Guide to nature reserves, sanctuaries and natural monuments of the Leningrad region

Middle and lower level of the floodplain

The meadows located in the middle part of the floodplain are considered the best in terms of yield and quality of grass. Most often here you can find timothy grass, meadow and red fescue, foxtail and bluegrass. From the legume family, you can find yellow alfalfa, red and white clover, mouse peas, rank, horned lily. From forbs - buttercup, meadow geranium, cornflower, bedstraw, common daisy, yarrow and others. This diversity of species is due to the particularly high content of silt in the soil, which settles after the water disappears.

The lower level of the floodplain (near-terrace zone) is characterized by a lowering of the relief, which often leads to waterlogging, and in some cases even to the formation of a peat bog.

Here the soil does not have the same aeration as in other types of floodplain meadows, so you can find real thickets of willow, alder, nettle and thistle. Cereals “feel” well in these places - marsh bluegrass, meadow foxtail, sod pike, creeping bent grass.

If environmental conditions permit, then in near-terrace floodplain meadows one can find a large number of hygrophytes - sedge, reeds, reeds, cotton grass.

Vyaryamyanselka Ridge Nature Reserve: What's Nearby?

The Väryamyanselka Ridge Nature Reserve is in relative proximity to the following attractions in the region

Due to the uneven location of world attractions, the conditional proximity of objects should be taken into account.

Church of All Russian Saints in Sosnovo ~ 15.8 km. Lake Krasnoe ~ 18.8 km

Lake Krasnoe ~ 18.8 km

Preserve "Cancer Lakes" ~ 35.4 km

Wildlife reserve "Swamp Ozernoe" ~ 36.4 km

Preserve "Lake Melkovodnoe" ~ 37.4 km

Nativity of the Theotokos Konevsky Monastery ~ 39.4 km

Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Konevsky Monastery ~ 39.4 km

Kazan skete of the Konevsky monastery ~ 40.3 km

Flora and fauna

Chukhloma Lake is characterized by a high degree of overgrowth of the water area (up to 95% of the area). Eladei and rdesta prevail among the highest representatives of the aquatic flora. Phytoplankton numbers 100 species of algae belonging to different taxonomic groups, including:

• green;
• diatoms;
• blue-green;
• golden;
• pyrophytic;
• yellow-green;
• cryptophyte.

Zooplankton is represented by rotifers and crustaceans. The benthos fauna is dominated by the larvae of chrominids and molluscs; however, small bristle worms and leeches were also found in this biotope. The density of the bottom biomass of invertebrates is 61.4 g / m2 in the open zone of the reservoir and 6.28 g / m2 in the coastal zone.

The lake cannot boast of special richness of ichthyofauna. It is based on several species of not particularly valuable fish species, including:

• ruff;
• roach;
• pike;
• tench;
• perch;
• ide.

Fishing on Lake Chukhloma is of great commercial importance for both local residents and visitors. Chukhloma goldfish, nicknamed "bast shoe", is considered a particularly valuable catch.

However, at the moment its number is negligible in comparison with the three dominant species in the lake, which are ruff, roach and perch.

Hydrology and landscape

The greatest depth in Lake Chukhloma is 4.5 meters, the bottom is muddy and muddy. The water surface is surrounded by flat and very swampy low-lying shores, but in some places they are represented by steep slopes. The lake landscape is composed of:

• meadow ecosystems;
• moraine hills cut by erosion;
• lowland swamps;
• black alder, birch and spruce forests.

The natural inflow to the lake is provided by 17 small rivers (Penka, Svyatitsa, Ivanovka, Kamenka, etc.). Water flows out into the Vexa, which is of great regulatory importance for the latter. The construction of a dam on its bed led to a significant change in the hydrological regime of the lake.

Currently, it has an important water-regulating value for the entire Kostroma basin, but itself is in a catastrophic state due to intensive waterlogging.

The water in Lake Chukhloma is characterized by an average degree of mineralization, varying from 117 to 214 mg / l, depending on the season. The anionic composition is dominated by hydrocarbonates, while the cationic composition is dominated by magnesium and calcium.

