1. Participation in the XIII All-Russian scientific and practical conference
Specialists of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve took part in the XIII All-Russian scientific and practical conference “Homo museicus”, dedicated to museum professions, their importance and modern challenges. The event was held from November 27 to 29, 2024 at the State Darwin Museum. The conference brought together over 150 participants from 34 cities in Russia, including leading museum industry specialists, researchers and representatives of educational institutions. In addition to the busy business program, conference guests were able to visit exhibitions and take part in workshops. The Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve took part in the conference with a poster presentation dedicated to the history of the Nature Museum. Natalya Shpilenok, Deputy Director of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve for Environmental Education, Development and Educational Tourism: “The participation of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve in the conference was an important step in strengthening professional ties, exchanging experience and getting acquainted with innovative approaches that are being implemented in museums. In the process of preparing the exhibition, the staff of environmental education and educational tourism studied archival materials dedicated to the history of the creation of the Nature Museum. Despite the widespread introduction of modern technologies and the emergence of numerous interactive approaches, the Nature Museum of the reserve remains true to tradition and provides visitors with a rare opportunity to demonstrate representatives of the fauna in nature.”
2. Annual graduation
The end of the year has come – time to send the grown-up young bison of the Central Bison Nursery to a new permanent place of residence. On December 2, eight animals born in 2022-2023 set off on a long journey to the northernmost habitat of bison in the world – the Vologda region. The males Murmansk, Muzykant II, Mugrass and Muvolf, and the females Mueva, Mumedora, Mussandra and Murana left the Moscow region to replenish the population of bison living there. The reserve copes with the transportation of animals over short distances on its own. For this purpose, it has trucks, a crane-manipulator and experienced nursery staff at its disposal. However, it is difficult to carry out a one-time transportation of more than 4 animals without outside help. The transfer for the bison to the Vologda region was provided by the TD “GRASS” company with the personal participation of director Mikhail Grachev. The company also provided new transport cages, where the animals can more comfortably endure the long journey. The bison successfully endured the long journey and were immediately placed in a separate quarantine enclosure upon arrival. When specialists are convinced of the complete health of the new settlers, and the animals get used to the new place, they will be released into the wild, where they will meet other “Vologda” bison. It is noteworthy that the first bison were brought to these cold regions from the Central Bison Nursery of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve in December 1991. Over the past three decades, the bison have taken root here and now there are 171 of them in the Ust-Kubinsky municipality. Very comfortable conditions are organized on the territory – gamekeepers and rangers closely monitor the health of the animals, independently prepare hay, provide additional feeding in a timely manner and keep records. All this is part of a large-scale effort to preserve and increase the population of the endangered bison. A bold experiment in the Vologda region, where bison did not live in the historical period, showed the possibility of their successful resettlement even in a fairly cold region. Increasing the population and improving the gene pool in other places where the last wild European bison is kept is the main task of the Central Bison Nursery, which it has been solving for 76 years.
3. Volunteer Day
The beginning of December does not please with the sun and the length of daylight hours. Perhaps that is why, in order to brighten up the sad period of the year, it was decided to celebrate International Volunteer Day on December 5. Last year, organized groups of various companies, large and not so large, mainly took part in the volunteer actions of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve. They did a lot of work on the improvement of the Central Estate of the Reserve, but as always, the volunteers had especially many things to do in the Central Bison Nursery. Here, from April to November, they painted fences and planted trees, cleared bison pens of fallen trees, sorted root crops and much more. On Saturday, December 7, an ecological holiday was organized for the most active helpers of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve in the outgoing year – a walking tour of the southern part of the reserve. A route was developed especially for the guests, including many beauties and attractions of the specially protected natural area. The volunteers saw the Luzhkovsky, Turetsky and Panikovsky ramparts hidden under the forest canopy, and visited the Protovskoe and Sionskoe lakes. The volunteers, tired from the long journey, were sheltered by the warm 40th cordon of the reserve, where everyone was treated to refreshments, awarded with letters of gratitude and memorable souvenirs. Here, the annual gala event of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve in honor of World Volunteer Day ended. The 2024 volunteer season is closed, but a new one will definitely begin in April 2025!
4. Summing up the tourist results
Specialists of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve took part in the meeting of the Tourist Guild, which took place on December 11 at the Museum and Exhibition Center. At the meeting, reports were made in the format of reports from specialists of the tourism department of the Serpukhov town Administration and the Chairman of the Tourist Guild, in the format of a round table, issues of organizing and recording tourist flow, preparing and holding mass events and implementing a set of measures to develop the tourism and hospitality industry in the south of the Moscow region were discussed, the work plan of the Tourist Guild for 2025 was heard and approved. In a solemn atmosphere, the representative of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve and new members of the Tourist Guild were presented with certificates of membership in the Tourist Guild at the Serpukhov Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A tour of the exhibition “Art of Africa: Yesterday and Today” was also held for those gathered.
