Reserve "Yaroslavl" was organized August 12, 1958 It is a zoological reserve at the federal level. It is located on the bank of the Kostroma reservoir on the territory Nekrasovsky Danilov and areas downstream caste Sot, Vopsha. The area of ​​the territory - 14 300 hectares. Located on the grounds of Yaroslavl filler forestry forestry and forest Seredskogo LESOKOMBINAT Danilov, a variety of collective farms and other land users. On the northern border of the reserve are 20 rural settlements.

Reserve "Yaroslavl" is located 180 km from the national park "Lake Pleshcheyevo." who guards the territory of the nature reserve and carries out activities aimed at maintaining the natural state of natural objects and complexes and objects of nature reserve and conservation of biological diversity.

Reserve "Yaroslavl" was created to protect the unique and typical fauna as reserve of hunting fauna, which facilitates the resettlement of wild animals. In the reserve are protected by more than 40 species of mammals (including - beaver and muskrat) and 200 species of birds (including the white-tailed eagle).

The reserve lies on a low-lying plain, which is formed by an ancient flood plain of the Volga and the lower reaches of the rivers flowing into the Volga, complicated floodplains. The height of the surface of the board is in the lowlands of 110 m and the lowest central part up to 87 m. The flat terrain is disturbed starorechyami, riverine shafts, basins floodplain lakes. The reserve is dominated by the soil with a combination of peat-gley and sod-podzolic, alluvial gley granular soils near river beds on the lake loam and sandy loam river alluvium.

The reserve pass downstream caste Sot, Vopshi that flow into the Kostroma spills. The average depth of the channels is 3-5 m (castes and Vopsha) and 8 m (Sot), the predominant channel process is free meandering; the average depth of spills within the reserve of 3 m, only on the ground of former river beds flooded rivers and lakes - 8-10 m. The hydrological regime of spills is dependent on the passage of water in the Gorky hydroelectric power station, as well as the average long-term and is subject to seasonal fluctuations with an amplitude of 1-2 m .

The climate in the reserve - temperate continental, the average annual temperature is +2, 9º, the average temperature in January -11, 4º, the average temperature in July of +15, 2º, the growing season lasts 150 days, the average annual rainfall is 593 mm, the duration of snow period - 150-160 days, the prevailing winds - the south-west and west.

The area of ​​the forest fund reserve of 8540 hectares, it is represented by middle-aged birch, alder, aspen, spruce and mixed plantings. The forest fund is made up of small-leaved forests with admixture of spruce (old and middle-aged stands with predominance of aspen, birch, alder) - 10, 5% of the area; leaved dry forests (old and middle-aged with a mixture of willow and birch, basswood, aspen) - 16, 4%; leaved forest raw (middle-aged and old olshanniki, aspen, birch and alder forests growing on peat soils) - 7, 1%; cuttings and young trees (aspen, birch and alder) - 6, 9%; shrubs (lowland pastures and hayfields, zakustarennoe undergrowth overgrown clumps of alder and willow, Gorky reservoir flooded undergrowth) - 18, 8%; thickets of marsh vegetation and water - bog water Tracts shallows overgrown with macrophytes -2, 8%.

Biological diversity of fauna and flora of the reserve is represented by more than 200 species of birds and over 40 species of mammals. Rare species - white-tailed eagle and muskrat.