Lisino and Okhta experimental forest stations

In 1834, upon an ini­tia­tive of the Min­is­ter of finance E.F. Kankrin, a train­ing for­est site was found­ed and since then Lisi­no Exper­i­men­tal For­est Sta­tion has been serv­ing as a unique nature sci­en­tif­ic lab­o­ra­to­ry of the FTU. Here the foun­da­tions of forestry orga­ni­za­tion in Rus­sia were laid, and dozens of gen­er­a­tions of foresters have obtained their pro­fes­sion­al training.

As far back as in 1834, exper­i­ments on grow­ing of for­est stands on reclaimed areas were start­ed, and up to now research of soil dynam­ics and soil for­ma­tion con­di­tions is in progress.

In Rus­sia, the first for­est reg­u­la­tion was made here accord­ing to the rules of sci­ence, and today all the newest meth­ods and tech­nolo­gies of for­est reg­u­la­tion works are test­ed in Lisino.

The exper­i­ments on selec­tion of opti­mal cut­tings and grow­ing trees’ tech­niques start­ed almost 100 years ago.

The con­stant mon­i­tor­ing of health con­di­tions of for­est stands and prac­ti­cal tests of pest con­trol have been exe­cut­ing here since XIX century.
Staff of the Uni­ver­si­ty, post-grad­u­ates and stu­dents may car­ry out research, estab­lish new exper­i­men­tal plots, cre­ate indus­tri­al objects such as plant­i­ng stock nurs­eries, tree plants, afforesta­tion of reclaimed march­es and clear cuts. It would be right to say that high capac­i­ty Lisi­no forests are result of the fruit­ful work of the FTU scientists.

Okhta Exper­i­men­tal For­est Sta­tion – “a for­est in the city” – is a unique object for research of land­scape sta­bil­i­ty, a place for prac­ti­cal train­ing of students.
At present, Lisi­no and Okhta Exper­i­men­tal For­est Sta­tions are the site of work­ing expe­ri­ence, pro­fes­sion­al train­ing of the FTU stu­dents. An impor­tant part of the for­est sta­tions’ activ­i­ties is a com­plex tour to exper­i­men­tal grounds, where the most expe­ri­enced pro­fes­sors of all depart­ments of the Forestry Fac­ul­ty give mas­ter class­es for stu­dents. These class­es have been prac­ticed since long ago, hand­ing down tra­di­tions from one gen­er­a­tion to anoth­er, pro­mot­ing sci­en­tif­ic and research edu­ca­tion of future qual­i­fied spe­cial­ists in forestry.