The Pechora-Ilichsky State Biosphere Reserve is a
reserve in the Northern Urals, one of the most famous in the Russian
Federation. The reserve was created in 1930 in the Komi ASSR,
in the western foothills of the Urals, to preserve the natural
complex of the northeast of the European part of the USSR, mainly
sable habitat conditions. Located in the Komi Republic on the
western slope of the Ural Mountains. From the east, the reserve is
bounded by the Belt Stone Range, from the south, north and west by
the Pechora and Ilych Rivers. In the north, the reserve is bordered
by the national park "Yugyd Va".
On the territory of the
Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve there are the Manpupunyor ridge and remnants of the
Manpupunyor mountain, as well as virgin forests, which are the
objects of the world natural heritage.
The organization of a number of large national
reserves was aimed at protecting valuable fur-bearing animals, primarily
sable, the main source of valuable and exported furs. The sharp
depletion of its stocks at the beginning of the 20th century forced a
three-year ban on fishing, established in 1913, but the ban was not
respected. I had to find effective measures to save the sable, related
to the protection of specific territories. Among the first were
proposals for the organization of special sable reserves in the western
foothills of the Northern Urals - the only place in Europe where sable
is still preserved. The arrangement of reserves was planned in the
Cherdyn district (Belousov, 1915) and in the upper reaches of the
Pechora (Nat, 1922). The latter included a small area of dark coniferous
forests between the Ilych and Pechora rivers, which is now in the center
of the main territory of the reserve. The initiator of the reserve, S.
G. Nat, being a forester and then a forest inspector of the Vologda
province, repeatedly visited this region in the period from 1906 to 1913
in order to survey its forests, waters and hunting, the results of which
were published in two of his works (1915 ; 1922).
The
implementation of the proposal began only in 1928, when the zoologist
A.F. Chirkova presented to the Council of the All-Russian Society for
the Conservation of Nature the materials of Nata and a brief draft of a
scientific expedition to the Pechora in order to verify them and collect
additional information necessary for the organization of the reserve.
The expedition was approved by the State Committee for Nature
Protection, and Franz Frantsevich Schillinger, a well-known figure in
the national nature reserve, was appointed its leader.
During the
summer of 1929, the expedition explored the area of the future reserve,
covering about 1,500 kilometers by boat and on foot. After its
completion, Schillinger (1929) made the following conclusion: “The
preservation of sable in the European part of the Union, that is, in the
Komi region, according to the expedition, based on a detailed study of
this issue on the spot, is possible only in the case of the earliest
establishment of a large national park in the most suitable place for
this purpose. Otherwise, it can be predicted with certainty that the
sable will be completely exterminated in the same way as the beaver was
exterminated. He proposed a project for organizing such a park-reserve
on the territory between the Upper Pechora and Ilych rivers, bounded
from the east by the Ural Range, and from the north by the Ilych
tributary of the Kozhimyu. The project was supported by many prominent
Russian scientists, among whom were S. A. Buturlin, M. A. Menzbir, V. A.
Varsanofyeva, A. A. Chernov, G. A. Kozhevnikov and others. May 4, 1930,
in which the People's Commissariat of Education was instructed, in the
course of implementing the five-year plan, to organize and formalize six
new reserves, including the Pechora Reserve (Protection of Nature, No.
4, 1930). In subsequent official documents and publications until 1951,
it is referred to as Pechora-Ylychsky, later the modern name was adopted
- Pechoro-Ilychsky.
July 30, 1931 Decree of the Council of
People's Commissars of the RSFSR No. 826 "On the boundaries of reserves
of national importance" approved the boundaries of the reserve, proposed
by the Schillinger expedition. The original territory of the reserve,
within the natural boundaries of the Pechoro-Ilych interfluve, had an
area of 1134.6 thousand hectares. and remained in this form during the
first two decades of the existence of the reserve. On May 14, 1932, the
Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR No. 510 "On
the inclusion of the Pechora-Ylychsky Reserve in the list of research
institutions of the RSFSR" was adopted. On February 10, 1935, by the
Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of
People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the Pechora-Ylychsky Reserve was
approved as complete, of national importance.
In 1933, the first
organizational plan for the future reserve was drawn up, including the
staffing table, cost estimates for construction, and the purchase of
equipment and materials. The functioning of the reserve began in 1934,
when the state was partially filled and the protection of the territory
and the first scientific research were carried out by the forces of the
reserve itself and the Botanical Institute of the Academy of Sciences.
It was only by 1937 that it was possible to staff the forestry and
scientific departments with employees of the necessary specialties.
The management of the reserve was originally located in the village
of Ust-Ilych, and in 1935 it was transferred to the village. Yaksha,
where it is at the present time.