Flora and fauna

On the territory of the reserve there are 636 species of vascular plants and about 130 species of leafy mosses. In the forests along the lakes and bogs, conifers predominate, there are oak-herb spruce forests with maple and lungwort. Oxalis and blueberries, clefthoof, and whitewash grow here. You can often find birch and aspen forests.

Fauna is common in the southern taiga subzone. Populations of ermines, brown hares, badgers, roe deer, martens, brown bears, weasels, otters, and lynx live on the territory of the reserve. In 1950, the families of the black muskrat, which is found here and now, were released into lakes Strecno and Välje. Rare species of birds are also found in the reserve. Quails, golden plovers, gray-cheeked toadstools, white and black storks, black kites, medium and large curlews, large bitterns, gray and white partridges, osprey, gray cranes, clintuchs, common turtle doves, gray owls, gray shrike are found here. In the secluded corners of the lakes, nesting teal, shrike, marsh harrier, red-headed duck nest. In the course of research, zoologists also discovered rare species of reptiles and amphibians - the brittle spindle, crested newt. There are also pond frog, nimble lizard, common snake.

Specially protected by law in the reserve are water bodies of lakes and rare species of animals and plants - marsh dremlik, Lesel's elk, large naiad, leafless and quick lizard, crested newt, osprey, white and black storks, quail, gray crane, white and gray partridges , gray shrike, badger, roe deer, black muskrat, lynx, otter.

Despite the fact that the reserve is 99% bordered by forest lands, its ecosystem is seriously threatened by the private economy zones expanding towards reserved lands, communications networks and areas for people to rest.

On the territory of the reserve, deforestation, construction, laying of communications, reclamation work, hunting, fishing from boats are strictly prohibited.

A MIXTURE OF ECOLOGY AND HISTORY

In our country, swamp tourism has developed quite recently, and many have not even heard of it. Russia is indeed rich in swamps. For this reason, the inhabitants of our country do not see anything surprising in such a landscape. Meanwhile, there are not so many swamps in northern Europe, but legendary finds are associated with them: fully or partially preserved human remains of people who lived 2000–2500 years ago. The "swamp bodies" have preserved the skin and internal organs, so they are the most important objects of research. Military equipment and weapons are also perfectly preserved in the swamps: there are often cases when tanks from the times of the Great Patriotic War are pulled out - peat does not allow metals to oxidize. Maybe you can find something interesting.

The riverbed part of the floodplain

By location, the types of floodplain meadows are divided into the riverbed, central and middle parts of the floodplain.

The riverbed part is located in the immediate vicinity of the riverbed. Usually occupies a small strip of land with sandy deposits. Cereals grow best in river-bed floodplain meadows. In turn, this part can be conditionally divided into 3 types:

1. High-level meadows are located either in the forest and covered with coarse grass (woodwort, hogweed), or in the steppe zone, where a mixture of meadow grasses, forbs and steppe representatives (rut, tonkonoga, tiptsa and others) is found.
2. A middle-level floodplain meadow. Here one can find forbs, legumes, valuable broad-leaved cereals.
3. Low-level meadows. They are distinguished by dampness, which is most popular with wheatgrass, white bent grass, meadow bluegrass, beckmania, canary grass and others.

River-side meadows are most suitable for the growth of rhizome and umbellate grasses with a well-developed root system.

Arundo reed, Italian reed

Family Cereals, distributed in Asia Minor, Iran, Australia, in the mountains of India, Pakistan, in the South of China, America, Central Asia and the Caucasus. This is a perennial herbaceous plant - plants of the coastal zone, in their homeland the height of which reaches 6-8 m, in the conditions of Kiev - 5.5 m. It grows along the banks of reservoirs and swampy places, resembling bamboo.

Arundo reed has a fairly branched thick rhizome containing large buds of renewal. Of these, in April-May, stems grow, the thickness of which is 4-5 cm. Their very intensive growth is observed in the first two months and continues, without stopping, until the onset of frost. Stem-embracing lanceolate leaves, 3-5 cm wide, pointed at the apex. Inflorescences in the conditions of Kiev do not appear at the plant, although they are laid and are almost completely formed.

