Ile-Alatau National Park

Ile-Alatau State National Nature Park is a national park in Kazakhstan, established in 1996. Covering an area of approximately 200,000 hectares, the park is situated in the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains, south of Almaty, and stretches between the Turgen gorge in the east and the Chemolgan river in the west. It borders the Almaty Nature Reserve, which encompasses the area around Pik Talgar.

The park's landscape includes woodlands, alpine meadows, glaciers, and lakes such as Big Almaty Lake. The flora of the park is equally varied, with tree species such as apricot, maple, and apple trees. The park is also home to an array of wildlife, with over 300 recorded species of birds and animals.

Ile-Alatau National Park is known for its biodiversity, with notable species including the snow leopards, Central Asian lynx, Tian Shan brown bears, Central Asian stone martens, Siberian ibexes, bearded vultures and golden eagles. It also provides habitat for several unique bird species, including the Himalayan snowcock, ibisbill, Eurasian scops owl, and Eurasian three-toed woodpecker. Furthermore, the park is home to species of deer, whose antlers are believed to possess medicinal properties.

History

The history of the park begins with the creation of the Almaty State Reserve in Zailiisky Alatau in 1931. Initially it occupied an area of 15,000 hectares in the valley of Malaya Almatinka river, in 1935, after increasing the area to 40,000 hectares, and then to 856.7 thousand hectares, it became known as Alma-Ata, covering the whole Zailiisky Alatau ridge. Regular scientific research on vegetation cover, forest typology, birds and mammals began to be conducted in this territory.

The first scientific substantiation of the organization of the Zailiisky National Park was developed by order of the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR on January 3, 1985, in accordance with the program of the Academy of Sciences "Development of Protected Areas in Kazakhstan". The scientific supervisors were academicians E. V. Gvozdev and B. A. Bykov.

In 1987, the Department of Biosphere and Ecology of the Kazakhstan Committee for the UNESCO program "Man and the Biosphere" at the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR within the program "Development of Protected Areas in Kazakhstan" prepared a scientific rationale for the "General Scheme of Development and Location of Natural Reserve Fund of the Kazakh SSR until 2005". This document proposed the creation of Zailiyskiy State National Nature Park on the area of 280 thousand hectares. According to this scheme, the creation of the park was planned for 1995. In 1990, a feasibility study for the organization of the park was developed. On February 22, 1996, the Ile-Alatau National Park was established on the territory of 202,292 ha by the governmental resolution.

Climate

The climate in the national park is diverse and differentiated by altitude climatic zones. Summers are warm, winters are mild due to a pronounced inversion of air temperature. In the foothills, the average January temperature is -7.4°C, and 23°C in July. The duration of the frost-free period is 181 days, and 560 mm of precipitation falls per year. In the Maloalmatinsky gorge (Medeu tract), at an altitude of 1530 m, the temperature in January is -4.3 °C, and 18.1 °C in July. The duration of the frost-free period is 145 days, and 843 mm of precipitation falls per year. At an altitude of 3035 m (Mynzhilki tract), in conditions of eternal snow and glaciers, the average January temperature is −11.3°C, and 7°C in July. The duration of the frost-free period is 53 days, and 734 mm of precipitation falls annually. In the high-mountainous part of the Zailiyskiy Alatau at an altitude of 3750 m, the climate is harsh, and there is a lot of precipitation - 800–1300 mm, mainly in the form of snow. The warm period is very short - the average air temperature on the glaciers in summer does not exceed 2.8°C.

Snow cover according to long-term observations in the foothills (850 m) is established on December 6, in the middle mountains (1200–2500 m) - a month earlier, in the highlands (3000 m) - on October 21. In spring, snow melts at different heights and in different mountains from March 10 to May 22. The number of days with snow cover at different altitudes varies from 111 to 236. The height of the snow cover in the foothills is about 30 cm, in the middle and high mountains it can reach 100 cm.

The Zailiyskiy Alatau stands as a high forward barrier on the way of the northern and northwestern moisture-carrying air masses, which freely penetrate through the main valleys deep into the mountains, causing a clear differentiation of natural landscapes at altitude. The territory of the park covers low-mountain, mid-mountain and high-mountain landscapes, which reflect the layered structure of the mountains.

Flora

The flora of the natural park has more than 1,000 species, of which the overwhelming part accounts for the flora of the middle-mountain forest belt. There are more than 500 species of deciduous forests and more than 400 species of higher plants in spruce forests. 36 species are included in the Red Book.

In the lowlands there are Ostrovskiy tulip, Mushketov's curlicue, Alberta iris, Sivers apple tree, Altai holosemianus; in the middlelands - orange jaundice, Semenov's tufted shagreen, Alma mater, cortuza Semenova; in the highlands - Falconer liverwort, Tianshan Siberia, Kumbel hawk, Schmangauzia asteriata, Sossurea wrapped. The mosses listed in the Red Book, such as Pachyphysissidens largeifolia and Orthotrichum smoothened are in special need of protection. The red-listed saffron of Alatau (Crocus alatavicus) can be found in the Kok-Gailau tract.