29.10.2019
Stone steppe reserve. Particularly valuable natural objects
« Stone steppe» - located in the Talovsky district on the watershed of the two rivers Bityug and Khoper. In 1996, these lands, more than 5 thousand hectares, received the status of an integrated state nature reserve of federal significance, and in 2009 they passed into the operational management of the Voronezh Nature Reserve.
Whoever hears the name “Stone Steppe” for the first time probably imagines a harsh, rocky area devoid of any vegetation. A little over 100 years ago, this is exactly what happened: practical human activity led to severe droughts, the steppe almost lost its black soil and turned into a lifeless “desert.” Today, the “Stone Steppe” is fields bordered by forest belts, clean ponds and protected deposits.
The restoration of the area began at the end of the 19th century. A group of scientists led by the founder of the study of soil Vasily Dokuchaev set up a unique experiment to protect steppe agriculture. They were the first to plant forest strips to strengthen ravines, gullies, retain snow, and create artificial reservoirs. And today, in what was once one of the driest areas central Russia we can not only admire the southern forest-steppe agricultural landscape, but also enjoy the fruits of the labors of Dokuchaev and his successors. Once created by human hands, today the “Stone Steppe” has become a unique example of an optimized landscape.
We inherited from Dokuchaev a well for measuring groundwater, which today is a historical monument Voronezh region. Next to the well there is a sign with a graph showing the dynamics of changes in groundwater levels over more than a century of observation.
This year, the natural monument was put in order by employees of the Voronezh Nature Reserve. As the senior state inspector in the field of security said environmentYuri KudryashoV , last time The well was repaired a quarter of a century ago: “We replaced the upper part of the well and the canopy above it, cut down the bushes and cleared the area around of dead wood. Students from the Stone-Steppe School helped restore order; the kids painted the fence and cleaned up the area around it.”
Together with schoolchildren, state inspectors have more than once cleared the shore of the Dokuchaevsky Reservoir from debris and fed birds in winter. For more than three years, security department employees have been fighting to ensure that vacationers and local residents did not litter on the territory of the protected area. But this daily exhausting work was worth it. Now the banks of rivers, ponds and reservoirs (most of which are of artificial origin) are pristine, and gray herons nest in the thickets.
At the end of June, when the 11th exhibition - a demonstration of agricultural machinery and technology "Voronezh Field Day" - was held in the "Stone Steppe", the operational group of the Voronezh Nature Reserve monitored order and peace in the territory of the reserve. The task force ensured compliance with the rules provided for the specially protected natural area.
Today in the “Stone Steppe” there are more than 800 species of plants, and about 130 species of birds are found. The steppe is inhabited by ferrets, martens and hamsters, roe deer, foxes and hares, there is also a colony of marmots - bobaks, in total there are about 30 species of animals.
As a result of the Voronezh Field Day, not a single plant, animal or bird was harmed.
Information: On the territory of the Kamennaya Steppe reserve, any types of hunting, clear-cutting, mining, construction, reconstruction and major repairs of capital construction projects, free visits (without passes) to especially valuable objects of the reserve, travel and parking of motor vehicles off public roads are prohibited. use, carrying out recreational activities outside of specially designated places, providing land plots for individual housing construction, plowing land outside arable land, burning stubble and agricultural fires, carrying weapons and hunting tools. The protection of the territory is carried out by the state inspection using methods of foot and horse patrols, as well as patrols using vehicles and watercraft.
Stone steppe... Whoever hears this name for the first time imagines a harsh area, bypassed by the graces of nature. Many come here from thousands of kilometers away to be convinced of the opposite, to see this miracle in the steppe, to worship the great human feat accomplished by a group of science enthusiasts and patriots of the Motherland.The Stone Steppe is located in the southeast of the Voronezh region, on the watershed of the Bityuga and Khopra rivers - the left tributaries of the Don. Just two hundred years ago, natural landscapes, untouched by man, reigned here. After the abolition of serfdom, the intensified predatory plowing of land and the cutting down of already scarce forests led to a decrease in groundwater levels, shallowing of rivers, and the development of soil erosion processes. Droughts began to recur more frequently, causing mass hunger strikes among peasants. For its dryness, barrenness, and even for the glacial boulders sticking out in the fields, the people nicknamed this steppe the Stone Steppe.
In 1892, a group of scientists led by Vasily Vasilyevich Dokuchaev, the great Russian scientist, the founder of the study of soil, began organizing an interesting and unusually bold experiment for that time. It was decided to remake the arid steppe in the most decisive way, to create such conditions on it that not only would its further drying out, the formation of ravines and the washing away of black soils cease, but its fertility would also be restored, the climate would become milder, and harvests would be higher.
Dokuchaev considered the creation of protective forest belts and the construction of ponds to be the basis for carrying out work to transform the nature of the Kamennaya Steppe.
Now little remains of the natural landscape of the Stone Steppe. Dokuchaev’s wildest dreams came true. Here on the man-transformed lands of the Research Institute Agriculture The Central Black Earth Strip named after V.V. Dokuchaev created a unique natural complex to combat drought and soil erosion.
The green, blooming oasis of the Stone Steppe is a prototype of what the entire black earth steppe strip should become.
During the work of the Dokuchaev expedition, and later, through the work of two more generations of foresters, a unique system of protective forest plantations was created in the Kamennaya Steppe, capable of protecting the institute’s experimental fields from unfavorable natural factors.
