Public hunting ground of Shchelkovsky district

Area: 20,333 hectares

Northern: from point 38°8"32.985"E 56°5"59.92"N up the middle. current b.i. Vorya tributary to point 38°10"41.963"E 56°5"40.95"N, then in a straight line to point 38°11"22.648"E 56°5"27.531"N, then in a straight line to point 38°11"35.655 "E 56°5"49.516"N, then in a straight line to point 38°14"35.462"E 56°7"1.147"N, then in a straight line to point 38°15"7.416"E 56°6"55.866"N, then in a straight line to point 38°18"54.362"E 56°8"55.581"N, then in a straight line to point 38°19"0.091"E 56°9"18.197"N, then in a straight line to point 38°19"22.053" E 56°9"24.478"N, then in a straight line to point 38°20"8.648"E 56°9"24.73"N.

Eastern: from point 38°20"8.648"E 56°9"24.73"N along the road to the intersection with the river. Width at point 38°20"20.283"E 56°10"25.158"N, further down the middle. the flow of the river Shirenka to the village of Golovino, then in a straight line to point 38°24"40.038"E 56°6"53.455"N, then in a straight line to point 38°25"2.498"E 56°6"43.805"N, then in a straight line to point 38°24"59.151"E 56°6"8.557"N, then in a straight line to point 38°24"36.158"E 56°5"50.019"N, then down the middle. the flow of the river Dubenka to the junction with the administration. border Chernogolovka GO.

South: from the junction of the river. Dubenka with adm. border Chernogolovka GO in the south-west direction along this adm. border to the village of Makarovo.

Western: from the settlement. Makarovo along the road towards the settlement. Bogorodskoye to point 38°15"23.536"E 56°0"54.73"N, then in a straight line to point 38°14"46.117"E 56°0"38.242"N, then in a straight line to point 38°14"18.986"E 56°0"40.243"N, then in a straight line to point 38°13"29.906"E 56°0"26.928"N, then along straight to point 38°12"1.809"E 56°0"29.618"N, then up the middle. the flow of the river Vorya to point 38°8"32.985"E 56°5"59.92"N.

Public hunting ground of Shatursky district

Area: 10,016 hectares

North: from point 39°31"7.841"E 55°47"14.401"N eastward along the adm. border of Vladimir and Moscow regions. to point 39°47"40.943"E 55°49"49.081"N.

Eastern: from point 39°47"40.943"E 55°49"49.081"N then in a straight line to point 39°46"38.862"E 55°49"26.36"N., then in a straight line to point 39°46" 35.253"E 55°48"49.88"N, then in a straight line to point 39°44"57.273"E 55°48"48.865"N, then in a straight line to point 39°44"55.209"E 55°48"16.431 "N, then in a straight line to point 39°43"5.717"E 55°48"14.65"N, then in a straight line to point 39°43"4.657"E 55°47"17.063"N, then in a straight line to point 39°42"9.868"E 55°47"12.513"N, then in a straight line to point 39°42"15.836"E 55°46"4.34"N, then in a straight line to point 39°41"12.517"E 55 °46"3.887"N, then in a straight line to point 39°41"34.203"E 55°43"43.42"N.

South: from point 39°41"34.203"E 55°43"43.42"N in a westerly direction in a straight line to point 39°31"18.67"E 55°43"42.186"N, then in a straight line to point 39 °30"17.822"E 55°43"26.185"N.

Western: from point 39°30"17.822"E 55°43"26.185"N in a northerly direction along the adm. the border of Orekhovo-Zuevsky and Shatursky districts to the junction with the adm. border of the Vladimir region, then in the northeast direction along the adm. border of Moscow and Vladimir regions. to point 39°31"7.841"E

Public hunting ground in Solnechnogorsk district

Area: 18,140 hectares

North: from the intersection of adm. borders of Solnechnogorsk and Klin
districts with r. Katysh in the northeast direction according to the adm. border of Solnechnogorsk and Klin districts to the intersection with the b.i. tributary of the river Istra, and further down its middle. flow to the village of Golovkovo.

Eastern: from the village of Golovkovo up to the middle. the flow of the river Istra to the village. Sudnikovo, further along the road through the village. Melechkino, Kurilovo, Novaya to the village. Polezhaiki.

South: from the village. Polezhayki along the road through the village. Lopotovo to the Istra reservoir to point 36°48"45.228"E 56°4"35.407"N then in a straight line to point 36°48"23.029"E 56 °4 "22.177" N, then in a northwest direction along the adm. the border of the Istra and Solnechnogorsk districts to the junction with the adm. border of the Klinsky district.

Western: from the junction of adm. borders of the Klin, Istra and Solnechnogorsk districts in the northern direction along the adm. border of Solnechnogorsk and Klin districts to the intersection with the river. Katysh.

Hunting grounds are areas suitable for wild animals and birds that can be used for hunting and game management.

From this definition it becomes clear that hunting grounds do not include nature reserves, forest parks, green areas of cities and resort areas, although, of course, different animals live in them. Lands where hunting cannot be conducted, including cities and roads, make up only 3 - 4% of the territory of the Russian Federation.

There is little wild nature left, untouched by man, and many types of game have become fewer. But you can hunt and create hunting grounds in all hunting grounds: And every hunter must study the lands of his region in order to know what animals can live in them. Each hunter, in addition, needs to know those lands that he still plans to visit. Therefore, we will begin the story about modern hunting with a description of the land.

Hunting grounds of the Arctic

Across the entire North of the Russian Federation, from the Kola Peninsula to Chukotka, a zone of Arctic deserts and tundra stretches from 50 to 500 km wide.

In the tundra, rivers open only in May. At the beginning of June, here and there lonely ice floes still float along them, and in August the morning frosts are already getting stronger, in September it snows - and again it’s winter. There are only 110 - 120 days of heat, and the rest of the time is cold. Eight months of the year there is “white silence” and severe frost. But in spring the sun shines almost around the clock. The tundra is rapidly blooming. Brown, red, yellow, green carpets color its uneven surface, strewn with saucers of clear lakes. Hundreds of thousands of migratory birds fly towards the tundra and the coast of the Arctic Ocean towards the sun's rays: swans, geese, ducks, seagulls, and waders. All day and all night their hubbub does not stop. During the short polar summer, they need to have time to hatch their chicks and prepare for a new return flight.

Only in winter and autumn does the tundra seem harsh and uninhabited

Eiders nest on the islands of the White and Barents Seas, on the coast of the Kola Peninsula. Their most valuable down is used to make warm and light clothing for polar explorers. Millions of geese, geese and waders inhabit the tundra. The number of guillemots that form the famous bird colonies is innumerable.

There are a lot of partridges in the tundra; they are commercially hunted here.

The Arctic and Sub-Arctic contain about half of the world's wild reindeer reserves. In Taimyr alone there are about 400 thousand of them in the summer. But they also live throughout the Arctic - from the Kola Peninsula to Chukotka. Deer hunting is permitted from August 15 - September 1 to March 1.

New settlements are growing among the tundra, cities are emerging and expanding. More and more sport hunting enthusiasts are joining them. In Norilsk alone there are more than 5 thousand amateur hunters. In some places, near large cities, the first sport hunting farms were created.

Forest hunting grounds

The forest zone has the best protective and feeding conditions; it is the promised land for most wild animals and birds. From the forests, many game animals settle or from time to time migrate in the north - to the forest-tundra, in the south - to the forest-steppe, and therefore these subzones, from a hunting point of view, are closer to forests than to tundras or steppes.

However, it would be wrong to think that forests are inexhaustible. Many people think that forest is a more or less homogeneous continuous massif, occupying more than half of the territory of our country (910 million hectares). But few take into account that experts conventionally classify forest areas as forest swamps, sometimes reaching gigantic sizes, and large areas of burnt areas (and the forest burns every year), and forest clearings and clearings. And if all this is subtracted from the total forest area, it turns out that the forest itself is smaller by as much as 150 - 200 million hectares, and yet its wealth is being exploited more and more. An attentive traveler traveling by train, for example, through the European part of the country, will notice that the old forest is now found only in small islands among the dominant mixed young forest. Forested areas are still decreasing in both the Caucasus and Transcarpathia. If 20 - 25 years ago, taiga products were used at a short distance from the villages, but now hunters or procurers of berries, mushrooms, and nuts are flown by helicopter to the most remote areas.