5. Completion of the competition “World of Protected Nature”
The environmental children’s art competition “World of Protected Nature” has ended. The competition is held by the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve together with the Wildlife Conservation Center as part of the campaign “March of Parks-2024”. The competition included one nomination – a drawing on the theme “Climate in the Life of Animals and Plants”. The participant was required to clearly understand what animal and in what environment he depicts. In May of this year, the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve held the first stage of the competition. In total, we received more than 50 works, among which 8 finalists were determined, whose works were then sent to the Wildlife Conservation Center to participate in the second stage. In total, 646 works from 53 organizations were submitted to the competition at the Wildlife Conservation Center. As usual, when choosing the winners, the jury paid special attention to the artistic embodiment of the author’s idea, independence of the work, the absence of biological errors, compliance with the theme, and the author’s individuality. Finally, the jury summed up the results and determined the results! 17 participants were awarded I degree diplomas, 36 participants received II degree diplomas and 110 participants received III degree diplomas. We believed in our young artists, and for good reason! Of the eight finalists of the first round selected by the reserve, three won in the second stage of the competition! The 2nd degree diploma was received by Sofia Yadne, 14 years old, Tazovsky settlement, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. “Capercaillie”. The 3rd degree diplomas were received by Mansur Nadzhafov, 9 years old, Tazovsky settlement, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. “Wolf”. Darya Telmanova, 11 years old, Tazovsky settlement, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. “Wolverine”. The Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve is pleased to congratulate our winners! All winners will receive their diplomas and prizes in the near future.
6. New Year gifts
The New Year is coming, which means it’s time to receive gifts. This year, the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve has once again joined the “Secret Santa Claus” campaign – this is when each specially protected natural area that took part in it congratulates one of the colleagues and gives them gifts. The givers and recipients are determined randomly. Starting from December 10, everyone eagerly awaits a postal parcel from Secret Santa Claus. How will our colleagues surprise us? Then the parcel arrives, and the whole team gathers to unpack it, everyone is happy and pleased. The campaign is supported by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia. The Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve turned out to be the Secret Santa Claus for the Darwin Reserve. We sent the parcel with gifts to colleagues at the very beginning of December so that it would find the addressee just in time for the New Year. The secret Santa Claus for Prioksko-Terrasny turned out to be the “Polistovsky” Reserve. Beautiful handmade Christmas tree decorations, calendars and the latest issue of the environmental and educational newspaper “Polistovskaya Pravda” arrived from the very center of the largest swamp system in Europe to the protected forests of the Moscow region.
7. High-ranking guests
On December 24, the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve hosted high-ranking officials guests: Irina Makanova, Director of the Department of State Policy and Regulation in the Sphere of Development of Specially Protected Natural Areas of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, Murad Kerimov, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, Svetlana Radionova, Head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources. The delegation was headed by Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Patrushev. During the meeting, the guests visited the Central Bison Nursery, got acquainted with the tourist sites located on the territory of the Central Estate of the Reserve, and also learned about the work of the integrated background monitoring station. The next day, on December 25, Dmitry Patrushev held a meeting on the development of protected natural areas of Russia. According to him, a number of issues have accumulated in the industry, including those identified during a government audit. Among the problems, Dmitry Patrushev named the lack of a strategic planning document for the industry, a number of land and property issues, as well as problems with financing. “The President set the task of continuing the development of environmental tourism in national parks, for which the corresponding infrastructure is being created. This contributes to an increase in the tourist flow: in 6 years it has grown from 6 to 17 million people”, – said Dmitry Patrushev. He emphasized that in order to fulfill this task, national parks must develop plans for recreational activities, and the Ministry of Natural Resources, for its part, must approve them. Following the discussion, the Deputy Prime Minister gave the relevant departments a number of instructions, including accelerating the preparation of a bill on the automatic transfer of lands to the appropriate category when creating and expanding a protected area, developing additional sources of financing for the system, and others. He emphasized that an industry concept for the development of specially protected natural areas must be submitted for the government by July 1. “Specially protected natural areas have great potential for development”. However, it can only be realized if the accumulated problems are resolved. In this regard, it is necessary to systematize the work in all areas that we discussed”, – concluded Dmitry Patrushev.
8. Stocks and plans
The year 2024 is coming to an end, which means it is the best time to take stock and make new plans. A little about the achievements. In the outgoing 2024, the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve was visited by almost 100,000 people, almost 3,000 excursions were conducted. Traditional events were held: “Reserve Spartakiad”, Reserve’s Birthday, Big Environmental Cleanup Day, Volunteer Days, new souvenir products were purchased, about four hundred publications were written. Everything that we did not manage to do this year, we will definitely implement next year – 2025, especially since we are inspired to do great and creative work by a serious date – the 80th anniversary! We have already started preparing for it! A number of events will be held to coincide with the anniversary date. As always, we are trying to be original, so that you will find it interesting and educational with us! Skiing, cycling, orienteering, quests, quizzes for maximum coverage of a wide variety of audiences – this is just a small part of what awaits you in the very near future. A gift edition dedicated to the work of the reserve for 80 years is about to be released. Serious preparatory work has been carried out, including with archival materials, to tell in all details about how the Moscow Reserve was created, what happened to its four sections, and how the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve managed to preserve its status and protected area. The Museum of Nature is preparing to host a new exhibition that will tell the history of the reserve as a contemporary of Pobeda. Materials have already been collected and an information base prepared for this purpose. In short, there are a lot of interesting, exciting and even cosmic things ahead of us! We promise to tell all the details in official sources: in social networks and on the website. And you, promise to stay in touch with us online and come visit more often!
