West Altai reserve was established in 1992 and its area equals 56.3 thousand ha. The reserve covers ranges in Kazakhstan Altai, including Lineisky, Kholzun, Koksinsky, and Ivanovsky ranges in the sources of the Balaya Uba, Chernaya Uba and Barsuk Rivers , a tributary of the Turgussun River . Sources of the Belaya Uba River has fourteen small glaciers. The climate in the West Alai reserve is sharply continental and it is the wettest place in Kazakhstan and the Asiatic part of the NIS . Snow stays from November up to April, that is up to 170 days. The reserve has four belts: deciduous forest, alpine taiga forests, sub-alpine and alpine meadows and alpine tundra. The deciduous forest is typical of valleys of rivers.

Apine taiga forests are diverse and include thick taiga, cedar and fir forest and coniferous forest. Sub-alpine and alpine forests are found at a height of 1,800-2,000m. There are no distinct frontiers between the belts as it is characteristic of Kazakhstan Altai.

Alpine tundra is at a height of 2,000m and plus. The tundra is made up of fragments of different types of plants, which are now and then alternated with detritus and clay.

Reserve fauna is typical of mid-alpine area in West Altai . The reserve harbors over 200 species of birds, including black kite, Asiatic snipes, wood grouse, big turtle-dove and little owls and others. The reserve is a home to fifty species of mammals: the Altai mole, fox, bear, glutton, sable, weasel, ermine, Siberian weasel, otter, musk-deer, Siberian deer, deer, roe deer and squirrel. Meantime there are not many species of fish, reptile or amphibian. Taimen and Siberian grayling, fog and gray toad, common steppe viper and lizard are to be found in the reserve.

Some species of birds found in the reserve are included in the Red Data Book for Kazakhstan . Among them are such birds as golden eagle, eagle owl and black stork. West Altai National reserve is no doubt a paradisiacal realm for a researcher.