The huge green and cozy territories of the reserve, accessible and open to the whole living world, protect it with their warmth and hospitality.
The world of nature reserve - reserve "Big Kokshaga"
From above, the territory of Bolshoi Kokshagi looks like an endless green carpet, sewn with meanders of rivers (like pure blue threads), interspersed with sparkling lakes. Here, dense huge forests are interspersed with swamps and flowering meadows.
The crowns of curly pines are replaced by dark green firs and delicate slender birches. This region also has another beautiful name - Forest Trans-Volga.
History of creation, geographical features
In 1993, on the river. Volga (left tributary) was created the state nature reserve "Big Kokshaga", with an area of 21.4 thousand hectares. It is located 40 kilometers west of the capital of Mari El (Yoshkar-Ola) in the Kilemar and Medvedev districts. Before that, there was the Mari Reserve in Mari El. However, it completely burned out in 1972 in a hot, dry summer.
The main goal of creating a conservation area is to protect forests on the border between south taiga and broad-leaved forests.
The territory itself is represented by plains (river and lake-glacial). The highest point in the area is 132.2 m above sea level.
In total there are about 20 more rivers and streams with the Bolshoi Kokshaga River.
In the conservation area there are 3 lakes - Kosher, Kapsino and Shushiere. The last is the biggest. In shape, it is an oval mirror, its length is 1250 m, width is 600 meters. The lake is very deep (15 m), karst origin. It is filled with river waters during spring floods.
Climatic conditions are moderately continental, with fairly moderately hot summers and winters with severe frosts.
Big Kokshaga River, forests
Bolshaya Kokshaga is the largest river of the republic, which is the left tributary of the river. Volga. It crosses the reserve in its most central part.
The river, which was also named after the reserve, is its main waterway.
Against the amazing emerald-colored background of the water, on its banks majestic oaks rise - the beauty and pride of the reserve.
The unique floodplain oak forests are a sustainable community. Here you can find both old, we can say ancient, oaks, and young shoots.
The reserve "Big Kokshaga" mainly consists of forests, occupying its vast area - 95% of the entire territory. Pine forests that grow in nature under various environmental conditions are predominant. The second largest are birch forests. They once arose on the places of forests that were cut down or burned in fires, that is, they are secondary.
The spruce forests, which occupy 7.5% of the reserve's territory and have a considerable admixture of deciduous trees (aspen, birch and linden), give a real look to the taiga.
They are mainly located in river valleys in the northern part of the reserve.
Variety of flora and fauna
The reserve "Big Kokshaga" accommodates in its forests, meadows and swamps more than 700 species of plants, which represents about half of all available in the Republic of Mari El.
Swamps covered with birch and black alder are widespread in the spacious lowlands . In insignificant areas of the floodplain, water meadows are located.
Pine forest teeming with mosses and lichens. Also, about 200 species of various algae were found here, about 250 species of lichens. The rarest are Cetraria Laurera, Lobaria pulmonary and Usnea blooming.
But there are a lot of ordinary mushrooms around the reserve, and their rarer species are found on the territory: White Aspen,
Coral Blackberry , etc.
Typically, the forest fauna of the reserve is represented by the following individuals: numerous moose, white hares, squirrels, wild boars. Predators live here: pine marten, polecat, ermine, less often a brown bear and a wolf.
Birds are represented by capercaillie, black grouse, gray cranes, herons, eagle owls, hawks, and many others. etc. There are also birds from the Red Book: peregrine falcon, black stork, osprey, and snake-eater.
The reserve is very rich in amazing gifts of nature. The Big Kokshaga protects and preserves the habitats of the rarest plant species. This is Leafless Fenugreek, Palmatokorennik Baltic and more than 11 species of amazingly beautiful northern orchids. The most famous sight in the Republic is the beautiful Venus slipper. From the moment of seed germination of this amazing plant until flowering, it takes up to 17 years!
The rarest ancient plants
Squid cloudberries grow in the republic only on the territory of the reserve. This plant has been growing since the ice age. It is known that she was a favorite berry of the great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin.
Another representative of the oldest plants is floating Chilim (or Hazelnut), which lives in the warm Lake Shushiere.
"Big Kokshaga" - a nature reserve. The oldest specimens of vegetation have been preserved in it.
The rarest species of the reserve (woody) is Osokor (or Black Poplar), found in the floodplain of the Bolshaya Kokshaga River. Here are many other types of plants presented in the Red Book: Grozdovnik is divided, Kumanika, Plaun-ram, Rosyanka long-leaved (predator plant) and Clove magnificent.
The reserve is valuable in that nature in such places develops according to its own laws, without any human intervention. Moreover, this value is growing over the years.
Thanks to the nature reserves, after a certain period of time, when the old forests will be practically cut down, it will be possible to compare and analyze how much people and civilization have affected the amazingly virgin nature, and what it could be without affecting it.