One of the Most Beautiful Place To Visit – Virgin Komi Forests

Virgin Komi Forests

The Virgin Komi Forests is a natural UNESCO World Heritage site in the Northern Ural mountains of the Komi Republic, Russia. At 32,800 km² it is the largest virgin forest in Europe.

The Virgin Komi Forests cover 3.28 million ha of tundra and mountain tundra in the Urals, as well as one of the most extensive areas of virgin boreal forest remaining in Europe. This vast area of conifers, aspens, birches, peat bogs, rivers and natural lakes has been monitored and studied for over 50 years. It provides valuable evidence of the natural processes affecting biodiversity in the taiga.

Orientation and Landscape

The eastern area of the forest is dominated by the Northern Ural mountains, which are oriented in a north-south direction. They are characterized by mountain-glacier formations, of which the southernmost glaciers occur within the Telpossky massif. The dissolution of limestone along the foothills has formed a karst landscape with subterranean caves, craters and river beds that are seasonally flooded.

Weathering in the Ilych, Podcherema, Shchugora and Bolshaya Syn basins has given rise to columns and residual mountain structures. These are protected as Natural Monuments. Many of these features are remnant reef structures, the oldest of which date back to the Ordovician period. The undulating terrain to the west comprises marshes, lowlands and several hills which also give way to mountains. The eastern mountainous and western lowland regions are linked by the Uniya and upper reaches of the Ilych river basins. The south-central part of the Pechoro-Ilychsky Reserve lies on the Pripechova lowlands, a plain of sand and morainic loam at the foot of the North Urals.

Fauna

The beautiful set of fauna includes both European and Asiatic species with some 43 mammal, 204 bird and 16 fish species recorded. Threatened mammal species include wolf, otter, beaver, sable, wolverine and lynx. Mammals include hare, squirrel, flying squirrel, beaver (reintroduced), grey wolf, fox, brown bear, weasel, otter, pine marten, sable, wolverine, lynx and elk.

Musk rat has been introduced to the area. Bird species include capercaillie, black grouse, willow grouse, hazel grouse, black woodpecker, three-toed woodpecker, nutcracker and red-flanked bluetail. A number of waterfowl species, including golden eye, goosander, wigeon, teal and bean goose, breed in the area. Fish species include salmon, grayling and whitefish and almost all rivers in the designated site provide salmon spawning grounds.

Flora

The vegetation of the lowlands comprises marshes and flood plain islands. Boreal forest extends from the marshes to the foothills of the Urals and is superseded by subalpine scrub woodlands, meadows, tundra and bedrock. Boreal forest predominantly comprises pine and larch, the latter found in higher areas. Ground cover consists of cowberry, bilberry and reindeer mosses. Extensive spruce, fir and pine forests are found in the valleys. The Virgin Komi Forests is the only place in Europe where the Siberian pine grows.

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