Sloviansk. The "Pryozernyi" Ornithological Reserve. A Natural Unit Within the City

The "Pryozernyi" ornithological reserve is located in the north-eastern part of Sloviansk , near residential estates and busy motorways. The location of a natural ecosystem within the city limits entails problems such as spontaneous rubbish dumps on the territory, noise from enterprises, disturbance of living organisms, and pollution of the soil and water by domestic sewage.

Sloviansk. The "Pryozernyi" ornithological reserve

Millions of years ago a warm sea seethed in this place. As a result of geological processes, thick layers of rock salt and karst sinkholes formed. Underground waters, having passed through the layers of salt, filled the hollows — and so the lakeswere formed, which received the names Veisove, Maidanne, Levadne, Chervlene, Chervone, Hariache, and other small unnamed lakelets.

 

Birds have taken a liking to this picturesque expanse with its shallow-water lagoons, bays, and estuaries. On the shores of the Sloviansk salt lakes the feathered darlings sing, trumpet, whistle, nest, winter, and breed, while their migratory kin have laid a migration route through the marshy wetlands.

Less and less room is left for the bird flocks to live. In 2001, in order to maintain optimal conditions for the breeding and migration of birds, an area of 79.5 hectares was declared a nature reserve zone of local importance. "Pryozernyi" is part of the "Slovianskyi Kurort" regional landscape park and consists of two parts in a wet, marshy lowland. The initiator of the creation of the protected zone was Volodymyr Mykhailovych Moiseiev (Sloviansk); the scientific component belongs to the ornithologist and associate professor of DonNU, Leonid Ivanovych Taranenko.

The hydronym is formed from the close location of the lakes to one another, but part of the reserve lies in the floodplain of the Bessarabivka River, a tributary of the Kazennyi Torets. The information stand reports that the reserve is inhabited by 70 species of feathered friends, 11 of which are listed in the European list of endangered species, and 4 are recorded in the Red Book of Ukraine.

The shore is covered by glasswort and other representatives of salt-tolerant flora.

The peace and quiet of the ecosystem was affected by the activity of a salt works, whose buildings stood practically within the protected zone.

 

For now, only ruins and abandoned buildings remain of the enterprise.

 

In recent years the water bodies have been growing shallow, and the ubiquitous reed is drawing the mirrors of water into a tight ring.

On the territory of the reserve, any activity that contradicts its aims and objectives and threatens the preservation of populations is impermissible and punishable by law. It is not permitted to light fires, to destroy and damage green plantings and grass cover, to disturb the state of the water bodies, or to litter the nature-protection zone. The catching and killing of wild animals and birds, and the disturbance of the conditions of their settlement and nesting, are prohibited. If you want to see and hear the local inhabitants of "Pryozernyi", do not frighten them, do not break the laws of nature, do not disturb your feathered neighbours, and protect the natural diversity and the gene pool of the plant and animal world.

Coordinates: 48°51'54"N 37°37'38"E