Visimskiy State Natural Biosphere Reserve, Nature reserve in Kirovgrad District, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia

Visimskiy State Natural Biosphere Reserve covers 33,487 hectares on the western slope of the Middle Urals, in the headwaters of the Sulyom, Darya and Shishim rivers. Its low-mountain terrain rises to Mount Bolshoy Sutuk at 699 m, and 87% of the land is forest. The canopy is dominated by Siberian spruce, Siberian fir and birch, with bare grey trunks standing among the green conifers.

The reserve was created on 7 March 1946 by a decree of the RSFSR Council of People's Commissars as "Visim", covering 56,300 hectares. It was abolished in 1951 and re-established on 6 July 1971 on a smaller 9,500-hectare tract under its present name. Enthusiasts then proposed calling it "Maminsky" after the writer Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak. Its area grew to 13,500 hectares in 1973 and 33,500 hectares in 2001, when it became a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

The reserve is named after the village of Visim, home of writer Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak, who set stories about Ural rural life there. When the reserve was re-established in 1971, some enthusiasts proposed calling it "Maminsky" in his honour, but the name Visimsky prevailed.

The reserve is a strict zapovednik, so the public cannot enter the core area freely; visits are arranged in advance with the administration, whose main office is in Kirovgrad. Three ecotourist routes are being laid out for permit holders, and access is easier in the buffer and transition zones to the north, where hunting and fishing are banned.

The reserve's mushroom flora is studied intensively: 569 agaricoid taxa have been recorded on the protected territory, and 172 new species were found between 2001 and 2006 alone. Researchers estimate about 800 cap-fungus species may grow here, comparable to the richness of whole regions such as Perm Krai or Leningrad Oblast.