Forests and thickets
Forests cover near 20% of Shikotan Island. There are dark coniferous, larch and birch (Betula ermanii), alder thickets and grasslands. There are bog and grass-brush communities on other islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge: Polonskogo, Zeleny, Yuri, Tanfilyeva, Anuchina islands.
On the territory of the refuge dwarf siberian pine (Pinus pumila) is replaced by Juniperus sargentii which forms continuous creeping thickets on mountains' slopes and separate thickets on marine rocks and terraces.