All this speaks of the enormous changes taking place in the forest. Every hunter should know them - not only in order to protect the forest, but also in order to take into account how changes in the forest affect the wild animals and birds living in it.

The forests of our country are very diverse in their composition and provide shelter for many species of animals, providing them with food and protection to varying degrees. Even a novice hunter knows that wood grouse and hazel grouse cannot live without coniferous forests, and black grouse prefer deciduous small forests with berry beds, clearings, and clearings. At the end of the last and beginning of this century, there were very few moose left in the European part of the country. But since then, big changes have taken place: on the one hand, control over moose hunting has become very strict, and on the other hand, in the place of old forests, due to fires and extensive logging, abundant growth has risen, which means that the amount of food for moose has increased, feeding on young shoots of pines, aspens and other trees and shrubs. Therefore, there are more moose. At the same time, due to the reduction in the area of ​​old coniferous forests, the number of wood grouse has fallen and continues to decline. Due to the use of pesticides in forestry and agriculture, due to the large number of vacationers, tourists, mushroom or berry pickers, the number of black grouse is also decreasing.

Game biologists have studied the capabilities of different forests for the reproduction of one or another type of game animal. For example, in the old pine forest, lingonberry, there are better conditions for wood grouse and somewhat worse for black grouse. A pine forest, in which all ground cover plants are literally strangled by sphagnum, is good only for wood grouse. Coniferous forests (except cedar) are usually unfavorable for wild boars. The best lands for them are deciduous forests with fruit trees, rich in various herbs.

The assessment of different forest areas is based on a classification developed by botanists. It most fully reflects the plant composition of forests, and game managers use it to determine their value for different animals.

Based on the composition of the main species, forests are divided into dark coniferous (spruce, cedar, fir forests), light coniferous (larch, pine forests), small-leaved (birch, aspen, alder, etc.), broad-leaved (oak, beech, hornbeam, etc.), dwarf cedar and bushes.

For commercial hunting, coniferous forests are the most important, since it is in them that the main fur harvesting takes place, and of the coniferous forests, the most valuable are pine forests, and the least valuable are foliage forests (larch forests).

Mixed forests are especially good for sport hunting, and the more diverse they are, the more different game can live in them.

Each group of forests is also divided into a number of types that differ from each other in the composition of the main vegetation. The name of the type includes: the main forest-forming species; a species dominant in the understory and a species or species dominant in the ground cover. For example, a pine-spruce forest with lingonberry or a cereal-forb oak forest with buckthorn.

Currently, in most cases it is known how much and what kind of game can live on every thousand hectares of a particular type of forest.

Knowing the forest and the “requirements” of different animals for its conditions, it is possible to systematically change the lands in the interests of hunting. For example, moose, white hares and black grouse live in approximately the same areas; they should combine areas of old mixed forests with small forests, clearings, glades, hay meadows and small clearings sown with grain crops.

In each type of forest, game managers are able to determine food reserves for different animals and, when necessary, organize feeding.

The forest attracts us with the greatest variety of hunts. And therefore, it is we, hunters, who must be his first guards and defenders.

Hunting grounds by the water

You have probably already noticed that near the water there is always more activity than in the forest or field: there are more insects, more birds. Among sands and fields, in forests or high in the mountains - everywhere water attracts a wide variety of animals, some to coastal and swampy thickets for nesting, others to watering places, and others to forage aquatic plants. And if the forests are silent after the end of the nesting period, if the mountains are almost always silent, then the water is noisy from early spring to late autumn. All forest inhabitants are drawn to the banks of rivers and lakes.

The hunting lodge is a good refuge for hunters

Hunting would be much more boring and monotonous if it were not possible to hunt ducks, geese, waders, if it were not possible, after standing in the morning dawn with a gun, then take up a spinning rod or fishing rod.

Many waterfowl winter on the Caspian bays of Azerbaijan and off the coast of the Black Sea. Others arrive in the spring from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, from the Mediterranean Sea, from Iran, India or even Africa. Overcoming thousands of kilometers of difficult path, at an altitude of up to five thousand meters, over the snowy mountain peaks, over the sands of the deserts, birds fly to the northern reservoirs. And only here they build nests and hatch chicks.

But the banks of rivers and lakes, meadows, islands - all areas of land near inland bodies of water and overgrown swamps are not equally suitable for nesting of various waterfowl and semi-aquatic birds. Therefore, the task of hunters is, where necessary, to enrich water bodies with food plants, build artificial nests and protect nesting areas from visiting them by people and domestic animals.

The sea coasts have the greatest variety of conditions. There are huge, lake-like shallow bays - estuaries, rocky shores bathed in waves, and rocky shallows that change their appearance with the ebb and flow of the tides. The Caspian coastal floodplains are famous for hunting migrating geese; in the estuaries near the Black Sea, hunting for coots and waders is interesting. Numerous ducks, geese and waders nest in the forest-tundras and tundras of the north near the sea.

Modern game managers divide all water hunting grounds, together with the adjacent banks, according to their location into groups of lands in the north-west, west, middle zone of the forest zone of the European part, forest-steppe and steppe zones of the European part of the Russian Federation, Ciscaucasia and the Caspian lowland, West Siberian Plain, Central Asia, the Far East, etc. This is due to the fact that various climatic, plant and economic conditions affect inland waters and sea coasts and, consequently, the lives of their inhabitants. For example, the floodplains of our European rivers are almost everywhere plowed and therefore have lost their importance as nesting areas for waterfowl. The floodplains of the Ob River and its tributaries are still of great importance for nesting.

Every hunter needs to know at least a little about water areas so as not to make a mistake in choosing a place for the upcoming trip to summer-autumn hunting (we advise young hunters to start with summer-autumn waterfowl hunting).

Hunting grounds in the swamps

Night fogs are born in swamps. They flow like a bluish haze over the grass, spread out like whitish shawls through the forest and, like ghostly glaciers, slide down the hollows into lakes and rivers. Like a blanket, they cover the earth and water that have warmed up during the day. And in the morning, when the sun rises above the stubble of the forest, the fogs gather into light clouds, soar upward and melt into the depths of the sky. And the bushes and trees fogged with abundant dew are exposed. Everything on earth has its age. And swamps too. They are born, in the “prime of life” they feed many birds and animals and grow old.

When spring water emerges from under the ground in a thin stream and fills the grassy hollow, when the first water lilies float along the river ripples, then a swamp is born. After this, every year the underwater and above-water jungles will grow more and more violently. Elodea, water pines, pondweeds, white water lily stems, water buckwheat and duckweed - they will all greedily fight for dominance in the water, for dominance on its surface. As they die, they will cover the bottom, the swamp will begin to become shallow, and fewer and fewer clear mirrors of water will look into the sky among the continuous carpet of telores or sedge. Then willow trees, birches or pines may step into the swamp. Many years will pass, and yet this is the youth of the swamp. Such young swamps are called low-lying swamps because they are fed from below by groundwater, spring water, or river and lake water.

In young swamps there is freedom for frogs and newts. The water is teeming with caddisflies, dragonfly larvae, diving beetles, and water striders. In summer, moose graze in the swamps, and watchful wild boars roam among the reeds. In the harsh winter, moose and hares feed on the willow trees of the swamps. Without swamps, it would be difficult for many forest inhabitants, and waterfowl and marsh birds would be in complete trouble: no food, no place for nests, no shelter from predators.

Where the swamps disappear, the forests become dry, lines of geese and ducks fly past, and the cranes no longer worry or disturb people with their trumpet calls at dawn. Millions of square kilometers are occupied by swamps in our country. One Vasyugan swamp on the watershed of the Irtysh and Ob River extends over tens of thousands of square kilometers, 30 - 40% of all forests are swampy.

The wildest, most untrodden corners contain swamps. Ten tons of reeds, or eighty tons of broadleaf cattail, or four hundred kilograms of cranberries, or two hundred to two hundred and fifty kilograms of lingonberries gives one hectare of swamps. And besides them, cloudberries, blueberries, princelings, mushrooms and medicinal plants grow in the swamps. In some countries, swamps began to be used seasonally, flooded during the wintering grounds of waterfowl and drained again for agriculture and livestock raising.

The swamps are aging. When green and sphagnum mosses appear among the continuous thickets of sedges, the “transitional age” of the swamp will begin. Absorbing huge amounts of moisture, mosses will grow in a powerful carpet. They will displace, suffocate their green brothers with cold and hunger, and they themselves will increasingly feed on rainwater. Green mosses will finally be replaced by white sphagnum. Birches, spruces, and aspens will give way to pine trees. The swamps will become old - raised, and the sphagnum will switch to being fed by atmospheric rainwater.