Reproduces vegetatively. Prefers Arundo Reed soil, rich in humus, clay or sandy loam. However, it grows best on meadow soils. Used to create small groups along the banks of water bodies.

IN THE BOLOTO - EVEN ON A STROLLER

Olga Grinchenko - director of the Zhuravlinnaya Rodina nature reserve. It is located in the northeast of the Moscow region on the territory of Taldom and the Sergiev Posad region. Together with like-minded people, Grinchenko conducts scientific and educational work, conducts seasonal excursions, ecological, folklore and nature conservation festivals, including telling visitors about the benefits of swamps.

“In our reserve, we are happy to develop bog tourism,” says Grinchenko. - In the fall, we show clusters of cranes, we take people to the marsh path. We have it decorated with planks. We even conduct excursions for children with disabilities - the stroller will pass there. Swamps can be touched, stroked, tasted cranberries, and smelled. So that children are not afraid of swamps, we conduct fabulous ecological games.

Accommodation is advised to look in Braslav

If you decide to visit the Yelnya swamp and come to Miory for a few days, then there is something to see in the city itself and in the region. There are many beautiful churches here, and 20 kilometers from the city on the Vyata River there is the largest waterfall in Belarus.

You can spend the night in local public and private hotels. True, they can be more busy with the workers of the metal rolling plant under construction.

Apartments are rented in Miory, but there are almost no free options because of the same builders. A two-room apartment can be rented, if it is available, for 31 rubles per day. But, for example, on June 10-11, when we called and looked for housing, only a one-room apartment was vacant.

You can also live in the estate. For example, one of the houses for a day for two people on the farm was offered to us for 100 rubles. Of course, you can find something cheaper. But locals advise looking for housing in the same Braslav, 45 kilometers from Miory. They say that there are more options, and the infrastructure is better developed.

Photo and description

The complex nature reserve "Gryada Vyaryamyanselka" is an important protected natural area located in the Priozersky district of the Leningrad region, which is 4 km north of the village of Michurinskoye and one km from the village of Yagodnoye.You can get to the reserve from the city of St. Petersburg, driving to the railway station called Petyajärvi

The work of the reserve began in 1976. By a 1996 state decree, the natural monument was transferred to the section of the state nature reserve of regional importance. The purpose of creating a complex reserve was the preservation of the largest Russian water-glacial ridge in area with extraordinary relief forms, a rich variety of vegetation, a unique hydrological network and the rarest species of not only flora, but also fauna. State control over the natural complex is represented by the government of the Leningrad Region, or rather the Committee for Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of the Leningrad Region.

The total area of ​​the nature reserve is 7279 hectares, including 556 hectares of lakes. The reserve stretches along the southern territory of the Privuoksinskaya lowland in the direction from west to east. The entire ridge is over 50 km long and approximately 2.5 km wide. On the southern side, the ridge is adjoined by a large and rather developed lake system with a large number of channels and streams. The Vyaryamyanselka Ridge belongs to the so-called pre-Quaternary relief that separates the Privuoksinsky depression and the vast Kotovsky plateau. The ridge is an ozovo-kam complex, composed not only of sandy, but also gravel-sandy material, with huge hollows, the depth of which reaches 35 meters with a diameter of 400-500 meters. The highest maximum height reaches about 80 meters. In the zone where the ridge is located, there is the only outcrop of gray-bluish sandstones belonging to the Gdov horizon in the entire northwestern part of Russia.

Not far from this territory, there is practically all the variety of pine forests located in the Leningrad region. The largest zone is occupied mainly by green moss and green moss-lichen forests. It should be noted that sphagnum and long-moss pine forests are quite rare. Birch and spruce forests are especially diverse in composition, but small in area. In the north-west of the nature reserve there are a couple of plots of green moss-lichen-lichen maryannikova birch forest, which is unusual for the north-western zone; on the southern side of the lake shore there is an extended stretch of linden and birch forest, in which the height of some lindens reaches a height of 20-22 meters.

