In the Ufa Park. Foresters in Bashkiria have an amazing corner where you can learn all about the forest, its inhabitants and secrets. This corner is a forest museum. In Ufa, this is one of the most interesting, although not well-known sights of the city and the republic, where visitors will find a real fascinating and informative journey along unknown forest paths.
Museum History
The history of the Ufa Forest Museum began almost 40 years ago. The year of its foundation is considered to be 1973, when he received his first visitors.
The founder of the unusual museum was Marcel Khabibovich Abdulov, the then Minister of Forestry of the Bashkir Republic. The idea to open a similar institution on the territory of Bashkiria was prompted by a museum, seen during a trip to Finland.
The museum project was created from photographs of Marcel Khabibovich brought from that trip.
Expositions
The museum building has two floors, all of its exhibits are divided into 5 departments, united by one common theme - the forest.
The exhibition opens with many wooden products that were used by the Bashkir people at different times. These household items were carefully collected by museum staff and volunteers in Bashkir villages. For example, a spinning wheel, occupying one of the central places in the exposition, was found in the small village of Zabelle, located near Sterlitamak.
In the next window is a brush - a weapon with which locals once hunted wolves and foxes, whose skins were highly valued and widely used in the household. And next to it is a large wooden wheel from a cart with an oak rim, birch knitting needles and an axle.
It also stores various documents related to the forest and life of the ancient Bashkirs, and unique herbariums collected in the region.
In the section "Forest Protection and Protection" of the Ufa Forest Museum, you can see a huge variety of mushrooms, harmful insects growing here, and means of combating them. The central place in the exposition is reserved for photographs, which depict a parachute of a firefighter of the republic’s special services. Such parachutes at one time dropped firefighters to extinguish forest fires.
The neighboring department of “Consumer Goods” talks about how forest resources were used in Soviet times. Here you can see washcloths, brushes, baskets of linden bast, forest honey, wild berry jam, birch sap and even cans of moose stew.
Looking at these exhibits, you can understand how important the role played by trees and forests in the lives of local residents since ancient times.
To climb to the second floor, you will have to go through a cave decorated with Trans-Ural jasper. Once inside the grotto, it is easy to travel back several thousand years and imagine yourself as an ancient resident of the region.
Looking up from the windows with exhibits, on the walls you can see artworks by the honored artist of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic A. Barsukov.
The visiting card of the museum is dioramas in which stuffed forest animals and birds are installed. Among the "inhabitants" of the museum you can see a badger, wild boar, elk, deer and even a brown bear. The skin of this forest inhabitant was seized from one of the poachers, after which a well-known local taxidermist made a colorful exhibit out of it.
There are no less birds here: gray crane, capercaillie, woodpecker, peregrine falcon, woodcock, and many others.
Among the inhabitants of the forest, whose life is described in the museum, there are many that are listed in the Red Book.
Excursions
The Ufa Forest Museum has a professional guide who conducts interesting and fascinating excursions for both individual visitors and groups.
During excursions, he not only talks about the flora and fauna of the forest, about the diversity of its natural resources, but also how to learn how to use them wisely and why forests should be protected.
From the fascinating story of the guide you can learn that more than 40% of the republic of Bashkiria is covered with forests, in which you can meet 30 species of a variety of trees and several hundred species of animals.
During the tour you can learn a lot of interesting things not only about the forest itself, but also about people who have dedicated their lives to protecting and preserving it, as well as about the culture and history of the peoples who lived in this territory many hundreds of years ago.
Where to look and how to get
There is a forest museum in Ufa at the address: Sovetsky district, Lesnoy proezd, 1. Hospital No. 21 can be a good guide for visitors.
You can get to it both from the railway and from the South bus station of Ufa.
Arriving in the city by train, you should take a bus or minibus at number 101 and get to the stop "Galle City", here change to bus number 57, 57a or minibus number 257k, which will take you directly to hospital number 21.
Another option is to use a fixed-route taxi and get to the Sagita Agisha stop.
From the Southern bus station, you can get to the destination by minibus to the Tramplin stop, or by buses No. 57 and 57a, which also go through this point.
Cost of visiting
To view the exhibits and listen to excursions in the museum of the forest of Ufa, tickets must be purchased directly at the box office at the entrance.
Ticket price:
- for children under 7 years old - free of charge;
- for visitors from 7 to 16 years - 40 rubles;
- for adults - 80 rubles.
Tours are paid separately.
You can pay for the ticket in cash or by credit card.
Videography in the museum of the forest of Ufa and a memory photo in this amazing place can be done without restrictions and completely free.
Mode of operation
You can come to the museum any day. Currently, the working hours at the Forest Museum in Ufa are as follows:
- Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Saturday, Sunday and holidays - from 11.00 to 19.00.
What else to see
To complement the impression of visitors from the museum of the forest of Ufa will help objects located very close by.
Firstly, it is the park itself - a real green island in the middle of the city, in which it is easy to forget the bustle of the city, the noise and where you are.
Secondly, an enclosure with animals is located near the walls of the forest museum building, where visitors can live to see many forest (and not only) animals and birds. Strictly speaking, this is not a separate attraction, but part of the exposition of a cultural and educational institution.
One cannot but mention the no less surprising and original institution, which is located very close to the forest museum - this is a bee museum, in which a transparent beehive is located and many exhibits telling about beekeeping and beekeepers are collected.