Donetsk steppe. Reserve "Khomutovskaya steppe"

Khomutovskaya steppe, nature reserve

Khomutovskaya steppe is the central branch of the Ukrainian State Steppe Natural Reserve. Botanical reserve. It is located in the extreme south-east of the Donetsk region, almost on the border with the Rostov region, 20 km from the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov.

In 1926, the Mariupol district executive committee adopted a resolution "On the organization of the local reserve" Khomutovskaya steppe ". Then it was transferred to the Mariupol Museum of Local Lore, and in 1936 the Khomutovskaya steppe became a reserve of regional significance, in 1947 - received the status of a state reserve of republican significance.

The Khomutovskaya steppe is all that remains of the once vast Wild Field, which occupied the southern part of Ukraine. In its expanses, various peoples appeared, developed and disappeared - the Scythians, Pechenegs, Polovtsy, Sarmatians and many others, who rolled over the boundless steppe in waves, leaving stone women on the mounds of sentries of time. But these idols of the past could not save the fertile steppe from the man who plowed the land. Today, the area of ​​the reserve is 1030.4 hectares, and 90 of them are absolutely protected areas that have never been plowed up and on which cattle have not been grazed and mowing has not been carried out for 70 years. The territory of the reserve is a section of the undulating Azov plain, which gradually descends to the valley of the river Gruzsky Elanchik. The area is cut by branched beams of Brandtov, Klimushevskaya, Krasnaya.

The Khomutovskaya steppe serves as a natural standard for studying soils, flora and fauna. There are 560 plant species here, of which 50 are rare and endemic, 15 of them are listed in the Red Book. The most typical representatives of the flora are: katran, tulip, violets, almonds, kermek, feather grass, couch grass, bonfire, tyrsa, forget-me-nots, porridge, adonis, gorse, caragana, cornflowers, bluegrass, sage and hundreds of other plants. At the beginning of May, the period of flowering of wild peonies begins ("pivonia", as the locals say). The whole steppe is covered with bright red spots of flowers and becomes like a swaying red sea.

The fauna of the reserve is also diverse: a wolf, a fox, a raccoon dog, a hare, a vole, a copperhead, a snake, a steppe viper, mice, a ferret, a weasel, a lizard, a hamster, a bobak, a ground squirrel, a snake, toads, etc. The feathered world of the steppe is represented by more than 80 species of birds: partridge, quail, pheasant, ducks, bustard, larks, starlings, shrike-shrike, warblers, titmouse, harrier, steppe eagle, oriole, red-footed falcon, kestrel, honey buzzard and others.

Currently, in the Khomutovskaya steppe, as part of a scientific experiment, work has begun on breeding and grazing horses. This is due to the problem of accumulation, especially in areas with an absolutely protected regime, litter from a thick layer of dead plants.

In the Khomutovskaya steppe, Sergei Bondarchuk filmed an adaptation of A.P.'s "Steppes". Chekhov.

I want to warn all travelers right away: do not believe the sites indicating the address of the reserve - the village of Khomutovo. They do this out of ignorance and unwillingness to verify information. I myself fell for this bait and now I responsibly declare: you need to go to the Khomutovskaya steppe through the village of Samsonovo and only in this way. On the south-eastern outskirts of this village there is a parking lot, which can be easily reached by a good paved road, then a footbridge and iron gates; here and only here a tourist will be legally allowed to enter the territory of the reserve.

There is a dirt road from Khomutovo to the reserve, but this is a service entrance and the guard will turn you back without talking. Loss of time (an hour and a half) is guaranteed.

Tourists are allowed into the steppe only accompanied by a guide. I was lucky: my guide was a young girl Yulia, with whom we immediately agreed: she does not read me a memorized excursion, but simply tells me about the steppe in her own words. As a result, instead of tedious buzzing, I got two hours of interesting casual communication. I learned a lot more than I expected, and managed to fall in love with this place.

What's bad: I was there in September. The steppe at this time is a red, monochrome desert. Only bright blue blackthorn fruits diluted this autumn despondency. The most season there is somewhere from mid-April to mid-June. The ideal time is May when the wild peonies are in bloom. I saw the photo - it's indescribably beautiful!

Yes, and one more small minus - the presence of a person is too felt here. But these are my cockroaches. Others may not notice. Other than that, this is a great place.

Date of visit: September 2012

Photo: Yulia ANDRIENKO

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When the news makes you want to crawl under the pillow, and the urban landscape even in autumn seems like a miserable craft of a half-educated apprentice, you need to drop everything and go somewhere. It is best to go where the horizon is not snarled with houses and the boundless steppe is open to the eyes.

It is there that you will feel your closeness to the nomads, the textbook Scythians, Pechenegs, Sarmatians will suddenly rise in your head, you will catch the clatter of the hooves of a rushing herd and the wind filled with thyme and wormwood will fill your lungs.