Birds occasionally fly here, and even swamp lovers, wild boars, only come in the deep snowy winter to feed on mosses in cases of extreme hunger.

Raised bogs store a lot of water. Groundwater in them is not absorbed by plants. Mosses accumulate water from the atmosphere and are very reluctant to evaporate it. Someday people will use old swamps as reservoirs. In the meantime, they are drained, agricultural crops are cultivated on them or forests are planted. But woe to those who treat the swamps without respect and drain them in a row, regardless of their position and age. After all, swamps can be in lowlands and on hills, in floodplains of rivers and along the edges of lakes. When they are drained in succession, the groundwater level drops, spring floods become short and violent, lakes and rivers become shallow; lands that have never experienced drought have to be watered with expensive water from expensive machines. Nature takes cruel revenge on inept owners. Often in drained areas, the thin fertile layer of soil is washed away and carried away by spring waters. There are no meadows or arable land left - only sand. This is especially scary in lands where the amount of precipitation is less than evaporation, where the destruction of swamps is a direct road to drought.

In autumn, when you see off the last flocks of migratory birds and admire their swift flight, say “thank you” to the swamps. It was they who raised and fed the winged tribe.

Hunting grounds in steppes and semi-deserts

The steppe, untouched and wild, was preserved even at the beginning of our century, and in some places in Siberia just thirty years ago the main inhabitants of the steppe were marmots, larks, and eagles.

Now, from Moldova to the Ob River, a continuous strip of mostly plowed steppes stretches, and further, beyond Novosibirsk, this zone breaks up, forming separate islands of the also plowed Biysk and Kuznetsk steppes beyond the Ob, Minusinsk - on the western bank of the Yenisei, Khakassk - in the western Sayan Mountains, Daurian - in Transbaikalia. There are steppes in both Yakutia and the Chita region.

Usually the steppe appears to us as an endless plain. And in reality, its relief is most often smoothed out. Even mountain steppes are almost always located on more or less flat plateaus or on mountains with smooth sloping slopes.

The steppes have the greatest variety of plants. Unplowed remains of mixed-grass steppes with broad-leaved grasses can still be found at the level of Tula, Ulyanovsk, and Omsk. To the south, feather grass steppes remained in small spots here and there. Forb-grass steppes used to dominate in Transbaikalia, and steppe meadows dominated in Yakutia. Combinations of different herbaceous vegetation can be found in the mountain steppes of the Caucasus and Transcaucasia, Altai and Sayan. In most steppe areas, forest shelterbelts are now common.

Semi-desert is a transition from the steppes to the kingdom of dunes.

Once upon a time, the steppes were inhabited by countless herds of wild horses (tarpans), saigas, and roe deer. They laid paths, respected the land, trampled grain seeds into the soil. Numerous rodents (gophers, marmots, etc.) mixed the earth when digging holes and contributed to the spread of seeds. Now some of these animals are completely gone, while others remain very few.

A novice hunter needs to know that agriculture in forest-steppes and steppes not only changes the composition of the wild inhabitants of these zones, but often, unfortunately, negatively affects the number of game animals. But a novice hunter himself can be an agricultural worker: an agronomist, a machine operator. Therefore, he must use pesticides and fertilizers as carefully as possible (long-term open storage in fields, for example, often causes poisoning of gray partridges or migratory waterfowl). During haymaking or harvesting, machines usually kill many young partridges and hares. To prevent this from happening, repellent devices are installed on harvesting machines; harvesting is carried out from the center of the field to the edges, and not vice versa.

With the plowing of the steppes, with the appearance of forest belts in them, saigas went into the semi-deserts, marmots almost disappeared, and there were fewer gophers and jerboas. But in the steppe hunting grounds near Rostov and Stavropol there are quite a lot of gray partridges, brown hares and foxes. In some places, in the remaining wormwood and wormwood-grass steppes, bustards and little bustards are still preserved. As before, animals and especially birds are attracted to rivers and lakes in the steppes. Here, by the water, live pelicans, ibis, spoonbills, and herons. Waders include avocets, turukhtana, stilts, phalaropes, etc.

In semi-deserts the soil is much poorer; sand, loam, and clay are common. The vegetation does not form a continuous carpet. The turf of individual plants does not completely cover the ground; Artemisia, fescue, and tumbleweed predominate. In saline areas, large and completely devoid of vegetation surfaces called taki-rami are formed. In the dry season, takyrs with cracked dense soil look like concrete fields of airfields, and after rains, when they turn into shallow lakes, you can’t drive or walk on them. It is characteristic that the greatest diversity of wild animals in open spaces can now be found in semi-deserts, and not in plowed steppes. It is in semi-deserts, on the so-called black lands, in Kalmykia and in unplowed areas of Kazakhstan that saigas are now concentrated, demoiselle cranes nest, and gophers, jerboas, corsacs, and steppe eagles live.

Steppes and semi-deserts have not lost their attractiveness for hunters, and hunting in them is unique. Only in forest-steppes, steppes and semi-deserts can you hunt hares or foxes with greyhound dogs, and with birds of prey - falcons and golden eagles.

The desert roads are hot, hard to breathe and tiring. Very rare plants underfoot, a pale blue sky, a yellow haze of dust hanging in the trembling air for hours. The desert does not give the hunter its wealth, but takes away the wealth from all living things. Angry hot winds cut the naked parts of the body with prickly grains of sand, and the reward for the trials is a mirage or an oasis with a short respite. Is this why the hunting potential of the desert has been least studied and hunting specialists limit themselves to stating the fact: the desert is not dead, but it is of little use.

Here plants are found only as individual bushes or stems. A typical desert is dominated by dunes, sometimes with shrubs of sand acacia, kandym, dzhuzgun, ephedra, and saxaul.

Few animals inhabit the land of mirages. Yellow gophers, gerbils, jerboas and hamsters are common sand-dwelling rodents. There are few birds here either. Only those such as the saxaul jay or the desert shrike and raven have adapted to the harsh conditions of heat and sand. True, there is also a hunting species - the desert partridge, but these birds are few in number, and hunting them is not particularly difficult. Of the ungulates, only saigas enter some deserts. The richest species of reptiles and insects are represented in the fauna of deserts and semi-deserts.

Alas, hunting in deserts is not as interesting as in other areas. And it exists mainly only where lakes or rivers wedge into the land of mirages, reed jungles (4-5 m high) grow along the banks and meadows in other places for many kilometers - tugai, and willow trees rise here and there on the islands. Water generously gives life to countless game animals and birds. Wild boars, hares, jackals, and jungle cats live in the reeds. There are especially many waterfowl nesting here, among which cormorants, pelicans, ducks, geese, and ibis are common.

The reed jungle is a unique world. The excess heat and moisture in it led to the formation of truly greenhouse conditions. And therefore, in the deltas of desert rivers and along the shores of lakes, life is unusually abundant, and in its richness it differs sharply from the surrounding kingdom of sand and heat.

In the mountains, in relatively small areas, usually in belts, at different altitudes there are forests, steppes, alpine meadows, and peculiar, almost tundra, vegetation on the border with eternal snow.

Animals of the mountains, preferring one or another zone, as a rule, do not live only in it, but go out to neighboring zones, and, conversely, the inhabitants of treeless highlands often descend into the forest. The warmer the climate, the higher the forest belt rises into the mountains. And in the mountains in the north, the forest sometimes occupies only the lowest parts of the southern slopes.

Hunting in the mountains is very diverse in terms of the composition of the land. After all, almost everywhere on the territories of such farms there is not only a forest belt. The Alpine and subalpine belts are distinguished by a huge wealth of herbs. But even where the climate is very arid and grass cover is poorly developed, many game animals live in the mountains. For example, in the semi-desert vegetation of the southern mountains of Armenia, leopards and bezoar goats live, and chukar chukar are the most common birds. Above the forest belt live aurochs and chamois; in the mountains of the Lesser Caucasus - mouflons; in the Tien Shan - tek, argali, leopard; in the mountains of Eastern Siberia, on the Stanovoy Range - bighorn sheep.

Hunting in the mountains is more difficult than in any other place. You need to have strong and resilient muscles and a trained heart. Not everyone can climb, descend and climb again, either on grass slippery from the rain, or along slopes, and sometimes even with a load. You have to make sure that no stones fall from under your feet, so that if you stumble, you don’t fall into an abyss or fall into a karst sinkhole. And at the same time, you must not miss the sudden take-off of a partridge or snowcock and be able to sneak up on an extremely careful bird.

