Description of the attraction
One of the most famous and popular Russian reserves is the Kandalaksha State Nature Reserve, located on the territory of Karelia and the Murmansk region, and which is one of the oldest in Russia. The reserve extends its territories on the islands and the coast of the Barents Sea, as well as the Kandalaksha Bay, which belongs to the White Sea.
The creation of the Kandalaksha reserve was started in accordance with the decree of the Central Executive Committee of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of September 7, 1932. In 1939, the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union decided to approve the regulation on the creation of a state reserve, which was created as a reserve for the territorial protection of the habitat of near-water, waterfowl and seabirds. The reserve has the status of not only water, but also wetlands of international importance.
The reserve is located beyond the Arctic Circle, and on its territory there are protected islands: Lodeyny, Ryazhkov, Medvezhya and many others.
Initially, the reserve began to develop with only one species of bird - the common eider, which has always been known for its down, but its number began to decline sharply due to poaching. The first attempts to restore the protection of the nests of these birds in the White Sea were made in the middle of the 18th century, but did not give the necessary results. Several times, in 1927 and in 1929, expeditions were carried out along the Murmansk coast under the leadership of the Russian zoologist A. N. Formozov, who once again became convinced that the eider nests are in a catastrophic state. Based on the results of the expeditions, Formozov decided to publish his scientific work, in accordance with which measures were to be taken to protect the nests of the common eider.
In the spring of 1932, a long group of islands in the area was declared forest and waterfowl reserves. Initially, the regime of the reserve was not envisaged, but soon a single reserve was declared, which included not only the islands, but also the sea area. On June 25, 1939, the Kandalaksha Nature Reserve was awarded the title of state. At this time, a complex of inanimate and wildlife was assigned under protection.
Initially, the director of the reserve was Alexey Andreevich Romanov, whose activities are associated with the flourishing of the full-fledged activity of the state reserve. In 1937, the question arose about the liquidation of the reserve, but A. A. Romanov. insisted on the opposite decision.
In 1951, the reserve included the territory of another reserve called "Seven Islands", and after a while - islands in the Barents and White Seas. Today, about 370 islands have become reserved, occupying 70530 hectares of territory. More than 75% of the entire territory is water area.
For many years, the Kandalaksha Nature Reserve has been conducting constant scientific work. For example, since 1948, all the information received has been published in the annual journals Chronicles of Nature, where all the inherent features of the ongoing natural processes that are observed in a particular year are noted in detail: precipitation, temperature, ice regime, fruiting, as well as flowering of plants, the time of arrival of birds and their reproduction, as well as many other aspects.
Today, the entire biological diversity of the reserve can be characterized by 300 species of lichens, 400 species of mushrooms, 110 species of liverworts, 256 species of leafy moss and 633 species of vascular plants. As for the animal world, it is represented by 47 species of various mammals, including 10 species of sea inhabitants; more than 240 species of birds, two species of reptiles and three species of mammals. The issue of the ichthyofauna of the reserve is identical to the species of the Barents and White Seas. The habitats of the endemic species of the Kola Peninsula - the sunflower and the white-tongued dandelion on the Turiy Cape - are quite unique.
It should be noted that in the territorial zone of the Kandalaksha reserve there are many rare species of animals and plants, which are included in the Red Book not only of the Murmansk region, but also of the whole of Russia.