In 1950, when the first
reorganization of the domestic reserve system began, Pechoro-Ilychsky,
like most others, was included in the list of reserves to be liquidated.
It was saved only thanks to the efforts and perseverance of scientists,
in particular, Professor V. A. Varsanofyeva. However, the protected area
was reduced by more than ten times - to 93 thousand hectares (Resolution
of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 3192 of August 29, 1951).
The entire mountainous landscape area and almost the entire flat part
were excluded from the former protected area. The reserve began to exist
in the form of two sections. One of them, 6 thousand hectares in size,
was located in the vicinity of the village. Yaksha, the second stretched
along the upper reaches of the Pechora with access to Ilych along the
valleys of the Bolshoy Shezhim and Shezhimyu rivers. In 1959, at the
initiative of the scientific community and the petition of the regional
authorities, the territory of the reserve was again increased (Decree of
the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR dated January 14, 1959 No. 164-R).
Until now, the reserve has been within the boundaries defined by the
specified document.
On February 15, 1985, at a meeting of the
Bureau of the ISS MAB, a decision was made to give the Pechoro-Ilych
Reserve the status of a UNESCO biosphere reserve. On December 15, 1995,
at a meeting of the Bureau of the World Heritage Committee, a decision
was made to include in the UNESCO World Heritage List the territory
“Virgin Komi Forests”, including the areas of the Pechoro-Ilychsky
Reserve and the Yugyd-VA National Park, as well as their buffer and
protected zones.
The nature of the territory of the reserve changes
greatly as you move from west to east. The Pechora lowland, occupied
mainly by pine forests and swamps, is gradually replaced by dark
coniferous forests of ridged foothills, and then by continuous mountain
dark coniferous forests (they reach a height of 600 meters above sea
level), crooked forests, meadows and mountain tundra. This landscape
series is closed by the bald mountains of the Northern Urals.
The
variety of forest types, their alternation is very large, depending on
the types of soil, topography, geographical location. In pine forests in
the upper tier there is Siberian larch; sometimes islands of cedar are
interspersed in them, which is becoming more and more closer to the Ural
ridge. There are many deciduous species, including birch forests, which
are powerfully developed in places. Cranberries, blueberries,
cloudberries are common in sphagnum bogs, and black and red currants,
raspberries, and wild roses are common on the coasts. The floodplain
meadows are dominated by tall communities of reed grass, foxtail,
meadowsweet and other moisture-loving plants. The summary of the flora
of vascular plants includes 659 species from 228 genera and 87 families.
The animal world is typical for the northern taiga and is
represented by 49 species of mammals, 230 species of birds, one species
of reptiles (viviparous lizard), four species of amphibians (Siberian
salamander, common frog), 17 species of fish, one species of cyclostomes
(Siberian lamprey) . Among the background ones are squirrel, white hare,
beaver, brown bear, pine marten, wolverine, otter, ermine, weasel, elk,
which undertakes large seasonal migrations here. The forests of the
reserve are abundantly populated by grouse birds - hazel grouse, black
grouse, capercaillie. Of the waterfowl, a small number of species nest -
the bean goose, the large merganser, the wigeon, and the crackling teal.
In winter, you can meet the permanent inhabitants of the reserve - the
crossbill, kuksha, tits, woodpeckers. Of the most valuable species of
fish, salmon should be noted, which enters the protected reservoirs for
spawning, taimen (along the Ilych River), and grayling.
The Pechoro-Ilychsky Reserve is famous for the world's
first moose farm, created for the domestication of moose. This idea was
put forward in the 1930s by Professor P. A. Manteuffel.
The idea
of domesticating an elk is not new. Numerous cave paintings of elks were
found in various regions of Siberia, which people graze, lead in halters
and on a rein, put on a leash, use in sleigh teams and for riding, keep
in pens, etc. It can be assumed that elk breeding was practiced by the
ancients inhabitants of Siberia since the Stone Age. The Ostyaks, at a
later time, also used moose for sleigh rides, the Yakuts for horseback
riding. In the 17th century, in the Scandinavian countries, elks in a
sledge were used to transport couriers.
In Soviet times, the elk
attracted attention primarily as an animal capable of transporting goods
through the taiga wilderness. With the advent of snowmobiles, this need
has disappeared, but the results of many years of scientific research
carried out on the farm are very impressive. They gave valuable
knowledge in the field of physiology, ecology, the behavior of this most
interesting animal, and made it possible to gain experience in keeping
it in semi-free conditions. As of the late 1980s, there were several
dozen moose on the farm. Research on the domestication (domestication)
of the elk is one of the scientific tasks of the reserve.