The Bystrinsky Natural Park is the most extensive “specially
protected area” of Kamchatka. The park, created in 1995, is located
in the central part of the peninsula.
On the territory of the
natural park, there is a part of one of the largest mountain ranges
of Kamchatka, where coniferous and birch forests, alpine tundra and
meadows prevail. The Bystrinsky Park embraced the traditional
settlement areas of the Evens - reindeer herders who settled in
Kamchatka about 150 years ago. It is considered the only place where
indigenous peoples live - Itelmens, Evens and Koryaks. In the
village of Esso, you can visit the ethnographic museum, which stores
household items and culture of Kamchatka aborigines.
The Bystrinsky Nature Park is located in the central part of Kamchatka on the Sredinny, Kozyrevskiy and Bystrinsky ridges and captures part of the Central Kamchatka depression and the West Kamchatka lowland, and includes the valley of the Bystraya river, the basins of the Anavgai, Tigil, Icha rivers and the active volcano Ichinskaya Sopka. The maximum length from north to south is 142 km, from east to west - 118 km. There are three settlements on the territory of the natural park: the villages of Esso, Anavgay and the seasonal village of Gorny Klyuch, as well as the Ichinsky nature reserve and natural monuments: Larch rosemary - botanical and Apapelskaya stone woman - geological.
Summers are short and hot, while winters are windless and frosty. In January, the average temperature is −19°С, in July — 12-14°С. The average annual rainfall is about 300-400 mm.
The territory of the park is replete with many thermal and cold
mineral springs. There are five most significant groups of thermal
springs in the park: Apapelsko-Oksinskaya, Anavgaiskaya, Bystrinskaya,
Essovskaya, Kozyrevskaya. Cold mineral springs are also located near the
thermal springs. The most valuable and interesting is the
Apapelsko-Oksinskaya group - refers to boiling hot springs, with a
temperature at the exit to the earth's surface of about 100 ° C. This
group is divided into three subgroups: Apapelsky, located in the upper
reaches of the Anavgay River, on the right bank of the Right Anavgay
River; Nizhneapelsky, located downstream along the Apapel stream at the
bottom of the valley of the Right Anavgay river; Oksinsky are located on
the left bank of the Anavgai River, at the foot of the Chempura Hill,
opposite the Snezhnaya base of geologists.
Cold springs:
Uksichanskie, located on the right side of the Uksichan river valley, 20
km from the village of Esso; The Pioneer spring is located on the left
side of the Uksichan river valley, one and a half kilometers from the
village of Esso. The waters of cold springs belong to the
mineral-drinking medical table.
There are deposits and ore occurrences on the territory of the park,
the most valuable of them are gold-silver and mercury.
The
Appapel deposit in the northeast of the park belongs to the gold and
silver deposit. The rest of the identified objects have been searched
and referred to as ore occurrences. This is the "Marina" - at the head
of the Bystraya (Kozyrevskaya) River and "Dimshikan-Zayka" in the upper
reaches of the Dimshikan 1st stream - the right tributary of the
Bystraya (Khairyuzovskaya) River. Insignificant gold and silver ore
occurrences are found in the basin of the Uksichan River and the Odyuka
Stream. Placers of gold have been found in the sources of the rivers
Icha, Uksichan and the stream Odyuka and others, but they have no
industrial value.
The object of mercury mineralization is the
Chempurinskoye deposit (Chempura Hill). There are also manifestations of
mercury in the Kozyrevskiy ridge in the basin of the Odyuka stream. The
main and accompanying minerals are native mercury, cinnabar, antimonite,
realgar.