Anonymized hunting grounds

How to completely eliminate depersonalized land?

Before answering this question, it is necessary to make a small digression. It is known that population density correlates with many physical-geographical and hunting-economic characteristics.

In the sport hunting zone, which occupies 17.7% of the territory of Russia, 3/4 of the total population of our country is concentrated.

The semi-industrial zone occupies approximately the same area, but with a population 7 times smaller. Vast and sparsely populated spaces, mainly in the North, form a fishing zone.

During the years of Soviet power, hundreds of new cities and workers' settlements arose, including in the Far North. Even more industrial and energy centers in the taiga and tundra will appear in the ninth and subsequent five-year plans. To determine how this will affect the reduction in the area of ​​fishing grounds, let’s take as an example a city like Norilsk.

In Norilsk there are 4,800 hunters who go hunting at a distance of 100 km from the city from west to east and 70-80 km from north to south, developing about 700-800 thousand hectares of land. If we add to this the city with its enterprises, it turns out that the emergence of such a large industrial complex as Norilsk turns about 700 thousand hectares of fishing grounds into territory for amateur hunting. This allows us to conclude that the area of ​​the fishing zone will be reduced by 10% only after more than 210 cities such as Norilsk appear in it, and its population increases by 27 million people, i.e., doubles. This will, apparently, not happen so soon, and the biological resources of the taiga and tundra will be objects of commercial fishing for a long time and will have important economic importance.

Let's continue our calculations using specific examples. In the European part of Russia, the fishing zone includes the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions, the Komi and Karelian Autonomous Republics. We took the Vologda, Kirov, Gorky, Perm and Sverdlovsk regions as semi-commercial ones. The sport hunting zone is represented by 17 regions included in the Central and Central Black Earth economic regions. These groups of regions differ in the composition of hunting grounds and the nature of their use.

In all zones there is a significant fund of free land, due to which the area of ​​fishing and sports farms can be expanded. As of January 1, 2009, there were 70 state industrial enterprises operating in the Russian Federation. In the coming years, it is planned to organize 80 new state industrial enterprises. The number of consumer cooperative industrial farms will also increase.

Experience shows that on a farm with an area of ​​27 thousand hectares it is possible to satisfy the hunting needs of 127 people during the year. Consequently, the provision of land for each hunter should be 200 hectares. In reality, per hunter in the commercial hunting zone there are 141 hectares of land assigned to societies, in the semi-commercial zone - 90 hectares, in the sport hunting zone - 108 hectares. If the load of land for each hunter is increased to 200 hectares, then the area of ​​sports land in hunting economic zones will increase accordingly. With such a norm, the entire territory of the sports zone can be attributed to primary groups and societies of hunters. Of course, the point is not only to distribute land between groups. At the same time, it is necessary to improve organizational and mass work, raise the cultural level and consciousness of hunters, and achieve their active labor participation in the construction of a hunting farm.

The situation is different in the fishing zone. If the requests of amateur hunters are fully satisfied, no more than 10-12% of the land can be assigned to groups. The rest of the territory has a fishing purpose and can be used to organize industrial farms or assigned to semi-fishing groups. Some of the land will remain vacant for a long time, not involved in economic turnover. This zone, due to the lack of field workers, is characterized by complex and focal use of biological resources of the taiga and tundra.

The economic efficiency of radical reclamation of hunting lands and some other measures can only be revealed after a few years, so it can be recommended to keep a book of the history of the farm on every farm, primarily in experimental farms. This unique chronicle of the economy should reflect all changes in the composition and quality of hunting grounds, and at the same time the impact of these changes on the number of hunting fauna.

It should also indicate deviations from the norm in meteorological conditions, feed yields, and land reclamation measures taken. The entries in this book will serve in the future as valuable material for drawing conclusions and generalizations about the environmental and economic efficiency of all the changes that have occurred in the hunting grounds of the economy.

When planning a hunting farm, one must proceed from what the hunting grounds can provide, and not from what they provide if they are not used properly. It is necessary to consider all the conditions of hunting management in dynamics. The final general indicator of the use of the state hunting fund on the farm should be the indicator of gross hunting and related products obtained from 100 or 1000 hectares of land. Every square kilometer of land assigned to the society must be used with maximum benefit.

Under the influence of industrialization and the rapid development of technology, the process of transformation of the earth's surface has accelerated. There are already more than 1 billion hectares of land on the globe that have lost biological productivity as a result of unreasonable human activity. The natural environment is changing so quickly that some scientists are already talking about the critical state of the landscape sphere. In this regard, the structure of the hunting grounds fund also becomes dynamic. In the new conditions, hunting problems can only be solved in conjunction with human activities in other sectors of the economy and from the standpoint of rational environmental management.

Photos of hunting grounds

The stock of hunting grounds, i.e. territories and water areas suitable for the habitation of game animals and hunting on them, is huge in the USSR.

According to D.N. Danilov (1972), it is over 2200 million hectares and is divided in percentage terms as follows: forests and shrubs - 46.1%, hayfields and pastures - 16.9, arable lands - 10.2, swamps - 5.4, water-covered areas - 3.9, other lands (tundra, rocky areas, sand) - 17.5%. The above division of land into large categories of land that are not similar to each other is objective, but, of course, not detailed enough to serve as a basis for hunting. Forests, open spaces and bodies of water are too diverse in their natural and ecological properties to allow any general assessments to be made.

Therefore, in the matter of knowledge of lands, the first stage was attempts to develop their typology.

It was necessary to identify taxonomic units of land that would meet the requirements of the hunting industry in territorial, ecological and economic terms. The greatest contribution to the solution of this problem was undoubtedly made by D. N. Danilov. He based his typology scheme for hunting grounds on the phytocenological principle, arguing that the best expression of the entire set of natural conditions, including feeding and protective properties, is vegetation. He and his followers developed in particular detail a hunting typology of forests, which was based on the typology adopted in forestry. The latter, in accordance with the specifics of hunting, has been significantly simplified. Foresters divide forest stands by age into classes at intervals of 10 (for deciduous trees) and 20 (for coniferous trees) years. For hunting, such detail is excessive.

In terms of food supply, protection and nesting suitability for animals, the three successional stages of forests most truly differ from each other: young forests, middle-aged and old forest stands. The first of them are characterized by the fact that the trees that form them are low and, therefore, the branches and shoots on them are accessible to animal dendrophages. On the other hand, these same branches are still thin and it is inconvenient to sit on them to peck at needles, buds or earrings, which constitute the winter food of birds such as capercaillie, black grouse and even hazel grouse. Trees do not bear fruit, which means they do not promise anything to those animals that feed on seeds or fruits. But under the still unclosed canopy of young trees, herbaceous plants develop well, including berry plants, and insects are found in abundance. All this creates favorable conditions for summer and autumn feeding of upland game.

Middle-aged forests, especially those in the so-called perch stage, are the poorest in terms of food. The crowns of the trees have risen so high that the branches and shoots are not accessible even to such large animals as moose. The branches are still not strong, and it is difficult for large birds to feed on them. The plantings still do not bear fruit, and soil shading associated with the closure of tree crowns leads to the depletion and disappearance of plants in the cover. The only thing that attracts many animals here is the high level of protection. On the one hand, it is easy to hide in the thicket of a pole, and on the other hand, it is easy to notice the approach of danger.

Finally, in old forests the ecological situation is changing again. The trees that form them begin to produce seeds and fruits. The branches easily support the weight of birds perching on the trees. The thinning of the forest stand that occurs with age promotes the development of regrowth, undergrowth and cover plants, so that compared to polewood, the reserves of wood, branches and other types of food here are noticeably increased. It is believed that young forests include plantings up to 20 years old, middle-aged forests - from 20 to 40 years, and all older plantings belong to the group of old forests. In some cases, such a division is conditional, since in different growing conditions a 15-year-old tree stand can be close in character to a polewood tree, a 25-year-old tree stand can look almost like a young tree, and a 35-year-old tree stand can bear fruit. The particular character of forests of different ages, in addition to the conditions of their growth, is determined by the density of the tree canopy. The more densely the tree crowns close, the less light and heat penetrates to the soil, the weaker the lower tiers of the forest develop and the poorer the invertebrate fauna in them. Foresters distinguish 10 gradations of density from 0.1 to 1.0. It is enough for game managers to divide forests on this basis into three groups: dense, medium-closed and sparse, i.e., according to silvicultural standards with completeness from 0.1 to 0.4, from 0.5 to 0.7 and from 0.8 to 1 ,0.

