Duderhof Heights

The nearest railway station, Mozhayskaya (formerly Duderhof) of the Ligovo-Krasnoye Selo-Gatchina railroad (constructed in 1859), is situated immediately to the west of the hills.

Since 1992 the Orekhovaya and Voronya hills have been designated as protected area (of about 66 hectares (160 acres)), divided by Sovetskaya Street of the settlement Dudergof into two parts.

Nowadays both hills are mostly covered by broadleaf forests (with Acer platanoides, Fraxinus excelsior, Tilia cordata, Ulmus glabra, Quercus robur, Corylus avellana), very uncommon for the region situated in the taiga belt, and have a peculiar fauna and flora.

This is also one of the few sites in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast where European Beech is able to overwinter in cultivation, albeit suffering considerable dieback.

The vegetation on the hills hasn't remained intact and has been subject to heavy anthropogenic influence for the last two centuries.