On the organization of the steppe reserve in Transbaikalia

In Russia, the steppe zone occupies the southern regions of the East European Plain and Western Siberia. Further in the east, steppes stretch to the foothills of the Altai. In the mountains of Southern Siberia, the steppe zone is distributed in isolated areas in the Minusinsk and Tuva basins, in the intermontane depressions of the Altai and Transbaikalia. The steppes in the Transbaikalia occupy flat and slightly substandard areas in the basins. Before plowing up the steppe landscapes, inter-mountain depressions everywhere were dominated by grassy vegetation with a predominance of turfy grass - feather grass, fescue, tonkonoga, steppe sheep and bluegrass. The steppe is the most developed by a man who uses these places for pasture for grazing cattle and for obtaining arable land. In this regard, the article discusses the need to organize a steppe reserve in the southern steppe territories of Western Transbaikalia - in the Tugnui valley in the territory of the Republic of Buryatia. The paper presents the necessary arguments and rationales in favor of the creation of the protected natural areas of steppe landscapes in the south of Buryatia with the characteristics of representative clusters, among them - part of the territories of nature reserves - “Altacheisky” and “Tugnuysky”, spurs of the ridge Tsagan-Daban (Shara-Tebseg mountain range) and others. The steppes of the Tugnui Valley represent the standard of a little disturbed natural complex - a complex and contrast forest-steppe and steppe landscape of Transbaikalia.