When characterizing the species composition of forests, forestry workers use a special formula, where the numbers indicate the share of participation of a given species in the composition of the forest stand, and the letters correspond to a particular tree species. Thus, formula 10E corresponds to a purely spruce plantation, formula 5C3B20s says that in this forest stand 50% (or 0.5 of the composition) are pine trees, 30% birch and 20% aspen, etc. Variations in the species composition of forests in nature infinitely many. Since the silvicultural and forest exploitation values ​​of individual tree species are very different, foresters also distinguish a very large number of its differences based on their composition. For the needs of hunting, such a granular division of forests according to the species that form them is not necessary. In works devoted to the typology of forest hunting grounds, it is considered sufficient to divide old and middle-aged forests into only two groups: coniferous and deciduous. At the same time, plantings with an equal percentage of coniferous and deciduous species are classified as coniferous forests, since coniferous species have a stronger influence on the conditions formed under the canopy of the tree stand. Plantings of certain species that are of particular importance for certain representatives of the fauna (oak, cedar, pine, etc.) can be distinguished into separate types. Young trees are also divided by species, since their role in the life of animals is very great, and individual tree species have very different feeding value.

The principle of dividing treeless lands into types is similar. The basis is the composition of natural (in uncultivated areas) or derivative (composition of agricultural crops) vegetation, often supplemented by information about the nature of the use of the relevant areas (haymaking, pasture, inconvenient lands).

In addition to their general characteristics (river, lake, pond), water-covered lands are divided according to the type of overgrowth. It can be: coastal-zonal, when the vegetation gradually changes from the shore to the center (near the shore there are reeds, reeds or cattails, and then a zone of plants with floating leaves, even closer to the center - a zone of plants with submerged leaves); thicket, when tall emergent plants form continuous or mosaic thickets; floating, when near the shores of a reservoir, and sometimes throughout its entire area, rafting formations are formed from watchwort, white beetle, reed, reeds or cattails and rhizomatous sedges; carpet, when the entire water surface is covered with leaves of egg capsule, water lily, pondweed, water chestnut or nymphaeum; underwater meadow, formed by plants entirely submerged in water; algal (mainly in salty and high-mountain lakes).

Often, areas of water bodies characterized by different types of overgrowth are considered as types of water bodies. Thus, on fairly large lakes and rivers, one can distinguish clean deep-water reaches, reaches overgrown with submerged vegetation or plants with floating leaves, shallow water overgrown with sedges, dense reed, cattail or reed thickets, etc.

In hunting management practice, water areas are most often divided into: open deep-water reaches, shallow reaches overgrown with aquatic vegetation, reed supports, coastal reed-sedge thickets and rafts.

The phytocenological approach to the typology of land has found wide application in modern game management and in environmental work. Nevertheless, they tried to approach the typology of hunting grounds from other positions. Thus, V.N. Skaloy and N.M. Krasny (1970) proposed to go from the type of animals that are the main object of hunting, highlighting the lands of sable, squirrel, muskrat, etc. However, in words they refused to distinguish types of lands along the boundaries plant associations, the authors actually could not escape these boundaries. Thus, “mature sable pine forests,” of course, stood out within the boundaries of the old cedar forests. “Squirrel larches” coincided with the areas of old leaf frogs, etc. This is understandable, since if we abandon plant groups in the inventory of land and identify the boundaries of land types in nature, there will be nothing to justify the determination of their areas and mapping. The latter fully applies to attempts to approach the typology of land from the standpoint of the landscape principle. The difficulty of identifying in nature the boundaries of individual landscapes and their parts leads to the fact that supporters of this method ultimately propose to distinguish types of land according to a phytocenological scheme, and only then superimpose the boundaries of sub-urban areas and landscapes on the boundaries of these types.

Practice shows that the typology of hunting grounds, built on the phytocenological principle, fully justifies itself. It makes it possible to clearly identify the boundaries of individual types of land, plot them on a map, and determine the area of ​​the resulting plots. True, the question of which taxonomic units are appropriate to distinguish under certain conditions has not been fully developed. The fact is that we are faced with the task of identifying taxa that could be assessed for several species of animals at once, each of which makes its own and often conflicting demands on the quality of land. Thus, for elk it is very important to carefully subdivide the category of forest young animals into types. They are the main habitats for this species during the most difficult winter period of the year, and elk react very sensitively to their composition, density and height. Suffice it to say that the population density of elk in young forests of different types varies greatly. At the same time, in different types of old forests, which differ sharply in the composition of the tree stand and density, the population density of elk varies little, and almost all of their types could be combined into a group of lands of similar quality.

However, when developing a typology of the same lands for squirrels, it is necessary to carefully detail the divisions into typical groups of old forests. This has to be done because old fruit-bearing plantations are the main squirrel grounds and any change in their composition, height and density affects the value of these forests for squirrel habitat.

In cedar, spruce and fir forests, the squirrel population density is almost five times higher than in pine and larch forests, and over the years in the former it is more stable than in the latter. For squirrels, changes in height, density, and developed crown in stands of the same species are also very important. Thus, in low quality forests (swampy or growing on rocky soils) forests, be they spruce or pine forests, squirrels are always 2-3 times less than in forests of the same species, but confined to places with rich growing conditions.

At the same time, forest lands of the young forest category for elk, divided into a number of types, are almost equally of little value for squirrels, regardless of their composition. For most species of game animals, all old spruce stands can be considered as a single type of land. However, for the capercaillie such a union turns out to be unsuccessful. In winter, this species is closely associated with the presence of pine trees in the forest, whose needles it feeds on. Therefore, for him, for example, spruce forests with the composition 7E3B and 7E3C are far from equivalent. There is no doubt that, since each type of game animal has its own and often very specific requirements for the quality of hunting grounds, the specific typologies of the lands should differ markedly from each other.

The total number of types distinguished per elk or wood grouse, wild boar or black grouse would probably be close, but the principles for combining typological differences into land types would be different.

If in scientific research aimed at studying a particular species of animal, the development of a typology of land specifically for this species is completely justified, then this path is unacceptable for hunting. The hunting industry needs a unified typology suitable for working with all representatives of the hunting fauna present in it. That is why we have to put up with the fact that for each individual species of animal the typology of hunting grounds turns out to be in some cases too fragmented. The boundaries of various plant associations in nature are expressed quite clearly; this is both the advantage and the danger of the phytocenological approach. Its positive aspects have already been discussed. The danger lies in the fact that there is every possibility of limitlessly detailing the typology of land, bringing it almost to the point of accurately identifying geobotanical differences. While externally harmonious and reasonable, such a fractional division will essentially be useless. We do not yet know the ecology of most representatives of the hunting fauna deeply enough to discern for any of them the qualitative difference, say, between a pine-blueberry forest and a pine-lingonberry forest, a mixed-grass birch forest and a sedge-sphagnum birch forest. We can easily notice the external difference between them, but we cannot yet discern the differences in their environmental value. In addition, with the accuracy of the research methods at our disposal, we are not able to detect even differences in the population density of animals of taxa of similar quality.

Differences in the obtained indicators of animal population density are usually within the limits of accounting error. The typology of hunting grounds is not an end in itself. It pursues the identification of taxonomic units that would have real significance in the course of hunting and could be assessed with complete objectivity. For the main types of game animals and are used in hunting assessment, planning of biotechnical activities and organization of hunting. Therefore, the typology of hunting grounds must be built and refined in strict accordance with the level of our environmental knowledge and the needs of the hunting industry.

In particular, commercial hunting farms with their vast territories, a weak degree of land development and a limited variety of hunting objects do not need the detailed typology of land that is quite appropriate for sporting farms. Therefore, they usually distinguish not even types, but large groups of land types, such as dark coniferous or light coniferous taiga, lands of high mountain complexes, etc.

In relatively small areas of sport hunting farms, characterized by well-developed territories, a variety of hunting objects, and the need for intensive biotechniques, a detailed typology of land is more justified. However, even here it is rarely advisable to distinguish more than 10-15 typological differences.

