Beshtaugorskii Forest Tract

a forest tract located in the center of a group of spas of the Caucasian Mineral Waters region on the slopes and foothills of the Beshtau, Mashuk, Zmeika, Razvalka, Ostraia, Zheleznaia, and Medovaia mountains. The total area is 6,300 hectares (1970), of which 5,500 are forested. The tract has a large protective and reservoir influence on the conditions of the mineral springs in the Zheleznovodsk and Piatigorsk regions. The species composition of the forest stands is varied. The main forest-forming trees are the common ash, pendunculate oak (in the lower zones), sessile oak (in the upper zones), hornbeam, and beech. The common ash often forms pure stands and occurs everywhere mixed with oak and hornbeam. Foothill chernozems and dark gray-brown soils of various thickness and dampness predominate in the soil cover.