RESERVATION OF THE ORENBURG REGION:HISTORY OF FORMATION, PROBLEMS OF THE CURRENT STATE AND PROSPECTS OF DEVELOPMENT
The article discusses the history of creation, current status and development prospects of specially protected natural territories of the Orenburg region: the Orenburg and Shaitan- Tau State Nature Reservation. The unique steppe and forest-steppe belt of Northern Eurasia with its characteristic features requires a conceptual approach to protecting the ecosystem of the steppe, which is being successfully implemented in the Orenburg region. Regions with such natural complexes should be responsible for their conservation, as they are of global value. Particular attention is paid to the problem of soil protection in the steppe reserves of the Orenburg region. In 1989, the Orenburg State Nature Reserve was organized to preserve plant and animal communities, as well as to study natural processes. Its area is 38191 hectares, including:Talovskaya Steppe (3200 ha) in the Pervomaisky district;Burtinskaya Steppe (4500 ha) in the Belyaevsky district;Aituarskaya Steppe (6753 ha) in the Kuvandyk district;Ashchisay steppe (7200 ha) in the Svetlinsky district;Pre-Ural steppe (16538 ha) on the borders of Akbulak and Belyaevsky districts of the Orenburg region.The landscape of the Orenburgsky Nature Reserve is part of such plant areas as: the Kazakh province, the Eurasian steppe region. Strip of fescue-feather grass steppes: Zavolzhsky-Ural sub-province. The dispersal of vegetation significantly depends on the extent to which the territory is moistened, saline, and what landscape prevails in any area. All 95% of the conservation area is occupied by grass formations. The zonal species is the steppe, where sod-grass steppes dominate. In basins where there is a large amount of moisture, there is an advantage of the meadow; on the hills and peaks stone steppes are common. Deserted complexes are formed on saline soils, which, together with stony and real steppes, form complexes of the salt-steppe type.As a result of the work carried out, we can conclude that this territory is represented by chernozem southern carbonate low humus low-power medium loamy. We can talk about the natural restoration of soil fertility in the conditions of the reserve regime in specially protected natural areas. It should be recognized that the natural process of soil formation can ensure the supply of plant nutrients for the formation of a full-fledged soil structure and the implementation of the ecological functions of the soil in the biosphere.The Shaitan-Tau nature reserve was created in 2014 to maintain the ecological balance of the Orenburg region. The main purpose of this site is to preserve the oak-steppe forest and its inhabitants. Protected areas play an important role in the development of educational tourism, science and aesthetics.The Shaitan-Tau Nature Reserve is located in the north of the Kuvandyk District of the Orenburg Region. It borders in the north and west with the Khaibullinsky and Zyanchurinsky districts of the Republic of Bashkortostan. It is located 220 km from the regional center - Orenburg, 30 km from the regional center - Kuvandyk. This is one of the youngest nature reserves in Russia (created on October 9, 2014) and one of the smallest in the Urals (6726 ha). It is located in the center of the ridge of the same name on the right bank of the Sakmara River.The organization of nature reserves in the Orenburg region is an ecological counterweight to the intensive agrarian and industrial development of landscapes. The importance of the steppe and forest-steppe reserves lies not only in the fact that they make it possible to see the natural landscapes with which this territory is associated, but also with their creation, it becomes more realistic to look deeper into the complex relationships between the steppe biota and the environment. Studying nature reserves is a direct way to developing ways to restore the diversity of steppe and forest-steppe landscapes. Exactly thirty years ago, on the expanses of the Volga and Southern Urals, the first Orenburgsky state nature reserve was created, which played an important role in preserving the steppes of Orenburg and Russia. In 2014, the Shaitan-Tau nature reserve replenished the environmental fund, the project of creating which went on its recognition for almost 80 years. «Shaitan-Tau» is the most important link in the landscape row of forest-steppe specially protected natural territories of the region and one of the unique objects of national and world heritage. The protected territories of the Orenburg Territory are the fruits of the dedicated work of local naturalists and naturalists, who laid the foundations for the creation of the world's only Institute of the Steppe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which was born and developed along with protected standards of the pristine steppe. Today, the tasks of the steppe and forest-steppe reserves set by the national classics of nature conservation remain relevant. But it will be impossible to solve them if we do not preserve the samples of pristine steppe diversity in «complete inviolability for eternal times».