Red Forest

Lore & Background

The area received the highest doses of radiation from the accident and from the clouds of smoke and dust that followed. During the clean-up most of the dead pines were bulldozed and buried in trenches by the liquidators. The trenches were covered with sand and planted with pine saplings, so the trees standing today are young and were not directly irradiated. There is concern that contaminants will leach into the ground water as the buried trees decay.

With people gone, animals moved in. Deer, wild boar, moose, bison, brown bear, lynx and wolves are among the species recorded, and wild boar multiplied eightfold between 1986 and 1988. The effects are not all benign: stunted plants and birds with stunted tail feathers have been reported, and the long-term impact of the fallout on plants and animals is not fully known.

Reader's Guide

In 2005 radiation levels in parts of the forest were as high as 10 mSv/h, and more than 90% of the radioactivity was concentrated in the soil. Concern centres on strontium-90 and caesium-137, which have half-lives of about 30 years.

Fire is a recurring danger. In April 2015 a forest fire burning nearly 400 ha came within 20 km of the abandoned plant, raising fears that radioactive material would be released into the air, and another wildfire struck in April 2020. A study published in 2014 found that leaf litter and dead trunks in the area decay far more slowly than is usual for forest debris.

The area is often cited as an example of an involuntary park, a place where nature has flourished because human activity has been removed.