Work in the field of typology of hunting grounds was accompanied by the study of their quality, i.e., feeding, protective and nesting properties, since it is in the qualitative difference of individual taxa that the feasibility of their identification lies. The studies carried out, as a rule, make it possible to objectively approach the assessment of the ecological value of land for a particular representative of the hunting fauna. The best quality (for a particular season) land is always characterized by the highest food supply, higher protection and the most favorable conditions for nesting. However, attempts to use such materials (in particular, food supplies) to determine the capacity of land, that is, to determine the number of animals that can live in it, most often end in failure. This is natural, since the calculation scheme outlined here is usually simple to the point of primitiveness or simply not logically justified.

As an example, let us consider an attempt to determine the possible number of ungulates-dendrophages from the available supply of tree and branch food. The calculation procedure used is as follows: the gross supply of feed available per unit area of ​​land is divided by the amount of feed required by one animal during the winter season. For example, if there are 30 tons of feed per 1000 hectares, and the seasonal consumption rate of one moose is 3 tons, then all this feed could provide food for 10 moose. Since the full use of feed threatens to lead to complete feed degradation of the land, this norm is reduced three times, i.e. to 3-4 moose per 1000 hectares, which is considered the normal feed capacity of these lands for elk. At the same time, several very significant circumstances are completely overlooked. The first of them is that not everything that we evaluate as food (annual shoots of all trees and shrubs eaten by elk) can be used by elk. Some young pines, aspens, willow bushes, etc. will remain untouched either because they are too dispersed throughout the territory, or because they grow in places where moose avoid feeding, or, finally, for some unknown reason reasons for us (inferiority of the chemical composition, excessive woodiness of shoots, etc.). Thus, moose stop using young pine forests if the number of intact trees in them is less than 600 per 1 hectare - the energy costs for obtaining food here are not compensated by the amount of the latter. They also do not feed in dense thickets, highly dense pine forests, where the lack of visibility does not allow the animals to feel calm. During all inspections of damage caused by elk to tree and shrub vegetation, along with completely eaten specimens of plants, completely untouched ones are also found.

In the process of winter feeding, the elk uses many types of trees and shrubs and, apparently, in some combinations necessary for it. They eat species such as spruce and birch, but only in limited quantities. Including the entire stock of shoots of these and some other species in the potential forage supply will inevitably lead to an overestimation of the forage capacity of the land. It is for the above reasons that winter starvation of elk, deer or roe deer begins long before records of tree and branch food reserves show their insufficiency. With other types of food and other fauna, the situation is even more complicated. In some cases, in certain seasons of the year, the feed available on the land is hundreds and thousands of times greater than the needs of the animals. For example, with an average blueberry harvest of 200 kg per 1 hectare and a seasonal consumption of this berry by one hazel grouse and grouse of 1.5-2 kg, a hectare of land could feed from 100 to 130 birds - the population density in nature is not realistic.

With a good cedar harvest, there are up to 500 kg of nuts per 1 hectare. The daily requirement of a squirrel for this type of food does not exceed 30 g. This means that even if we assume that the squirrel will eat only pine nuts throughout the year, then even then it will eat no more than 10 kg of them. Let the predominant part of the nuts (80%) be used by other animal species - still, the remaining 100 kg per 1 ha could feed 10 squirrels. The actual population density of squirrels in cedar forests does not exceed 200 per 1000 hectares, or 0.2 animals per hectare. The same applies to stocks of birch buds for black grouse, pine needles for wood grouse, etc.

On the other hand, there are undoubtedly types of feed, the reserves of which limit the possible number of animals. However, we either do not know how to take them into account (insects, earthworms, etc.), or we do not know enough about their significance, interchangeability, the rate of their consumption necessary for animals, and therefore we do not have the opportunity to use data on their reserves to determine feed land capacity. The situation is complicated by the fact that, as already mentioned in the example with the squirrel and cedar, the same types of feed can be used by different types of animals. It is not at all possible to use indicators reflecting the protection of land to calculate the capacity of the latter for any representative of the fauna. Indicators of nesting suitability in this regard could be very useful if we knew how the size of the nesting or individual area of ​​certain species of animals and birds changes under different habitat conditions. But, firstly, we know very little about this yet, and secondly, it is possible that it would be impossible to link these indicators (even if we had them) to types of land, since the habitat of an individual or a married couple unlikely to be limited to one type of land.

All of the above indicates that knowledge of the ecological properties of certain types of land allows us to give them a correct qualitative assessment, but does not make it possible to talk about their potential capacity for certain representatives of the hunting fauna.

Hunting grounds and their classification

Hunting resources are usually considered as a set of hunting grounds and the game animals and birds inhabiting them. The ecosystem connection between land and animals is very important in terms of hunting resource management. It makes no sense to consider lands, systematize them, evaluate them without taking into account the animals inhabiting them, without taking into account the reaction of animals to the quality and structure of habitats, since the study of lands in this case is done primarily for recording and assessing accounting resources, for studying the ecology and fundamentals of obtaining hunting and commercial fauna. The number of animals depends on the quality of habitats, and a change in the quality of land certainly entails a change in the abundance of their numbers.

The classification of hunting grounds underlies not only scientific hunting research, but also practical activities (animal censuses, resource assessment, hunting management design, etc.) that form the basis for planning, organizing and maintaining hunting.

The law of worldwide zoning, formulated by V.V. Dokuchaev, became generally accepted. There are 9 landscape zones on the territory of Russia: icy, tundra, forest-tundra, taiga, mixed and broad-leaved forests, forest-steppe, steppe, semi-desert, desert. However, the need to divide such large areas to analyze the distribution of hunting resources is obvious. Zonal signs of changes in vegetation, soils and their productivity change the living conditions of certain species of game animals, the general structure of the population and even its species composition. Differences in relief leave their mark on both the nature and distribution of vegetation and animals. In addition, the economic development of territories plays a certain role in this regard. All this, to one degree or another, affects the state of hunting resources.

Small natural territorial complexes can be grouped according to their significance for a particular type of game animal or for all types of game resources together. In this case, types of hunting grounds – typological combination of sites according to similar habitat conditions for game animals and birds. The typology of hunting areas can be more detailed or more general. Types of hunting grounds can combine natural complexes with a greater or lesser degree of homogeneity, depending on the goal. If the classification of hunting grounds is needed for an accurate ecological analysis of the location of one species of animal, a more detailed typology is carried out. For integrated hunting management, land types are usually more generalized.

When managing relatively large areas of fishing grounds, they are often used groups of hunting ground types – association of types of land that are more or less similar in terms of habitat conditions for game animals. Further consolidation of land types will lead to the division of territories into land classes, then - to land categories.

The method for identifying types of hunting grounds and larger taxa was developed by D.N. Danilov (1960, 1966) and other major game managers and is described in detail in a number of methodological manuals and books. It should only be noted that all of these categories are distinguished primarily by the nature and degree of similarity of the vegetation cover of different areas of land.

Classification of hunting grounds is necessary, as already emphasized, to analyze the living conditions of animals and identify patterns in the distribution of their resources. What ideas about the connection between animals and land are included in the principles of land classification; the same forms of connections can be identified using this classification. If, for example, the average numbers of animals in natural zones were calculated, then zonal changes in their numbers are established. If the classification of land is carried out according to the composition of the vegetation of animal habitats, then using it it is possible to determine the dependence of the animal population on the vegetation. If you construct a series of habitats identified by vegetation depending on the degree of their moisture, then you can also determine the influence of this factor on animal resources, etc.

In principle, it is possible to divide the territory and build a classification of habitats according to any of the conditions for the existence of animals. However, it is more advisable to use a complex of characteristics. This is possible when using landscape classification of hunting areas.

V.V. Dezhkin (1978) formulated the following basic provisions for the landscape classification of hunting grounds:

1. Animal habitats are considered to be natural territorial complexes - systems of interconnected natural components: air, water, upper layers of rocks, soil, vegetation and wildlife. All of the categories listed above, from zones and countries to facies, are natural territorial complexes of different ranks. Systematization of natural territorial complexes makes it possible to analyze the distribution of animal resources depending on the nature and location of any component of these systems, as well as on the complexes as a whole.

2. In landscape taxonomy, there are two concepts: an individual natural territorial complex and typological groups of complexes. This difference means that each complex is individual, unique in time and space, but the complexes have common features that allow us to carry out a typology of complexes. The smaller and simpler the complexes, the more often they are considered in typological groups. Thus, all the main categories of morphological division of the landscape (facies, tracts and landscapes themselves) have typological taxa: types of facies, classes of facies, types of facies; types of tracts, classes of tracts, types of tracts, etc. The typological association thus results in different breadths – from narrower typological groups to broader ones, similar to the unification of land types into groups of types, classes and categories of land.

