Bely Klyuch Tract

The Bely Klyuch Tract (Урочище Белый Ключ) is a landscape and botanical nature monument in the Ilek district of Orenburg Region, 12 kilometers northeast of the village of Sladkovo. It is the district's largest watershed forest massif, covering 354 hectares of upland ravine oak forest, with a spring of the same name rising inside it.

Nature

The forest massif covers the slopes and tops of ravines composed of Jurassic sands and gravels. The oak forest here is of the upland-ravine type: trees grow along the slopes of gullies and gorges rather than forming a single continuous stand on flat ground. This tract is considered one of the southernmost watershed oak forests of the Common Syrt, a large upland on the border of Orenburg Region and Bashkortostan. At the foot of a cliff made of dense quartz sands, the Bely Klyuch spring rises, which gave the tract its name. Near the spring, by the ruins of an old mill, there is a small waterfall.

History

The nature monument was established on May 21, 1998. The tract still holds the ruins of an old mill and the remains of an estate that local residents call the Lopets estate. The forest massif belongs to the Chapaevskoye forestry. The place has long served as a recreation spot for residents of the nearby villages of Sladkovo, Mukhranovo and Yamana, who came here for spring water and to gather mushrooms and berries in the forest. In 2012, local United Russia activists carried out work to clear the spring.

Getting there

The Bely Klyuch Tract is located 12 km northeast of the village of Sladkovo in the Ilek district of Orenburg Region. The nearest villages are Sladkovo, Mukhranovo and Yamana, whose residents visit the place most often.