Description of the attraction
The regional hydrological reserves include a unique natural complex located one kilometer from the village of Novinka and six kilometers from the village of Druzhnaya Gorka, located on the territory of two districts: Luga and Gatchinsky Leningrad Oblast - “North of the Mshinsky Swamp”.
This territory received the status of a reserve in April 1991 on the basis of the decision of the Leningrad Regional Executive Committee. The purpose of the creation of the reserve is to protect the aquatic and bog ecosystem and the reproduction areas of the offspring of upland game. Since September 13, 1994, the reserve has been part of the wetlands of the "Mshinskaya bog system", which have the status of an ecosystem of international importance.
The area of the North of Mshinsky Swamp nature reserve is almost 15 thousand hectares. The territory is located in the interfluve of Kremenka and Yaschera, adjacent to the Mshinskoe swamp reserve in the north.
In the crust, the rock is everywhere covered by Quaternary deposits of glacial and lacustrine-glacial origin. About 40 percent of the reserve is under swamps: Chashchinsky moss, Bolshoy, Sodrinsky, Shiroky, Novinsky, Rakitinsky and others. All of them are part of the unified swamp system of the Mshinsky swamp. Taken together, all swamps, lakes, rivers, streams and drainage ditches form one branched hydrological network.
Rivers flow east and south, and the general slope of the terrain is directed from north and west to south and east. The largest tributary of the Yaschera, located on the territory of the reserve, is the Lutinka River, into which the Vyalenka River flows. Its pool area is about 40 sq. kilometers.
The Pustynka River flows out of the Ozernoye bog, and after the place where it merges with the Chashchenka River, its name sounds different - Kremenka. The Rakitinka River flows into Kremenka, the longest waterway of the reserve (25 kilometers, the total area of the basin is 122 sq. Km). Rakitinka has several tributaries, the most significant of which is the six-kilometer Lipenka River.
Pine and spruce trees are the main forest formation in the North of Mshinsky Swamp nature reserve. However, these indigenous "inhabitants" due to the industrial logging that were once carried out here, were eventually partially replaced by aspen and birch forests.
Several species of edible berries grow in the swamps, which are wonderful natural feeding stations for the common crane and grouse birds (capercaillie, black grouse, ptarmigan), the number of which in the reserve is very high. Special attention is paid to the protection of these species of birds in the reserve.
All natural hydrological objects (swamps, lakes, rivers), all vegetation of swamps and forests located in the coastal water protection zone, places of capercaillie and grouse seasonal currents and nesting sites, nesting places of the gray crane …
Unfortunately, before the decision on the establishment of the reserve was made, the natural water complex was exposed to human impact - the floodplains of streams and rivers straightened, expanded, deepened, the swamps tried to drain, transport lines and embankments were built.
Now, on the territory of the Sever Mshinsky Swamp nature reserve, all types of irrigation and drainage works and activities, mining, land allotment for private and commercial construction, gardening, deforestation, driving, driving and parking outside certain places and off roads are prohibited or significantly limited, hunting for upland game and any other forms of activity that damage the ecological system of the natural complex.