Bryophytes
The bryophyte flora of Bystrinsky Park is represented
by two divisions: liverworts and mosses. 142 species of liverworts are
known, of which 17 are listed in the Red Book of the Kamchatka
Territory, two are in the Red Book of the Russian Federation. The list
of mosses includes 313 species, of which 13 are listed in the Red Book
of the Kamchatka Territory, two in the Red Book of Russia. The taxonomic
diversity of the park's bryoflora has been revealed quite fully -
approximately 90%.
vascular plants
According to the annotated
list of vascular plants of the Bystrinsky Natural Park, which was formed
over the period 2008–2014, there were 674 species of vascular plants in
the park, included in five divisions - ferns, horsetails, clubs,
gymnosperms, angiosperms. Twenty-three species are listed in the Red
Book of the Kamchatka Territory, of which 5 species are in the Red Book
of Russia. The list is not final and most likely will be expanded after
floristic research in the southwestern and hard-to-reach mountainous
areas of the park.
Insects
The preliminary annotated list of insects of the
Bystrinsky Natural Park includes 407 species belonging to 81 families
from 13 orders. The list is likely to be supplemented by subsequent
fees. The list is based on collections collected over several years and
photographs of insects from the park. Materials for processing and
identifying insects were supplemented by volunteers from Bystrinsky
Park: B. Bakharev, V. Burym, K. Backman, V. Zurilina, E. Lepo, V.
Lobanova, T. Prokhorova. Ten endemic (for Kamchatka) species and
subspecies from 5 orders were recorded in the park: Cavariella
kamtshatica Ivanovskaja, Lygocoris malaisei Lindberg, Meloe laevipennis
Brandt, Dorytomus rufulus kamtshaticus Kor, Bombus sporadicus malaisei
Bischoff, Eupithecia pseudosatyrata Djakonov, Papilio machaon kamts
chadalus Alph., Parnassius phoebus kamschaticus Men., Plebejus (idas)
kamtschatica Kurentzov, Polyommatus (eros) kamtschadalis Sheljuzhko.
The fauna includes 8 species of insects from the Red Book of the
Kamchatka Territory: ground beetle (Carabus macleaji); butterflies: hawk
hawk (Hyles galii), kaya bear (Arctia caja), Kamchatka swallowtail
(Papilio machaon kamtschadalus), Apollo Phoebus (Parnassius phoebus
kamschaticus), large marigold (Oeneis magna); bumblebees: (Bombus
sporadicus malaise) and (Bombus schrencki).
Fish
Due to the
isolation of the Kamchatka Peninsula from the mainland by glaciers and
seas during the Pleistocene, there was no possibility of settling
Kamchatka with freshwater fish. The composition of the freshwater
ichthyofauna in the rivers and lakes of Kamchatka is very poor. In the
rivers and lakes on the territory of the Bystrinsky cluster, 13 species
of fish from five families have been recorded: the salmon family - pink
salmon, chum salmon, coho salmon, sockeye salmon, chinook salmon,
mykizha, Dolly Dolly, kunja; family stickleback - three-spined
stickleback and nine-spined stickleback; family smelt - small-mouthed
smelt; family graylings - Kamchatka grayling; family carp - silver carp.
Amphibians
Only two representatives of the class of vertebrate
tetrapods, amphibians, have been found in the park. These are the
Siberian salamander (Salamandrella keyserlingii) or the four-toed newt
and the lake frog (Pelophylax ridibundus), brought to the peninsula at
the end of the 20th century.
Birds
Ornithological research,
which served as the basis for creating an annotated list of birds, was
carried out on the territory of the Bystrinsky Natural Park in
1998–2014. During the research, 116 species of birds were identified and
registered. In addition, several more species are found in the park,
especially during the period of seasonal migrations.
mammals
Mammals of the Bystrinsky Natural Park number a little more than 30
species from 6 orders, including synanthropic species - the gray rat and
house mouse. The depleted species composition of mammals and
well-defined subspecific endemism is due to the geological history of
Kamchatka and the phenomenon of volcanism. One of the features of the
mammalian fauna is the presence in the park of four acclimatized
species, these are the muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus), the American mink
(Mustela vison), the Canadian beaver (Castor canadensis) and the
domestic species - elk (Alces alces).