In the zone where the reserve is located, the rarest plant species for this territory grow, which include: a filthy ostrich, circumpolar astragalus, marsh telipteris, pemphigus, lacustrine, Dortman's lobelia, umbrella winter-lover, as well as several types of lumbago, such as open, meadow and spring ...

As for the fauna of the complex reserve, it is more typical for the middle zone of the Karelian Isthmus. Not only a huge variety of forest birds lives here, but you can also find nesting places for a large number of daytime predators: hobby, wasp eater, goshawk, as well as a number of species of owls: uphill owl, long-eared owl, long-tailed and bearded owls. Black and spotted woodpeckers, black swift, nightjar, crested tit are quite common in this area, but the gray woodpecker is rarely seen here. Whirligig nests can be found among young pine forests. In the canyons of the Volch'ya River and along the coastal areas, there are blackhead and garden warbler, songbird and blackbird, white-browed and fieldfare.

When is the best time to go to Yelnya

Imagine the size of the Yelnya swamp - more than 25 thousand hectares. The swamp is about nine thousand years old.

A bird's-eye view of the swamp. Photo: Victor Malyschits, TUT.BY

There are 118 swamp lakes on the territory of Yelnya, where you can swim and fish. The largest lake in the swamp is called Yelnya.Its length is seven kilometers, and its width is up to two kilometers. The swamp is covered with green islets, where people lived on farms during the Second World War.

- Now nobody lives in the swamp. And before, people were subsistence farming and went out of the swamp on sledges and horses when it froze in order to sell the fruits of their labor in the bazaar, says Ivan Borok.

Ivan Borok, director of the Yelnya state environmental institution. Photo: Vadim Zamirovsky, TUT.BY

Yelnya is now very popular with tourists. Social networks are full of photos from the local excursions; on weekends, representatives of the French and American embassies, the British diplomatic missions come here.

It is best to go to Yelnya in September. Then it is visually very beautiful here, because the leaves and grass turn yellow-red. At this time, here you can see cranes that stop in the swamp during their wintering flight to North Africa, Europe and Israel. From August to October, about 35 thousand cranes rest on Yelnya. At the same time, five to seven thousand birds can sit on the swamp in the evening.

- Estonian ornithologists have attached GPS sensors to the cranes. And it turned out that one of the flocks flew to us on October 1 - flew away on October 16. And on October 19, she was in Israel in the Negev desert. After Yelnya, the birds flew several thousand kilometers, practically without stopping.

Photo: Victor Malyschits, TUT.BY

Yelnya is a raised swamp, and there is no need to fear that it will drag you into a bog, as in the movie "The Dawns Here Are Quiet". But it's clear that you don't have to go into particularly swampy places or where there is a lot of water.

The easiest way for tourists to travel through the swamp is the eco-trail. It is a four-layer wooden deck with a length of 1532 meters. At the bottom there are two layers of aspen planks, and at the top there is a transverse beam and another oak flooring. You can walk on it even in sneakers - you won't get your feet wet. The most suitable clothes are long-sleeved pants and a jacket, a hat. Be sure to take water with you.

Eco trail in the Yelnya swamp. Photo: Victor Malyschits, TUT.BY

The deck is 1.5 meters wide and therefore can be used by people with disabilities. True, to get to the eco-trail, you need to overcome a kilometer of a swampy road. They also plan to put a wooden flooring on it.

Seven years ago, there were no decks in the swamp, they were built thanks to a grant from European Technical Assistance and UNDP. 120 thousand euros were allocated for the flooring.

Roe deer in the Yelnya swamp. Photo: Vadim Zamirovsky, TUT.BY

- When we received the grant, then we created the infrastructure in the swamp, developed new routes, and an eco-center appeared. It became clear what to offer people and what to take money for.

If you yourself come to the eco-trail to Yelnya, then you don't have to pay anyone for anything. In front of the entrance to the swamp, you can even pitch a tent for free. If you book an excursion at the Yelnya environmental institution, then for a group of up to five people it will cost six rubles per person.