Islet of the Wild Field an hour's drive from civilization

An hour's drive from Donetsk - in the Novoazovsky district near the border with the Russian Federation, the Khomutovskaya steppe is spread - a virgin island of the Wild Field, never touched by a plow, not disturbed by a human hand. The reserve is located on the left bank of the Gruzsky Elanchik - a shallow river, slowly carrying its slow waters. Here, in general, everything is leisurely, in everything there is a wise mind and some deep understanding of the laws of life.

During its history, the Khomutovskaya steppe changed its subordination several times, while maintaining the status of a protected area. In 1926, the Mariupol District Executive Committee decided not to plow the steppe, but to transfer it to the jurisdiction of the Mariupol Regional Museum of Local Lore. In 1947, the Khomutovskaya steppe became a reserve of Republican significance. Until 2014, the steppe is the central branch of the Ukrainian steppe nature reserve. And since June 3, 2015, it has been a branch of the Biospheric Specially Protected Natural Territory of Republican Significance.

Mistress of the Khomutovskaya steppe

Meets us Maevskaya Julia - Deputy Director for Research in the Reserve. She has only been in charge of this post for a few months, having returned from Russia and taken into her own hands the endless Khomutov steppe and a small house without any conveniences and excesses of civilization - it has no water, no bathroom, no Internet. At the same time there is a feeling of home and warmth. In addition to Yulia, the house is inhabited by her husband Yuri, her right hand on household issues, daughter Nastya, and also the starling Zhora, a jackdaw, a dog, a cat with kittens, chickens squeak in a box and melancholic giant snails graze in the aquarium - Achatina. Julia brought birds, a cat with kittens, snails and a dog from Russia, where she left the war with her family for a short time.

People were carrying trunks with things, and I - animals and birds. We have a jackdaw with a wounded wing, it can no longer survive in nature, - says Yulia. - The fact is that since childhood I have had a feeling of guilt in front of the birds. Once, on vacation in Svyatogorsk, my parents and I rescued a jackdaw chick that had fallen out of the nest, we got it out, became attached, it already recognized us, but they didn’t allow me to take it with me. We left, and soon learned that he was dead. The chick was tame and sociable, not afraid of people, sat on the shoulder of a drunken tourist and he killed him. I never forgave myself. And when I found out that according to the advertisement they were giving a jackdaw into good hands, I took this bird to myself.

The plans include the creation of a center for the rehabilitation and reintroduction of animals

Suddenly I understand that if there was anyone to entrust the reserve, then only to her. For such a person, any pichuga is a personality and every blade of grass is a value.

There should not be cats in the reserve, their place is next to people, we try to catch them, give them to people in the village, this animal is not typical for the steppe, and therefore it will inevitably upset the balance in the animal world, - Yulia surprises me. I would never have thought of such a thing. - We our cat like this: it was raining, she was lying on the ground under a piece of slate and feeding the kittens, several ducklings were warming themselves on top of them, and a yellow-bellied snake was dozing on top of the ducklings - a representative of the Red Book of Donbass!

Today, excursions are prohibited in the Khomutovskaya steppe, they make an exception for us.

We are not a commercial organization, and therefore we do not have the right to conduct excursions, horseback riding, etc. - says Julia. - Although this money would not be superfluous in such a large economy. The territory of the reserve 1030 hectares consists of unplowed steppe. It includes an absolute zone where no activity is allowed, and everyone is forbidden to walk there, except for research workers, but there is a relative zone. On it we are with you, horses graze on it. Today, a project is being prepared for the Council of Ministers, where partial economic activity is allowed in this zone. In addition, it is planned to create a center for the rehabilitation and reintroduction of animals that need human help. Children will be able to communicate with them, learn to love all living things.

We are walking along the so-called relative zone. Yulia shows plants that are not characteristic of the steppe, their appearance here is solely the merit of man.

This plant, - our guide points to a forked yellow leaf, - is a contemporary of dinosaurs, this is Ginkgo biloba. In China, it is called the silver apricot, it begins to bear fruit at the age of 40, and lives up to five thousand years. Can you imagine? The famous medicine is made from the leaves and fruits of the plant.

It seems that Julia knows absolutely everything about every leaf.

There is also a mini-zoo here with inhabitants not typical of the steppe: peacocks, royal pheasants, guinea fowls. It's more for guests.

Babies are different

Julia shows us the corral with horses. Today their number in the Khomutovskaya steppe is 40 animals. Horses are needed for the real steppe, because they eat and trample those plants that can multiply too much and drown out other plants, which are also very important for the reference steppe. Unlike other ungulates, horses do not cause significant damage to the vegetation cover of the steppe and, in a certain amount, are a necessary attribute of the steppe reserve.

In reality, our reserve cannot pull such a quantity. There should be no more than 16 individuals in this area and everything is under supervision. They graze ten days in different territories so that the vegetation can recover, because there are a lot of Red Book plants here, - our guide explains.

We go to the steppe. On both sides of the path, among the threads of feather grass, there are stone women. Their bodies are covered with colorful lichens and moss. But only to such an amateur as I, these statues seem to be the same gloomy idols.