Natural zoning taxa are not typified and are considered individually. In some cases, a typology of natural areas is carried out over large areas. It is not practical to typify larger zoning categories.

In a specific category, the largest complexes are usually considered as individual, and small ones as typological. On the territory of one hunting area, landscapes and even localities can be assessed individually, and tracts and facies – in typological terms. Thus, in any territory there are larger individual complexes with a natural alternation of smaller ones, usually considered typologically.

All these concepts lead to the following. It is possible to construct a unified classification scheme that includes natural systems of different size and complexity of structure and their technological groups; it is possible to carry out a classification of any level of detail on any territory depending on the goals, depth and subtlety of the study; Landscape systematization allows us to simultaneously analyze the dual nature of the distribution of animals: regional patterns of distribution (from place to place, according to individual complexes) and typological patterns (repeated in similar conditions, according to typological groups of complexes).

3. The main unit of landscape classification of hunting grounds is landscape. In some cases, neighboring categories (natural area, terrain, less often complexes of tracts or large background tracts) can also be the main ones. Territories of this rank are inhabited by groups of game animals, with a relatively constant population, the resource potential of which can only change in such territories, and not in smaller complexes in which animals are constantly redistributed due to their mobility. For animals, the whole set of alternating small complexes is important, the nature of their combination, the ratio of areas - all this together constitutes single habitats for them, represented by the main categories of landscape division of land.

4. Due to the mobility of animals, the importance for them of each individual small complex (or the corresponding phytocenosis) decreases. Small morphological parts of landscapes can only be considered as the internal content of the main categories of classification. A typology of small complexes is needed to characterize, describe, and map the main categories.

In this regard, the technology methodology for small complexes is not of fundamental importance. In a number of cases, the typological grouping of small areas of the territory only based on the characteristics of vegetation cover can completely replace the typology of morphological parts of the landscape. If the typology of land by vegetation is carried out not formally, but with a more comprehensive approach, taking into account the relationship of vegetation with the relief, degree of moisture and the nature of the soil, then the types of land will approximately correspond to the types of sub-tracts or tracts, groups of land types will correspond to classes of sub-tracts or tracts, etc. .

Landscape zones of the Russian Federation are shown in Fig. 1. Their generalized characteristics are given in the monograph by V.V. Dezhkina, V.A. Kuzyakina, R.A. Gorbushina et al. (1978).

Figure 1. Landscape zones of the Russian Federation: A. - Arctic desert, B. - Tundra, C. - Forest-tundra, G. - Taiga, D. - Subtaiga forests, E. - Forest-steppe, Z. - Steppe, W. - Semi-desert, I. - Desert (according to V.V. Dezhkin et al., 1978)

Traditionally, the following categories of hunting grounds are distinguished: forest, open, water, swamp. Their productivity is determined in monetary terms.

Forest hunting grounds in the Russian Federation they occupy an area of ​​7688 thousand km 2. They are concentrated mainly in the taiga zone, subtaiga forests and partly in the forest-steppe, forest-tundra and Caucasus mountains. The productivity of forest lands changes according to the same patterns as the productivity of all lands (total productivity): from north to south it increases, and decreases as the climate continentality increases in the same zones and subzones. Maximum productivity is characteristic of broad-leaved forests in the south of the subtaiga zone. Forests in the north-east of Russia (Yakutia, northern Transbaikalia, northern Krasnoyarsk Territory) have minimal economic productivity.

Open lands(tundra, meadow, field, desert, semi-desert and steppe) are characterized by lower productivity than forest lands. For open hunting grounds, the ruggedness of the relief is of great importance. The redistribution of snow cover, mosaic nature of land, economic development of territories, conditions for shelter, digging holes, etc. depend on it.

water areas occupy an area of ​​about 900 thousand km 2 in the Russian Federation. They are distributed unevenly throughout the territory. There are many lakes in the tundra zone, fewer in the forest-tundra zone. There are most taiga reservoirs in the north-west of the European part of the country, in Western Siberia and Central Yakutia. The abundance of lakes characterizes the forest-steppe and steppe of the West Siberian Lowland. A unit area of ​​small reservoirs provides significantly more hunting products than the same area of ​​large reservoirs, since game animals are more associated with shallow waters, coastal and coastal vegetation. The area of ​​small lakes accounts for a large length of coastline and coastal shallow waters. Rivers are less productive than lakes, shallow reservoirs, overgrown peat pits, ponds, settling tanks of sugar factories and other “area” reservoirs. The exception is deltas and estuaries of southern rivers (Kuban, Volga, etc.). The productivity of reservoirs of the same type gradually increases from north to south. Aquatic areas are among the most productive hunting areas in monetary terms.

wetlands are about 1120 thousand km 2 (6.5% of the total area). The main areas of swamps are located in the tundra, forest-tundra and taiga zones, where raised-type swamps predominate. They have relatively low productivity even compared to lowland swamps. The productivity of lowland bogs north of the southern border of the subtaiga also decreases somewhat, but is much less than the productivity of all wetlands together.

Forest hunting grounds are particularly diverse. Each tract, even a relatively small one, consists of alternating different types of forest, forest swamps, clearings, edge thickets, clearings, burnt areas, artificial forest plantings (forest crops), differing in hunting management.

Scheme of the typology of forest lands by D.N. Danilov (1960, 1963, 1966, 1972) built according to the phytocenological principle, which is based on forest typology. This is the most appropriate and justified approach, since in forest conditions all forestry activities are carried out on a forest typological basis and the hunting use of forest animals, as an element of forest biogeocenosis, cannot be an exception in this regard.

In practice, forest taxation areas do not coincide with hunting areas, for the reason that forest animals, as a rule, do not live only in one of them. Therefore, the type of hunting ground, as a hunting taxation unit, is unification of areas of hunting grounds characterized by similar living conditions for animals and requiring, under equal economic prerequisites, the same hunting activities.

By classifying any specific area as a particular type of land, we not only give it a name and find its place in the land classification system, but also determine for which game animals it is most suitable, in what ways it is best to hunt in it and in what ways increase its productivity. That is why the typology of lands is the basis for their inventory during hunting management. It is only necessary to achieve a uniform understanding of the types of land so that the inventory materials are in all cases of good quality and comparable.

The main criterion by which the first division of forest lands is made is the age of the planting (tree stand). Forest stands are divided into age classes at intervals of 10 years for hardwoods and 20 years for conifers. At the same time, age classes I and II are considered young, III and IV – middle-aged, all other classes are progressively classified as ripening, ripe and overmature plantings. For hunting, such detail is excessive. In terms of hunting, it is more expedient to divide forests by age into three groups of age classes: young, middle-aged and old. In terms of the conditions that ensure the vital activity of game animals and birds, these groups differ significantly from each other.

Young growths are characterized by the fact that they have an abundance of wood and branch food available to dendrofavorous animals. In young trees, before the canopy closes, the ground cover is well developed, there are many berry plants, mushrooms, insects, and mouse-like rodents. There are excellent protective and feeding conditions for the white hare, wild ungulates, and some mustelids. However, the lack of fruits and seeds of tree and shrub species, as well as thick and strong branches from which to peck needles, buds, catkins, is the main factor in the low number of wood grouse, hazel grouse, and black grouse.

Middle-aged forests, especially those at the age of polewood, are the poorest in terms of food. The twig food here has already “gone” from under the beast’s muzzle; regrowth and undergrowth are not yet developed; the grass cover, being shaded by the closed canopy, degraded; The main forest-forming species have not yet reached reproductive age and do not produce fruits and seeds. There is little game in such conditions. But middle-aged forests have good protective properties and in winter, especially in cold and windy weather with relatively shallow snow cover, many ungulates and predatory animals find shelter in them.

In old forests, the living conditions for many forest game animals are most favorable. Here, as the tree stand thins out, undergrowth and clumps of regrowth appear, ground cover develops, including berry fields, trees and shrubs that have reached reproductive age begin to bear fruit steadily, and hollow trees appear.

The quality of hunting grounds also depends on the density of the tree canopy. In forestry practice, there are 10 gradations of density (from 0.1 to 1.0). In game management, it is customary to distinguish only 3 groups of tree canopy density: sparse (0.1-0.4), medium-close (0.5-0.7) and dense (0.8-1.0) stands. Animals also have their own requirements for tree stand density, however, the influence of this factor is rather indirect, associated with the lighting regime under the forest canopy.

