Nature reserve "Kotelsky" is located in the Kingisepp district of Leningrad region. The territory has a somewhat elongated shape and extends towards the southwest of the central coast Koporskaya lips belonging to the Gulf of Finland, about 30 km away.

State reserve "Kotelsky" was founded in 1976 and today carries regional significance. The purpose of the reserve is to preserve the variety of woody vegetation, including oak forests near the northern border, as well as natural objects glacial landscape. In addition, regulated biodiversity, the hydrological regime of the lake ecosystem. The total area of ​​the natural object is more than 12 thousand hectares, including more than 3 million hectares of water area of ​​the lake and about 50 hectares of water surface of the Gulf of Finland.

The area is rich in natural wonder of the complex lake system, because on its territory there are five lakes. Deep, Babinskoe Kopanskoe and lakes - the so-called fragments of the ancient river valley. Deep depth of the lake is 22, 5 m; the second deepest lake Kopanskoe - depth of 16 meters, and the rest of the lake have a depth of a few meters.

Forests represented Kislichnaya blueberry and spruce with some admixture of lime, oak, maple; Podlesnaya in the area can be seen hazel and daphne .  Herbal tier reserve presented cause of the spring, lungwort, pechenochnitsey, amazing violet, goutweed and many others rejoice plants .  The small size of the territory is covered by oak forest with a predominance of Chickweed .  The cranberry heather and pine forests are yuzhnoborovye views presented puchkovatym gypsophila, sand carnation, pigweed Veronica .  Some of the area reserved for the reed grass fern-birch, aspen .  It is worth noting that the most widespread use alder swamp interspersed with calla and some other wetland types, such as sedge-sphagnum, sedge, birch-sphagnum, shrub-sphagnum with a mixture of pine . Sandy shore the Gulf of Finland is particularly rich cause of coastal, wild rye sandy, coastal species of swan .  Lake shallows abound rare for this area plants: lobelia dortmanna, finest Kaulin and several kinds polushnikov . 

It is worth noting that the natural conditions of the reserve "Kotelsky" possess exceptional diversity, which leads to an incredible wealth of wildlife. All five lakes in the reserve rich rudd, bream, roach, carp, bleak, ruff. Some time ago the lake ihtiotsidom processed, after which they were used for the development of Gears, peled and carp. On Kopanskii lake cage farming is very developed, characterized by the cultivation of rainbow trout.

Among the representatives of large mammals in the area of ​​the nature reserve you can meet roe deer, moose, bear, boar, wolf; especially common marten, raccoon dog, fox, badger, weasel, polecat, garden dormouse and flying squirrel. On the territory of the location of the reserve, there are five species of bats.

As for rare species of birds, among them are the osprey, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Pygmy Owl, owl, green woodpecker, corncrake, nutcrackers and white-backed woodpecker. Particularly high numbers of black woodpecker, nightjar and thrush thrush, is increasingly common in pine forests. On the lake you can see a lot of nests lake gulls, grebes, common tern, Goosander, Tufted Duck, Goldeneye, and the carrier.

On the territory of the nature reserve is strictly forbidden to make fires in the wrong places, tapping trees and firewood, parking and transportation vehicles in the forest and lake area, the contaminated areas, lakes and rivers of garbage and other waste.