The Tiger student team, established by the Amur Tiger Centre, will soon complete improvements on the Cape Severny eco trail in the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve. On 28 August, the trail will be completed on a turnkey basis. First groups of tourists will arrive in early September.

At the end of the sixth week of the students’ work on the site, Sergei Aramilev, Deputy General Director and Director of the Primorye branch of the Amur Tiger Centre, visited the Blagodatnoye cordon. He walked along the upgraded path and talked to the students.

Mr Aramilev noted: “Our initial plans were to involve students in improving only separate sections of the eco trail, but later, after seeing the progress done and assessing the students’ abilities, we came to the conclusion that they could renovate the entire route. What I saw today proved that we were right.”

Two additional lorries carrying logs and beams arrived at the cordon to build a boarded path in an area not originally included in the improvement plans. It was the July tropical cyclone that changed the renovation plans for the Cape Severny path. The storm showed that a dry section of the forest path can turn into a swamp after a torrent rain. “We were lucky that the tropical cyclone occurred in July, when the team was only starting its work,” Mr Aramilev said. “If this had happened later, we would have had to start the work anew.”

The student team will spend two more weeks working on the eco trail. Two staircases and a bridge have been built and put into use. Boards have been laid on a section in front of the twisted oak trees. Students will also lay boards on the section flooded by the tropical cyclone.

After the improvements are completed, information boards will be placed along the path providing data on rare animals and plants. The nature reserve’s staff members are ready to conduct excursions. The first tourists will walk on the renovated environmentally friendly path in September. The trail has been properly designed so as to minimise the human impact on the environment even if there is a steady stream of visitors. The Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve will therefore be able to receive more tourists and attract public attention to its work, which is mostly targeted at preserving the Amur tiger population.