Historical notes

The idea of protecting a piece of land around the Denezhkin Kamen Mountain in the Urals was generated and further promoted by the scientific community in the Ural region soon after the World War II, in 1945. Sergey Turov, the professor and the director of the Zoology Museum at Moscow State University, and Alexander Protopopov, a committed nature conservationist, arrived from Moscow with the assign to establish two reserves in this part of the Urals: the "Denezhkin Kamen" Nature Reserve and the Visim Nature Reserve. Conceivably they may have been the first ones in the history to use aerial surveillance for a clear view of the territory designated for preservation.

The details of the institution of these preserves are available for historians through Turov's daybooks. There were several suggestions for the "Denezhkin Kamen" reserve territory's placement. The most ambitious project proposed to envelop the territory along the Ural Mountains, from the riverhead of Vagran River in the south up to the riverhead of the river Ivdel in the north.

According to Turov’s notes, the vast areas around Denezhkin Kamen Mountain were burned over by a wild fire of 1938. The professor doubted the expediency of preserving these fire-ravaged areas but still hoped to set at least these areas aside. The majority of the proposed area with the exception of a few coinage metal deposits along the rivers was of not much interest to the Russian developing industries. The area designated to the Visim Nature Reserve was, in contrast, already planned as a part of a river dam.

In 1946, under the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic both “Denezhkin Kamen” Nature Preserve and the Visim Nature Preserve were founded. "Denezhkin Kamen" Nature Reserve had an area of about 333,600 acres at that time and included not only the territory of Sverdlovsk region but also a part of Perm (then known as Molotov) region.

“Denezhkin Kamen” Nature Reserve had optimal location. It was situated on the watersheds and included vast areas of the northern taiga. It was highly representative in the terms of species richness, ecological conditions and landscape structure. A relatively small territory harbored the major landscape types of the Northern Urals: productive pine forests in the valleys and on the foothills, dark coniferous mountain taiga forests, rock-fields, subalpine meadows, alpine tundra, rocks and bogs. The natural resources of this land had barely been exploited before the reserve was established; only hunting had been widespread in the region. It was the only reserve in the USSR which straddled Europe and Asia.

The staff of the newly-formed reserve started competent research activities. The Nature Chronicles (an annual document of significant information and research) were compiled; a collection of scientific papers was published every year. The data collected by the reserve staff provided a basis for monographs and several significant articles written by the scientists.

In 1951 "Denezhkin Kamen" Reserve fell afoul of the so-called reorganization of the Nature Reserve System of the USSR, and its area was slashed to just 89,207 acres despite the vigorous opposition of the scientific community. In the late 1950s, Russia’s nature reserves were steadily restored and the territory was extended to cover 362, 503 acres.

Unfortunately, a new “reconstruction” of nature reserves network on the orders of Nikita Khrushchev soon followed. The "Denezhkin Kamen" Nature Reserve was reformed as a wildlife management area under the same authority – the RSFSR Chief Administration for Hunting and Nature Reserves. The wildlife management area regime allowed hunting, berry picking and some timber harvesting.

The extent of logging grew year-on-year after 1969. By 1977, some 16,866 cubic feet of timber was harvested. As a wildlife management area, “Denezhkin Kamen” became unprofitable by the late 1970s.

The Ural scientific community strongly criticized the reorganization of the preserve and in 1974 brought up the issue of reestablishing "Denezhkin Kamen" Nature Preserve. Many well-known scientists of that time emphasized the necessity of reestablishing the preserve, and the issue was discussed at meetings of the Environmental Commission, Academic Council of the Institute for Plant and Animal Ecology of the Ural branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Nikolai Gashev, a former director of the nature preserve, played a significant role in its reestablishment. Academic institutions in the Ural region came up with several conservation projects, but typically faced strong opposition from various pressure groups seeking to use the natural resources of the region.

In the fall of 1981 the executive committees of Sverdlovsk and Perm regions approved the formation of the “Denezhkin Kamen” Russian Federal Nature Reserve. The next step was to submit a petition for the restoration of the reserve to the Council of Ministers of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (RSFSR).

This was not the breakthrough, however. It took several years to agree on the borders of the nature reserve. The Urals Territorial Geological Administration posed the main obstacle as it constantly recommended excluding one territory or another from the protected area.

At last, on December 29, 1989, the Sverdlovsk Region Council of the People’s Deputies passed resolution No. 456 on the foundation of the nature reserve "Denezhkin Kamen".

It was later followed by Order No.5 of the RSFSR Ministry for Ecology and Natural Resources, issued on October 3, 1991, and the Decree No. 431 of the RSFSR Council of Ministers, August 16, 1991. The latter date is considered to be the birthday of the newly organized “Denezhkin Kamen” Nature Preserve.

It wasn’t a complete victory: the new reserve is almost twice smaller than its predecessor. Unfortunately it has lost much of its territorial integrity. The western slopes of the Ural Ridge, the Shemur mountain range and the Kutimskoye Bog - an important habitat for Alces alces - were excluded of the reserve's territory.