Forest Pasture Reclamation in the Dry Zone of the Russian Federation and the Ways to Increase Its Efficiency

The work was carried out according to the program of fundamental scientific research of the Russian Academy of Sciences for 2013-2020, section 147-"Theory and principles of creating agroforestry and forestry complexes in order to increase the productivity and environmental expediency of agricultural landscapes, protect soils from degradation and desertification in the conditions of technogenesis and global climate change" Abstract Introduction.The arid regions of Russia are characterized by prolonged excessive anthropogenic loads on pasture lands, high instability of weather and climatic conditions and frequent natural hazards, which are catastrophic in terms of the territory coverage and the damage caused to various sectors of the national economy.The fragile ecosystems of arid regions have become extremely unstable due to the degradation of soil and vegetation cover.Object.Pastures of arid, subarid and subhumid zones of the Russian Federation. Materials and methods.The article is prepared on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the materials of long-term research of the Federal State Budget Scientific Institution «Federal Scientific Center of Agroecology, Complex Melioration and Protective Afforestation of the Russian Academy of Science», its experimental network, other research institutes and universities, as well as the experience of implementing regional and on-farm projects of degraded pastures phytomelioration.Results and conclusions.The analysis of scientific achievements and practical experience of the last decades on the assessment and use of forest-growing potential of lands is carried out, the necessity of improving the forest-reclamation classification of pastures of the arid zone of Russia as a basis for designing measures to restore and increase the natural forage lands productivity and stability is justified.In order to increase the measures effectiveness within the forest reclamation categories (FRC), it is proposed to allocate subcategories of pastures with an annual precipitation rate of less than 250 mm, 250-350 and more than 350 mm, which determines significant differences in the meliorant breeds assortment, the creating plantings technology, their functional durability.Sandy lands (FRC-I and FRC-II) should be divided into provinces composed of monomineral quartz and polymineral deposits, differing in fertility and root-tightness of the aeration zone.The deflation foci should be differentiated into new (up to 30 years old), old (30-50 years old) and ancient (over 50 years old), having different genesis and forest growing conditions.New foci as the primary object of land reclamation according to the sand transfer intensity and the work conditions should be divided into small (up to 1 ha), medium (1-10 ha) and large (10-1000 ha or more), and technological modes should be determined depending on the stock of mobile sand.