Bashkiriya National Park

About

Bashkiriya National Park (Russian: Национальный парк «Башкирия»; Bashkir: Башҡортостан милли паркы) covers a large contiguous forest on the southern end of the Ural Mountains. The park is an important buffer between the industrialized flatlands to the west, and the mountainous and sparsely populated Shulgan-Tash nature reserve and Altyn-Solok ("Golden Bee Tree") entomological reserve to the east and north. Bashkirya National Park lies between the Nugush River (and the popular recreational zone of the Nugush Reservoir), and the southern bend of the Belaya River. The park features deep river valley cuts in a karst topography. It is known for a natural bridge across the river Kuperlya. The park is situated across three districts (Meleuzovsky, Kurgachinsky and Burzyansky) of the Republic of Bashkortostan (also known as "Bashkiriya").

The park rises from flatlands in the west, into medium-height Karst (limestone) uplands to the east. The northern boundary is along the Nugush River (in Turkic, "clean, bright"), which flows through deep wooded valleys with limestone formations on the slopes. The Nugush Reservoir (25 km2 (9.7 sq mi)) where the river flows west out of the mountains. The reservoir is a popular destination for locals in the summer; the industrial town of Meleuz is only 20 miles (32 km) to the west, making Bashkiriya National Park an important point of recreation as well as an ecological buffer to the protected areas to the east. The southern boundary is the Belaya River as it bends around the south end of the Ural mountains. In the east, the Park borders on the "Shulgan-Tash" State Sanctuary. Over 92% of the park is forested. The central region of the park is relatively difficult to access, with older growth and dead trees that support a wide variety of wildlife. The most striking landforms are the various limestone formations: outcrops, caves, grottoes, and underground rivers. The rocky banks of the Nugush and Belaya rivers reach 150 meters (490 ft) in height. The "Kuperlya Natural Bridge" is a karst formation that is 20 meters (66 ft) above the ground and 10 meters (33 ft) across; it is the remains of a former underground river. There are 30 known caves in the park, with 8.2 km (5.1 mi) of major passageways. One cave, the Sumgan Cave, is the largest cave in the Urals, with major and minor passages up to 10 km (6.2 mi) long, and reaching down to a depth of 126 meters (413 ft). The Sumgan Cave is located in a particular isolated terrain known as "Kutuk-Sumgan" ("kutuk" - "water well", "sumgan" - "dived").

The climate of Bashkiriya is Humid continental climate, warm summer (Köppen climate classification (Dfb)). This climate is characterized by large swings in temperature, both diurnally and seasonally, with mild summers and cold, snowy winters.

Bashkiriya is in the Urals montane tundra and taiga ecoregion. The Urals are commonly recognized as the divide between Europe and Asia, and the southern Urals combine the mixing of the two with proximity to steppe ecoregions. The primary trees of the Urals Mountain Taiga ecoregion include the Siberian Spruce, Siberian larch, Russian larch, and the Siberian fir.

The park has high levels of biodiversity because it is at the meeting point of several biogeographical provinces: boreal conifer forests ("taiga"), broadleaf forests, and steppe. Because over 90% of the park has forest cover, it is an area of broad protection for forest plant communities. The light conifers of the taiga (pine and larch) mix with broadleaf (linden, oak, elm, maple) and small-leaved (birch and aspen) trees. Rocky outcrops provide openings for smaller flowering plants. Over 800 flowering plant species have been recorded in the park, with 117 being listed as rare or vulnerable. There are limited non-forest areas of the park, including an areas known as the "Bear Meadow" that features lop-sided onion, a type of wild onion.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.