Regional authorities have established a protective zone around Lake Yastrebinoye

At the end of last week, the authorities of the Leningrad region established the boundaries of the protected natural zone around Lake Yastrebinoye. Environmentalists, however, believe that one or two kilometers will not save the unique natural monument and are preparing a new appeal to the heads of the Leningrad region and Karelia. In accordance with the resolution of the regional government, the area of the protective zone around Yastrebinoye Lake was 1,663 hectares. Now, within a radius of 1-2 km from a natural monument, it is prohibited to provide land for quarrying, construction of industrial enterprises, blasting, mining, or geological exploration. At the same time, visitors to the protected zone can “carry out all types of felling,” engage in fishing, hunting, tourism, and mountaineering athletes can conduct training and competitions.
Hawk Lake has become the focus of attention from environmental NGOs after several companies announced plans to begin crushed stone mining near the lake. According to green activists, the quarries of the companies "Ekoprom-transit" and "Efimovsky quarry" will be located 1-2 km from the lake and will cause irreparable damage to nature. It is interesting that they even tried to revoke the mining license of Ecoprom-Transit, which was issued by the Ministry of Industry of Karelia in violation of the law. However, the company defended the license in arbitration court. Last year, after protests and scandals, the head of Karelia, Sergei Katanandov, announced the reservation of lands for a protective zone within a radius of 10 km from Yastrebinoye Lake, but so far a protective zone on these lands has not been created on the part of Karelia.
As Mikhail Dedov, chairman of the environmental protection committee of the regional administration, told Kommersant, commenting on the regional government's resolution, on the part of the Leningrad region, one or two kilometers are quite enough to protect the lake.
However, neither environmentalists nor deputies of the local parliament agree with the official. The leader of the movement “Against the seizure of lakes” Irina Andrianova told Kommersant that, for example, the enterprise OJSC Granit-Kuznechnoye (its head Vasily Kostritsa is a deputy of the regional parliament on the lists of the A Just Russia party - Kommersant) is located 7.5 km from the monument nature. “In words, he promised not to expand the excavations of deposits, but whether this will actually happen is difficult to say,” says Irina Andrianova. According to her, the protection zone around the lake should be at least 6-7 kilometers.
Members of the Leningrad Region Parliament believe that a 7-kilometer security zone is not enough. Last year, the people's representatives adopted an appeal to Governor Valery Serdyukov, the head of the Republic of Karelia Sergei Katanandov and the Karelian parliament with a request to increase the protective zone of Yastrebinoye Lake to 15 kilometers (at least in terms of subsoil development), motivating this appeal by the large number of valuable animals living around the lake and birds (10 species are included in the Red Book of Nature of the Leningrad Region), and also by the fact that “the rocky shores of the lake are one of the main training bases for climbers, rock climbers and ice climbers.”
However, the regional government believes that the measures taken by the region are quite sufficient. “We were the first to raise the issue of protecting the lake and put it before Karelia. And then a group of people appeared who promote themselves in order to be visible. I’m tired of listening to screams and cries,” Mikhail Dedov told Kommersant
Alexandra Confisachor

Newspaper "Kommersant St. Petersburg" No. 99 dated June 10, 2008, p. 3

"I'm tired of listening to screams"