The next characteristic by which types of forest land are distinguished is the composition of forest-forming species. The fodder and protective properties of the land directly depend on the composition of the forest stand. In forestry, the composition is indicated in the form of formulas, where the numbers indicate the share of participation of a particular species in the forest stand, and the letters correspond to its name. So the formula 10C will mean clean pine forests, 10B – clean birch forests, etc. In complex forest stands, the formula 8D1Os1Lp indicates that it consists of 80% oak, 10% aspen and 10% linden. Variations in species composition within oak forests, pine forests, spruce forests, etc. there can be a lot; for hunting they are not of significant importance; the main (first in the formula) breed is decisive. More often, in this regard, only deciduous or coniferous stands are distinguished. Moreover, if a forest stand contains equal numbers of coniferous and deciduous species, then it is classified as a coniferous forest, since coniferous species have a stronger influence on the conditions that form under the forest canopy; coniferous species, in this case, will be represented in the formula in first place.

Tree stands of certain species that are of particular importance for certain game animals can be divided into separate types of hunting grounds: cedar forests, spruce forests, pine forests, oak forests, aspen forests, young pine forests, etc.

D.N. Danilov, based on the classification of forest types according to V.N. Sukachev, identifies the following main types of hunting grounds.

1. swampy forest(a group of sphagnum forest types with low-growing and low-density tree stands on flat, swampy soils that are not drained along the bottom of basins).

2. Mossy forest(groups of green moss and long moss forest types, with tall tree stands of varying density, with sparse undergrowth; located on a more or less flat terrain, on gentle slopes).

3. Floodplain forest(a group of swamp-grass forest types, with tall tree stands, with a well-developed herbaceous cover, located along the valleys of rivers, streams, along the bottom of ravines and thalwegs).

4. Complex forest(groups of complex forest types, with tall, multi-tiered stands, with dense and varied undergrowth; growing on rich, well-drained soils).

5. Dry or lichen forest(a group of lichen forest types with suppressed growth and sparse tree stand; grow on dry and poor soils, on hilltops).

6. rocky forest(a group of forest types located on steep slopes of mountainous terrain; rocky soils, stands of average productivity).

Each of the above types of hunting grounds consists of several types of forest, however, it has common stable characteristics. Thus, the type of hunting ground “mossy forest” combines such types of forest as mossy pine, lichen, heather, lingonberry, bracken, sorrel, blueberry, and fern forests; spruce forests, long moss, lingonberry, mossy, bracken, sorrel, snot, nettle, fern. All these types of forests are characterized by stable seed production, berry fields are well represented in them, which determines satisfactory feeding and protective conditions for many game animals.

Thus, specific types of forest hunting grounds are determined by the dominant species of the tree stand. Within the breed - according to age (young, middle-aged, etc.) and growing conditions, forest types (swampy spruce forest, heather pine forest, sedge oak forest, etc.). Lands that are similar in some economically important characteristic are combined into groups of land types (dark coniferous forests, swampy forests, young coniferous forests, etc.). Classes of hunting grounds are characterized by the main tracts of forest plantations (pine forests, foliage forests, spruce forests, cedar trees, oak forests, etc.). Categories of hunting grounds have fundamental differences (forest, aquatic, swamp-meadow, etc.). The landscape classification of hunting grounds corresponds to 9 main landscape zones.

The concept of “hunting grounds” has changed significantly due to changes in the role of hunting in human life. Now the interpretation of hunting grounds as territories in which game animals live is not enough. The involvement of increasingly vast territories in economic use has led to the deterioration of living conditions and a reduction in the number of game animals. The increasingly acute shortage of hunting resources led to the introduction of resource-saving forms of their use.

Now, only those areas where game animals live are recognized as hunting grounds, hunting them is allowed and hunting is carried out. This definition excludes from hunting grounds reserves and areas of national parks organized to preserve samples of natural nature along with all the animals living there, including hunting ones. Densely populated areas, green areas around industrial centers, and populated areas themselves are also excluded from hunting grounds. In such territories, game animals do not live permanently, but occasionally appear during their seasonal movements or escaping persecution in hunting grounds. Conducting a hunt is contrary to the principles of safety of the local population.

Types and purposes of hunting grounds.Hunting grounds are divided into 3 categories based on the nature of their use. The first category includes public lands in which hunting is permitted within established periods in compliance with the rules for its conduct, and access to them is open to all hunters with corrected hunting documents. In the European part of Russia, very few hunting grounds of this category have been preserved, and within the Moscow region there are none at all. The second category includes hunting reserves. Part of the hunting grounds is allocated for them in order to improve the living conditions and reproduction of certain species of animals by limiting the access of hunters and banning hunting. In nature reserves, the ban on hunting a species or group of game animals is temporary, unlike in nature reserves, where it is permanent and applies to all species of animals. The third category is formed by assigned hunting grounds” assigned to state, cooperative, and public organizations that receive priority rights to use the resources of game animals within the boundaries of hunting farms. The hunting farm as an organizational and economic unit in the system of using the state hunting fund was legally formalized with the relevant government decrees back in 1930 in the USSR. Since then, the anonymity in the use of hunting resources has been eliminated, which is more consistent with the already completed transformation of hunting into one of the types of leisure activities. Strengthening the role of unions of hunting societies in managing farms has increased the interest of hunters in the rational use of game animals and contributed to the expansion of work on the protection and reproduction of their stocks. The basis of the farms' activities was to provide conditions for the practice of hunting and for the reproduction of the state hunting fund.

Categories of hunting areas. Hunting grounds as animal habitats are divided into 4 categories, differing in the composition of the animals living in them and the hunting conditions: forest, field, swamp and aquatic. The main categories are divided into additional ones, for example, water - into lakes and rivers, which can be small and large, and the forest category includes, for example, in addition to the forest itself, also shrubs, burnt areas and clearings. Field hunting grounds are divided mainly into arable land and meadows. Swamps can also be different; They are divided into forested and non-forested, upland and lowland, in accordance with the characteristic features of the species composition of the animals living in them. This division of the territory is also necessary because the organization of hunting in each case is structured differently, and the differences relate not only to the types of game animals, but also to the timing, hunting season, safety rules, and much more.

In specific territories, even the main categories of hunting grounds can be presented in full or truncated form and in different proportions of the areas they occupy. Hence the differences in the species composition and abundance of game animals in a given territory, and, consequently, the possibility of hunting one or another number of these animals and organizing hunting for them. The wider and on a sufficient area the main categories of hunting grounds are represented, the more diverse the possibilities for using the livestock are. Taking into account the condition and quality of hunting grounds is the basis of hunting management. This helps to navigate what species of animals, what habitat conditions exist and what reserves of these game species are available. Without knowing this, it is impossible to decide how many and what types of animals can be hunted, in what timeframes and what types of hunts can be organized in a given territory. The number of animals is not the same in different years, so there is a need to find out and assess the hunting situation in each area of ​​​​the territory designated for hunting. These works can only be carried out by professionals, so the entire hunting process can be divided into a preparatory stage and an implementation stage. At the first stage, mainly professional game managers work. The success of the next stage, which is always carried out with the participation of the consumer - a hunter who has expressed a desire to participate in one or another type of hunting, to obtain one or another type of game animal, depends on the quality of the work they perform. Costs in the first stage must be compensated in the second.

All these circumstances influence the development and very existence of amateur hunting, especially in such a densely populated and industrial Moscow region. Relations between land tenants here are strained due to the growing shortage of lands rich in game animals, especially in the forest category. The discrepancy between the interests of the hunting industry and the interests of other land users is increasing due to the fact that hunting societies, as public associations with legal rights, act as secondary users of leased lands relative to primary users - agriculture and forestry. Hunting lands are redistributed between users, the boundaries of hunting farms are changed, and their number is reduced. Within the Moscow region, various associations of amateur hunters have in their use about 3.5 thousand hectares of hunting grounds. Hunting can be carried out in 61 hunting grounds, most of which are assigned to the Moscow Society of Hunters and Fishers. These farms are maintained mainly at the expense of the Ministry of Education and Resource Management, part of the financing is provided from funds earned by hunting farms. In the future, the cost of hunting for an amateur hunter will undoubtedly increase, which may have different consequences for the hunting industry in the region.

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