Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve

Kedrovaya Pad (Template:Lang-ru, lit. [Korean] Pine Valley) is a nature reserve (a gosudarstvenny prirodny biosferny zapovednik) on the territory of Khasansky District in the southern portion of Primorsky Krai, Russia. As of 2011, it occupies an area of 178.97 square kilometers (69.10 sq mi), about one thousandth of the total area of Primorsky Krai.

Kedrovaya Pad is at the coastal spurs of the Manchurian mountains. The reserve's boundaries approach Barabashevka River (until 1973 Mongugay or Bolshoy Mongugay) in the northeast, and Narva River (until 1973 Sidimi) in the southwest. In the southeast, the Far Eastern Railway separates it from Amur Bay which is less than 5 km away. In the northwest, the A189 (AH6) road separates it from the Chyornye Gory range whose watershed, defining the Sino-Russian border, is less than 20 km away.

Sukhorechensky Ridge covers the southern half of the reserve, reaching 692 meters (2,270 ft) at Gora Uglovaya (or Zapretnaya) in the west. North of it, Kedrovaya River forms a gorge as it flows east from its source in the western part of the reserve.

While some kind of nature protection measures had been in effect in the area since 1916, the reserve was officially established in 1925, making it the oldest nature reserve in the Russian Far East.

The nature of the reserve is unique in a sense that its high biodiversity represents an overlap of southern (subtropical forests) and northern (coniferous-broadleaf forests) species and animals. Some of the species endemic to the area include the Siberian tiger, Amur leopard, and Asian black bear.

External links

• Official website by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment Template:Ru icon
  • Media gallery
• Kedrovaya Pad website by the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
  • Map