South Ural Reserve

South Ural Reserve is located in the central, highest part of the Southern Urals. The highest point here is Mount Yamantau, which is 1639 meters high. Climbing it is a cherished dream of many romantics. There are a number of other, no less remarkable mountain ranges: Mashak, Zigalga, Nary and Kumardak.

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Highlights

The slopes of Yamantau are covered with swamps and piled with kurumnik – a pile of sharp stones. Many brown bears live here. According to legend, Yamantau Mountain has a very strong energy and can radically change the life of a person who at least once climbed to its summit.

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‘ The Inzerskie Zubchatki Ridge – one of the most colorful places of the Southern Urals (Photographer Alexey Klyanin)

The rivers of the South Ural Reserve are quite small in size, their length does not exceed 100 meters. The largest are the Maly Inzer, Tyulmen (or Tyulma), Bolshoy Inzer and Yuryuzan. All of them belong to the basin of the Belaya River. The Tyulma River is considered the cleanest in the area, but it is also one of the shallowest, its depth does not exceed 2 meters. After the reserve was founded and active deforestation was stopped, beavers settled in these places and the Caucasian otter returned.

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‘ Tyulmen River

Having visited the reserve, you will surely find out what hanging bogs are. The largest of them is Sychinskoye (750 hectares), a few smaller ones are Mokhovoye and Kol-patskoye. They are called hanging bogs because they are formed on the slopes of mountains, where underground water comes to the surface. The water in the Sychinsky bog is always in motion, flowing from the upper edge to the lower, and vice versa.

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General information

  • Full name: South Ural State Nature Reserve.
  • IUCN Category: Ia (strict nature reserve).
  • Date of foundation: June 19, 1978.
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  • Region: Beloretsky District of the Republic of Bashkortostan and Chelyabinsk Region.
  • Area: 252,800 800
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  • Area: 252,800 hectares. Relief: mountainous.
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  • Climate: sharply continental.
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  • Official website: http://www.south-ural-reserve.ru/.
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  • E-mail: revet@pochta.ru.
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History of creation

Until the middle of the 18th century, the territory of the modern South Ural Reserve was practically uninhabited.

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In the 19th century, huge areas in the Ural Mountains were occupied by the private Inzerskaya forest dacha, and two iron smelting plants functioned here: the Inzersky and Lapyshtinsky. Not surprisingly, the natural processes were severely disturbed. In 1924 the factories were completely stopped and closed. Then a number of forestry farms were organized here. Deforestation reached threatening proportions.

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In the late 1970s in the vicinity of the Yamantau Ridge began a major construction of a secret facility. In the bowels of the mountain grew the closed city of Mezhgorie, which had several other names: Ufa-105, Solnechny, Beloretsk-16 and others. In parallel, in 1978, the South Ural Reserve was founded.

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‘ The South Ural Reserve is one of the most beautiful and hard to access reserves in Russia. It is located in the highest mountainous area of the Southern Urals

Plant life

There are 700 species of higher plants, 226 species of mosses, 169 species of lichens, 177 species of soil algae and 121 species of fungi growing on the territory of the South Ural Reserve. 57 species of plants are relicts of different ages.

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About 80% of the territory of the reserve is occupied by forest. The main species here are Siberian fir (Abies sibirica) and Siberian spruce (Picea obovata). The light coniferous forests are dominated by common pine (Pinus sylvestris) and Sukachev larch (Larix sukac-zeivii). Among the shrubs one can find species that are listed in the Red Book of the Republic of Bashkortostan: common juniper (Juniperus communis), wolfsbane (Daphne mezereum), Kuril bush tea (Pentaphylloides fruticosa).

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Amazingly beautiful and fragrant during flowering shrub wolfsbane, or wolfsbane lethal, is considered one of the most dangerous representatives of the flora of the South Ural Reserve. The shrub received its name “wolf bald” because of the high strength of the bark’s bast layer. As if the plant itself warns: don’t touch me!

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The variety of mushrooms of the Southern Urals is amazing, and each of them is unique in its own way. For example, the common chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius) is interesting because its body is not divided into cap and stem, but is a whole.

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Animal World

‘ Mount Iremel

Visitors

Reserve regime

Certain parts of the reserve can be visited by prior arrangement with the administration and after obtaining a pass.

How to get there

You can get to Beloretsk from Ufa or Magnitogorsk by train or bus, from Moscow – by train Moscow – Magnitogorsk. The village of Tirlian can be reached from Beloretsk by bus or cab; the distance is about 30 km.

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Where to stay

You can stay in private houses of the villages. You can book a tour and arrange a possible parking place at the administration of the reserve.