This is a funeral figure, in her hands she either has a bowl, or nothing, - points to one of the women Stanislav Kochetkov, with whom we came together from Donetsk. - But this is a typical woman, called a Slav, she was a symbol of fertility, who has signs of pregnancy or developed breasts, hips. If we see a thorough elaboration of details, this is the Khazar tradition.

It’s better not to touch all this with your hands, on their bodies we can see unique types of lichens that are peculiar only to Donbass, you won’t find them anywhere else in the world, Yulia warns. - In general, you need to behave in such a way in the reserve so as not to interfere with anything around. I often recall the words of Professor Preobrazhensky, who said that a scientist should grope in nature, and not put a crown on his head and shout that I am the king of beasts.

From afar it seems - we see another woman. We come closer, but no, it turns out that this is a memorial stone as a sign that 41 years ago, People's Artist of the USSR Sergei Bondarchuk filmed a film adaptation of Chekhov's story "The Steppe" here.

The biggest enemy is man

It is amazing to see rare flowering plants among the feather grass in late autumn, the more beautiful their stingy beauty is.

And when do fires happen in the steppe? I ask.

The fire in the steppe, the so-called fell, is a natural phenomenon, the nomads even set fire to the places of camps on purpose and went further, - Maevskaya calmly explains. – Plants have a powerful root system and are restored. It is only terrible if the fall occurs in the spring, when birds nest, cubs hatch, and plants begin to bloom. But in no case should a furrow be made to prevent a fire, this is a much greater harm to nature.

Yulia says that there is a lot of work to be done - it is necessary to restore the populations of the eared hedgehog, marmot marmot and many other animals that used to live in the steppe, for this it is necessary to create a food base typical of them. In addition, teren is growing very much, taking more and more steppe territory.

By the way, this is also the influence of a person, - Yulia is convinced. - Near the steppe, people have planted trees, the fruits of which the jay feeds on, she hides the fruits in the steppe and plants that have never been here begin to grow. If you leave everything as it is, then in 200 years the Khomutovskaya steppe will disappear as a phenomenon, there will be a forest park.

Suddenly, in the depths behind the trees we see a cozy gazebo, as peaceful as everything around. We hide in it from the beginning of the rain. The sky, which had previously pleased with the rare rays of the sun, suddenly darkened and remembered autumn. It's time to go to Donetsk, and the steppe will continue to sigh with feather grass, as it has been doing for hundreds of years, and wait for us to visit in the spring.

Khomutovskaya steppe- central office Ukrainian State Steppe Natural Reserve. Botanical reserve.

This is the first (and most significant in terms of area) organized into a reserve.

Address: Donetsk region, Novoazovsky district, s. Khomutovo.

Khomutovskaya steppe

The Khomutovskaya steppe is located on the Azov coastal plain and decreases from north to south, and in the west the boundary of the reserve runs along the Gruzskoy Elanchik river. The natural boundary in the south is the Obolonskaya beam. From east to west, the territory of the steppe is dissected by two beams, on the slopes of which, as in the Gruzsky Elanchik valley, limestones are shed.

Before the revolution, the so-called Khomutovskaya herd cleanup was owned and used as a pasture for young horses. After the October Revolution, this territory was included in the state land fund and continued to be used as a pasture and hayfield.

In June 1925, employees of the Mariupol Museum of Local Lore Yu.D. Kleopov and N.P. Kovalenko, together with a representative of the Mariupol Okruzhny Department, conducted a survey of the Khomutovskaya steppe and noted its great scientific importance. The research materials were heard at a meeting of the Mriupol district executive committee, and on August 24, 1926, the Khomutovskaya steppe was declared a reserve of local importance. Since 1961, it has become part of the Ukrainian State Steppe Reserve.

A curtain of thin-leaved peony in the Khomutovskaya steppe

Khomutovskaya steppe serves as a natural standard for the study of soils, flora and fauna. There are 560 plant species here, among which 50 are rare and endemic, 15 of them are listed in the Red Books.

By the nature of the vegetation cover, the Khomutovskaya steppe is the southern version of the forb-fescue-feather grass steppes. Grasses form the basis of the grass cover: furrowed fescue, Lessing's feather grass and hairy feather grass, in some places awnless stalk and couch grass, and in low areas also coastal stokolos, in some places ground marten. Volga adonis, Schrenk's tulips, oaky, serpentine, pleasant and two-colored violets, medicinal marshmallow, narrow-leaved peony (black cohosh), wild Austrian flax and many other steppe plants grow here. And only occasionally in the steppe, against the background of the grass cover, bushes of laxative joster, ordinary blackthorn, wild rose (14 species), bush karagani, steppe almonds, etc. rise.

Stone woman in the Khomutovskaya steppe

The channel of the Gruzsky Elanchik is covered almost throughout its entire length with powerful toast thickets, reaching 4-5 meters in height.

The nightingale, oriole, turtledove nest along the river bank. Goldfinch, rook, magpie, gray partridge live in the steppe all year round. On spring migrations the night heron, the nightjar, the yellow-mouthed beetle, and the wild pigeon linger for some time. In winter, you can often see a sparrow hawk, a long-eared owl, and sometimes an eagle owl.