Polistovsky Nature Рeserve - state natural reserve
located in the Pskov region. The State Polistovsky Reserve was
established on May 25, 1994. Its total area is 37,837 hectares.
Around the reserve there is a security zone of 17,279 hectares.
The climate of the region is moderately continental, close to
the sea. The average annual air temperature is +4,9 ° C. The growing
season is 175 days. The average duration of the frost-free period is
143 days.
The Polistovsky Reserve is located in the Bezhanitsky and Loknyansky Districts of the Pskov Region. Two reserves, Polistovsky and Rdeysky (in the Novgorod region), were organized in 1994 to preserve and study the Sphagnum swamps of the southern taiga - the Polistovo-Lovatskaya system of the Valdai Hills at the watershed of the Polist and Lovat rivers, one of the largest wetlands preserved in Europe. The reserve and its wetlands meet the criteria of the Ramsar Convention, the list of which includes all wetlands of international importance. As early as 1973, the Polistovo-Lovatskaya system of upland bogs was included in the list of protected bogs of the international project “Thelma” due to the fact that this bog system is one of the largest and most valuable in Europe. The territory of the reserve is very valuable in terms of floristic, and especially faunistic. The State Nature Reserve "Polistovsky" is an environmental, research and environmental education institution of federal significance. The purpose of the creation of the reserve was the preservation in its natural state and the study of the natural complexes of the Polistovo-Lovatskaya bog system, within which it is located. Polistovsky and Rdeysky reserves - the first marsh reserves in Russia.
The Polistovsky Reserve is located in the Bezhanitsky and Loknyansky districts of the Pskov region. Two reserves, Polistovsky and Rdeisky (in the Novgorod region), were organized in 1994 to preserve and study the array of sphagnum bogs in the southern taiga - the Polistovo-Lovatsky system of raised bogs of the Valdai Upland on the watershed of the Polist and Lovat rivers.
The legend says that in very ancient times there lived a Man and a
Woman. The man was lazy, did nothing, only ate and slept, and in the
evening he played the pipe for a long time and monotonously, which
contributed to good rest and sound sleep of his fellow villagers. The
woman, on the contrary, was hardworking and supported the entire
household.
One day she was going to a distant city for a fair.
The man followed her too. She began to sell the harvest, and the husband
went to bed. The woman sold the goods, bought everything and began to
wake up her husband, who had slept all day. But he demanded that she
carry him. The woman patiently put the Man on her shoulders and carried
him along with the goods. But, crossing the river, the Woman stopped,
her head began to spin. In order not to fall, she began to pray to
Mokosh for salvation (Makosh is the deity of the ancient Slavs, the
“mother of the harvest”, the giver of good, abundance).
The
Goddess - the keeper of women - instantly appeared at the sufferer and
in anger tore the Man from the back of the Woman and threw him into the
water, turning him into an animal with a large belly and underdeveloped
limbs. This creature was called a toad. Hence the belief that the
croaking of toads contributes to a good sleep of people.
On the territory of the reserve there are 45 species of lichens, 113 species of mosses, of which 26 species belong to the genus Sphagnum. The list of vascular plants includes 450 species. Among them, 11 species are included in the Red Data Book of the Pskov region, and the Baltic palmate root is included in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation. Typical plants of Polistovsky swamps are dwarf birch, marsh cranberry, cloudberry, long-leaved and round-leaved sundew, marsh sheikhzeria. Rare plant species: tender sphagnum, Lindbergh sphagnum, marsh sphagnum, marsh gammamarbia.
57 species of crustaceans and 21 species of rotifers have been recorded in the reserve. The fauna of macroinvertebrates is represented by 90 species. The list of fish includes 2 species: pike and perch.