Аннотация:The National Park “Valdayskiy” was established to preserve the unique lake-forest complex of
the Valday Upland and create conditions for the development of organized recreation on this territory.
Incomparable beautiful views of different landscapes attract thousands of tourists from
various region of Russia. The greater number of them prefers lakeshores for camping, so special
attention was paid to the study of riparian and shallow water vegetation of lakes in zones of different
recreational pressure to establish the patterns of vegetation digression. The materials of our
observations are supplemented with data on the attendance of tourist sites collected by the park staff.
The recreational capacities of the region were studied on the base of bioclimatic indices
according Bodman’s indices and subjective temperature. Evaluation of them allows Valday to be
attributed to regions with a lack of thermal resources, in which it is preferable to develop dynamic
types of recreational activities practically all over the year. For soft recreational activity the Valday
Hills are available with limitation from 7 to 8 months in a year and without limitation – nearly 1 month
in a year.
Even during this period (mid-July to mid-August), there is a massive influx of tourists and
intensive use of recreation sites on the lakeshores. This leads to degradation of riparian forest and
meadow vegetation; destruction of the protective (buffer) zone of aquatic vegetation, erosion of the
banks near camps, pollution of shallow water by sewage and garbage.
Thus irregular recreational pressure on water bodies leads to local degradation of natural
complexes and eventually to lowering the aesthetic value of riparian landscapes. But such factors as a
moderately continental climate with a prolonged cold winter and high relative air humidity throughout
the year, reducing the period of a strong recreational pressure, as well as the complicated accessibility
of many lakeshores reduce the negative impact of recreation and delay the destruction of natural
vegetation.