The best way to get to the Yelnya swamp is from Miory, to them from Minsk - a little more than 230 kilometers. In the Miory region, you need to keep your way to the village of Kanakhi, there you turn to the Tabory tract. At the entrance to the eco-trail, you will see an information board about Yelnya, and you can leave your car next to it.

Forget-me-not Swamp

Family Borage, distributed in the Caucasus, Western Siberia, Western Europe, North America. It is a perennial soil-blooming herbaceous plant. It has a creeping rhizome, rising shoots, the height of which is 10-30 cm and a straight stem, covered with short hairs. The leaves are small, lanceolate, slightly clawed, the length of which is 3-8 cm, the width is 1-2 cm, as well as the stem, covered with short hairs. The top of the leaves is blunt or slightly pointed. As they unfold, these small leaves resemble mouse ears. Leaves are preserved until the onset of frost.

Flowers at the beginning of flowering are pink, later - bright blue, with a pleasant, delicate aroma.The flowers are collected in inflorescences, which are a rather wide, but short curl, and are located at the top of the shoots. The blue corolla of the Forget-me-not Bolotnaya flower, whose diameter is 9 mm, has a short, narrow tube, a flat limb and five yellow scales. It was the yellow scales that became the "signal lights" for pollinating insects, which, flying from one flower to another, transfer pollen, that is, cross-pollinate. The flowering of this plant is quite abundant, begins in May, and lasts until late autumn.

The fruit is black tetrahedral nuts. Forget-me-not Marsh reproduces by seeds and vegetatively. These are semi-shade-tolerant, rather frost-resistant, moisture-loving plants of the coastal zone, for good growth and development of which soddy with an admixture of sand, humus-rich, moist soils are necessary. In one place, a plant can grow up to 5 years. It is recommended to plant it in small groups, forming "blue lawns" in the coastal area of ​​water bodies.

Used preparations from Forget-me-not Bolotnaya in folk medicine. This plant is interesting and attractive because it contains a classic, harmonious combination of blue and yellow colors in nature. Apparently, that is why it has become quite popular and is a symbol of faithful love. There was also a popular belief. Allegedly, Damascus steel was tempered in Forget-me-not juice. After that, the blades could easily cut even iron and whetstone, like butter.

General description and geography

Chukhlomskoye Lake is located in the western part of the Kostroma region at an altitude of 148 meters above sea level. The area of ​​the reservoir is large enough, but the depth is quite small - an average of 1.5 meters. The lake is 9 km long and 6-7 km wide. Its shape is almost round.

According to the hydrological regime, Chukhloma Lake is wastewater. It gives rise to the Veksa River and at the same time serves as the mouth for 17 waterways flowing into it, but even such a hydrological inflow cannot prevent the gradual shallowing and reduction of the lake area caused by waterlogging.

In the coastal zone of the reservoir there is one of the cities of the Kostroma region - Chukhloma. There are several other settlements at a short distance from the lake:

• Zasukhino;
• Big fixes;
• Nosovo;
• Fedorovskoe;
• Small Sanctuary;
• Dudino;
• Belovo;
• Nozhkino.

At present, the volume of water in the Chukhloma reservoir is significantly inferior to the amount of silt masses, therefore this lake is considered sapropel - the thickness of the layer of silt deposits at the bottom reaches 10 meters.

Due to the high degree of overgrowth, the reservoir is in a critical situation. To remedy the situation, reclamation work is required.

Coastal protection zone regime

What can be done in the coastal protection zone?

In general, on the territory of the coastal protection zone, you can do everything that is not prohibited. Including recreation, placing objects of water supply, fishing and hunting facilities, water intake, port and hydraulic structures. At the same time, you need to remember why the protective strip is installed, therefore, you also cannot litter, pollute the reservoir.

What is forbidden to do in the coastal protection zone?

