Island will be held from the 13th of July to the 3rd of August. Since its organizing is being fulfilled in the difficult epidemiological situation caused by the spread of the new coronavirus infection, the interregional public ecological and sociological organization “Green Arctic” decided to form a group of volunteers of 18 people.

Residents of Salekhard and nonresident participants, who have successfully completed the distance educational program of the project on comprehensive training of eco-volunteers, will participate in the expedition.

“The arrival of the volunteers from other regions is planned with consideration of strict compliance with all sanitary requirements, including a two-week observation regime upon the arrival”, explained Yevgeniy Rozhkovskiy, the chairman of the interregional public ecological and sociological organization “Green Arctic”.

By reason of the cancellation of international flights Russian compatriots living abroad will not participate in cleaning of the arctic island this year for the first time.

According to Yevgeniy Rozhkovskiy, the volunteers will work on Vilkitsky Island in one shift. It is planned to continue cleaning of the territory of the former military unit and the cluttered section of the coastline.

The second group of eight people also formed of residents of Salekhard and nonresident participants will clean the coastline 45 kilometers away from the settlement Kharasavey from the 15th to the 31st of July. Last October a walrus rookery was discovered here. According to scientists’ forecasts, the marine mammals will return to the coast of Yamal this autumn.

Wooden buildings of the former weather station were preserved in the area of the rookery, and the territory is cluttered with scrap metal. The volunteers will remove fuel casks from the coastline.

“Green Arctic” plans to fulfill one more project in August. If the epidemiological situation is favorable, 40 participants of the distance educational program will be invited to the forum-practicum in the settlement Seyakha, Yamalskiy district.

The interregional public ecological and sociological organization “Green Arctic” was established in 2014. Expeditions on volunteer cleaning of Beliy and Vilkitsky Islands are its most famous projects. The ecological expeditions to the islands are organized jointly with the Russian center for the Arctic exploration and in cooperation with scientists from the scientific center for study of the Arctic.

This spring “Green Arctic” held the distance educational program of the project on comprehensive training of volunteers. As the chairman Yevgeniy Rozhkovskiy notes, starting with this year, passing of the educational program will become an obligatory precondition for participation in the ecological expeditions.