Volga Steppe Nature Reserve

The protected natural area was created here in 1989. 
One of the treasures of the reserve are its chernozem soils of uncultivated lands. The soils in the steppes (Poperechinskaya and Ostrovtsovkaya) are unique in their composition and are offered to be included in the Red Book of Soils in Russia. This soil provides habitat for rarest plant communities that are not to be found elsewhere (apart from another steppe nature reserve - Central Black Soil Nature Reserve). 
The typical animals of Russia’s nature reserves - elks, roes, wild boars, wolves, badgers, foxes, martens, beavers - are present here but in much larger areas than in other unprotected territories. Ducks on the lakes having a brief rest before migration flight, cranes walking in marshlands - these are just some of more than 150 bird species that inhabit the area. Six of the species are in the Red Book of Russia, and 16 are in the Red Book of Penza Oblast. Around 25 species of fish and cyclostomata are present in the water bodies of the nature reserve. Three of them are in the Red Book of Russia.