The list here will be much larger. First, the coastal protection zone is subject to all those restrictions that are fixed for the water protection zone. Within the boundaries of the coastal protection zone, it is prohibited:

• the use of wastewater for soil fertilization;
• placement of cemeteries, cattle burial grounds, dumps of various types of waste (production, poisonous and toxic substances, etc.);
• implementation of aviation measures to combat harmful organisms;
• to place gas stations, warehouses of fuels and lubricants, service stations, vehicle washes.
• vehicle movement and parking (except for special vehicles). Movement is allowed only on roads, and parking only on roads and in equipped places with a hard surface;
• placement and use of storage facilities for pesticides and agrochemicals,
• discharge of waste water, including drainage water;
• exploration and production of common minerals.

If there is a forest on the territory of the coastal protection zone, then it is additionally prohibited:

• clear felling of forest plantations;
• the use of toxic chemicals for the protection and protection of forests; farming, with the exception of haymaking and beekeeping;
• creation and operation of forest plantations;
• placement of capital construction facilities, with the exception of facilities related to the performance of work on the geological study and development of hydrocarbon deposits.

Additionally, it is prohibited:

• plow the land,
• dump eroded soil,
• graze cattle,
• organize children's camps and baths.

Construction on the territory of the coastal protection zone, as well as within the boundaries of the water protection zone, is not prohibited, but in this case it is necessary to equip the facilities under construction with water purification and waste collection systems. You can also read more about this in the article on water protection zones.

If these prohibitions are not followed, the police can draw up a protocol against the violator, and the environmental inspector can be held accountable. For the use of the coastal protective strip of a water body in violation of restrictions on economic and other activities in Part 1 of Art. 8.42 Administrative Code. Punishment - fine:

• for citizens - from 3000 to 5000 rubles;
• for officials - from 8,000 to 12,000 rubles;
• for legal entities - from 200,000 to 400,000 rubles.

Conclusion

Now you know exactly everything about coastal protection zones and water protection zones. This knowledge will help you to properly organize your economic activities in these territories, to preserve the nature, and also to save financial resources, spending them not on a fine, but on something more pleasant and useful.

The legislation in the Russian Federation is changing rapidly, so the information in this article could lose its relevance. We recommend that you contact our lawyers who will advise you free of charge. To do this, fill out the form below:

Vegetative propagation of coastal plants

Calamus is propagated by segments of rhizomes. They are immersed in the ground in shallow water to a depth of 20-30 cm. So that they do not float to the surface of the reservoir, they are fixed with stakes (flyers). In vivo reproduction of Calamus occurs as follows. Pieces breaking off from the brittle rhizome float along the water surface of the reservoir. Other plants can join them. And this floating formation, gradually increasing in volume, can be washed ashore, where the plant can take root.

Arundo reed, Italian reed - propagates by parts of rhizomes containing renewal buds, layering and stem cuttings. The optimal time for planting them is spring (April-May). Layers are the stems of the plant, dug in in July-August and rooted. Cuttings are harvested in late September - early October from lignified stems - straws before frost damage to the leaves. For the winter, they are buried in a hole 50-60 cm deep, and in the spring they are planted in a nursery, laying in grooves 10-15 cm deep.

Marsh marsh, Marsh Forget-me-not, Field mint - reproduce naturally with the help of creeping rhizomes. In spring, their rhizomes spread out in different directions and grow rapidly to form a dense herbaceous cover. These plants reproduce by dividing the bush in spring and autumn.

Also, as the Wrestler, Aconite nodule, Vodozbor (Orlik, Aquilegia), European Bathing Lady, Shpornik (Delphinium, Larkspur), described in the article "Perennial plants of the buttercup family", and you can also learn from it about such plants: Anemone forest), European swimsuit, Asian swimsuit, Hot, Chinese swimsuit, Marsh marigold.

Miscanthus Chinese propagates by parts of rhizomes containing renewal buds. They are planted in the fall; it is recommended to cover them with leaves for the winter.

Broad-leaved cattail - in the fall, segments of the rhizomes of this plant, containing apical buds, or young shoots, are planted in silty or sandy soil to a depth of 10-15 cm.