The forest strips are noisy... The oldest of them are now over 80. The main species is the “king of the steppes” oak - twenty-five-meter tall trees as slender as a candle. Common ash and Norway maple are not inferior to it in grandeur. But still the oak in the steppe is the most best breed. It determines the longevity of the planting.
Fallow or virgin lands that have survived to this day are extremely rare in the Chernozem region. All of them are unique natural monuments and must be carefully protected. Among them, the protected deposits of the Stone Steppe occupy a special place. These areas were once plowed up, and then were left fallow in order to preserve the indigenous type of steppe vegetation. The oldest of them is now more than a hundred years old.
The flora here is represented by more than 800 species higher plants, belonging to 75 families. Among them, all types of feather grass, tiled fennel (wild gladiolus), tulips, thin-leaved peony, Tatarian katran, Don cinquefoil, spring adonis and a number of other plants are taken under special protection.
The steppe reserves are beautiful in May-June, when the plants bloom. The voices of birds merge with the hum of bumblebees, the buzzing of bees, and the chirping of grasshoppers. Over all the flowers and grasses of the steppe, the legendary feather grass shimmers like gray waves. These are truly living museums and laboratories, where a thoughtful scientist or simply a nature lover can learn a lot about the past and present of the steppe.
Earthen mounds in steppe reserves are a trace of the burrowing activity of the mole rat. Unlike the insectivorous mole, the rodent mole rat spends its entire life underground. Using powerful incisors, it makes galleries of passages in the soil, pushing excess soil upside down. Like all rodents, mole rats are vegetarians. Their food is the roots and rhizomes of herbaceous plants. Year after year, lengthening their passages and creating new mounds, mole rats loosen and turn over the top layer, improving the structure of the soil, but at the same time making haymaking difficult. If a mole rat, for some reason known to him, changes the direction of his moves from fallow lands to the field, especially to experimental crops, he becomes a malicious pest.
In fallow areas of the Kamennaya Steppe, earthen mounds are often found significantly large sizes than emissions of mole rats. These are the remains of marmot butanes.
The marmot, or boibak, is an indigenous representative of the steppe regions of our country, but due to the plowing of lands, its habitat has been greatly reduced. In the Voronezh region, the marmot lives in only two or three places, constantly exposed to danger from humans, stray dogs, Lately and wolves.
Of the other typical steppe inhabitants, quite rare birds now live on fallow lands - steppe harriers. This great friends grain grower On hot days sunny days You can spend hours watching harriers soar through the air in search of prey. And they hunt by ear. A mouse squeaks in the grass and falls like a stone. high altitude harrier and often comes with prey. The harrier flies all day long, catching mice and large insects to feed its voracious chicks.
Unmowed fallows are the only place in the Kamennaya Steppe where short-eared owls nest, making their nests on thick plant felt.
The shrubs of the unmown fallow are an ideal nesting place for the most common type of warbler - the gray warbler, shrikes, shrikes and other birds.
For a long time in forest strips There are entire settlements of rooks, and all this time the institute’s breeders have had no peace from them. But somehow the rooks suddenly stopped settling in most of the plantings. A marten has appeared in the forest belts.
The organization of a regional geobotanical reserve in the Kamennaya Steppe made it possible to preserve large quantities brown hares, foxes. And since 1979, work on pheasant acclimatization began here.
The Stone Steppe has now become a place of real pilgrimage. Over the past ten years alone, more than 30 thousand tourists have visited here.
Stone steppe
The Stone Steppe is a nature reserve covering an area of 5232.00 hectares. It is located in the Voronezh region in the Talovsky district on the watershed of two rivers called Bityuga and Khopra.
The first settlers on this territory appeared at the beginning of the 18th century. At that time there was an untouched steppe, partially occupied by forest belts. By the end of the 19th century, due to deforestation, destruction of animals, plowing of virgin lands and grazing of livestock, the rivers became shallow, the land became barren, and the climate changed: in summer there was severe drought and dry winds, in winter there were strong snowstorms. As a result, the peasants' fields burned to the ground in the summer. In those years, due to droughts, famine began, taking thousands of lives to their graves. It was then that the steppe was nicknamed Kamennaya by the people.
In 1892, its restoration began thanks to scientists led by V.V. Dokuchaev. They proposed planting forest belts along fields, ravines and ravines, as well as along river banks; a system of artificial ponds was created to mitigate the climate. In 1885, the organization of deposits began. What is a deposit? This is a plowed plot of land (arable land), which was previously used, but then for several years, starting in the fall, was not cultivated or used for sowing crops to restore its fertility.
Since 1912, the deposits of the reserve have been in an untouched state for viewing the dynamics of vegetation growth. And since 1996, the Kamennaya Steppe received the status of a state nature reserve of federal significance.
Currently, the reserve consists of clean ponds, fields bordered by forest belts and deposits untouched for more than a hundred years. Dozens of different animals, hundreds of bird species, more than 800 species live here various plants, not counting those that were planted by people. Valuable natural objects and attractions are: the landscape complex “Khorolskaya Balka”, the landscape complex “Sukhoprudnaya Balka”, the upper reservoir (Dokuchaevskoe Sea), the system of old-growth Dokuchaevsky forest belts and the colony of marmots - boibaks.