Common reed - the reproduction of this plant by parts of rhizomes is similar to the reproduction of lake reeds described in the article "Emerging plants" in the section "Vegetative propagation of emerging plants".

IN THE FIVE

Some people might think that getting into such a rating is a minus. They say that there is a lot of territory that is absolutely unsuitable for life in the region. However, Olga Grinchenko, a researcher at the Institute of Water Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, gives many arguments in favor of swamps.

“The swamps in the Moscow region have remained the last oasis of life, where there are uncut forests, where cranberries, cloudberries grow, cranes nest, where the air is clean,” the researcher explains. - Many people want to go there. Swamps have always seemed mysterious and mysterious to people. There are some strange sounds, strange smells, bog, hooked, crooked trees.

Concept

A meadow located in the immediate vicinity of the river floodplain and annually flooded with its waters is called floodplain. If you compare it with other meadows, then against their background it will look poor. A large number of plant species rarely grow here. This is due to the fact that permanent flooding is not suitable for all vegetation.

But the quality of pasture grass and hay from it is the highest, as is the yield. There is also an explanation for this. Every time the water leaves, the floodplain floodplains are covered with alluvial sediments, the so-called fluff. It nourishes the soil and, in addition to moisture, creates favorable conditions for abundant and rapid plant growth.

Depending on where the floodplain meadow is located, the soil may differ in composition. But unlike other types of pastures, all soils are fertile, loose and well ventilated. River valleys can differ in terms of flooding periods.

Central floodplain meadows

This is the largest area of ​​floodplain meadows, and it is located immediately behind the riverbed zone. Sandy-clayey deposits with a large species of forbs are most often found here. Since these are the least flooded areas, they often lack moisture, which leads to fairly low grass cover.

Loose-shrub grasses grow here in large numbers: timothy grass, high ryegrass, meadow fescue, hedgehog, meadow foxtail, common bent and others. Some of them, for example foxtail, give 2 crops per season, which allows harvesting from 20 to 50 centners of hay per hectare. All these perennial grasses grow in one place for up to 10-15 years, giving high yields of forage from year to year.

Duration of flooding

Depending on how long the water leaves the banks, the floodplain meadows are divided:

• For short-floodplains, flooded for up to 15 days. They are found near small rivers or near bodies of water with high banks.
• Medium floodplains are covered with water for a period of 15 to 25 days. Such meadows are found most often in the floodplains of large water bodies.
• Long-flood meadows can stay under water for 25 days or more. Such species are most common and are located near large rivers.

The herbal composition that fills the floodplain meadow depends on the time of flooding. There are plants that can easily tolerate long-term spills. These include creeping wheatgrass, marsh rank, common manna, reed canary and others. In fact, there are not many types of grasses in nature that can withstand flooding for 40-50 days.

The medium-resistant herbage that filled the floodplain meadow includes reed and meadow fescue, creeping and hybrid clover, meadow bluegrass, and others.

Among the grasses that are not resistant to flooding, there are ryegrass, sowing alfalfa, meadow clover, and hedgehog.

Floodplain meadow care

Whatever the characteristics of floodplain meadows in terms of location or duration of flooding, they need to be improved.First of all, this concerns vegetation in the middle and upper floodplain zone. Experienced specialists know that 30% of the meadow is occupied by cereals and legumes. To enhance their growth, they carry out harrowing in a pair of tracks, in which debris is simultaneously removed and bumps are compared.

It is recommended to carry out these works immediately after the water has left. In the event that after the flood there is an increased growth of forbs, it is not necessary to harrow, but it is better to postpone this work for a while after haymaking.

It is necessary to mow the grass for the first time before flowering, since if you do this during its heading, then over time the number of its varieties in the meadow will significantly decrease.

If at the same time a two-mowing technology is used, then at the first cut it is necessary to leave stems 4-5 cm high, and at the second - 6-7 cm.This will allow the plants to preserve the maximum nutrients that accumulate in the lower part of the stem in order to easily transfer frosts.