The study focuses on the current state of agricultural lands in the post‐ Virgin Lands development period, identifying prospects for agro‐industrial growth and assessing alternative natural resource management scenarios. These scenarios include the establishment of specially protected natural areas (SPNAs), hunting management systems and biodiversity conservation.Field expeditions were conducted to collect primary data. The authors studied and analysed land management records and the dynamics of agricultural land structures in the Steppe Trans‐Urals over a 70‐year period. The research involved processing extensive cartographic materials, soil maps and geobotanical maps, as well as remote sensing (RS) data spanning 50 years.The Orenburg Trans‐Urals, which covered five administrative districts in the 1950s–1960s, remains one of Russia's largest hubs of what was the Virgin Lands campaign. Between 1954 and 1963, newly cultivated areas reached approximately one million hectares, accounting for nearly 60 % of all virgin lands developed in the region. Notably, two‐thirds of this new arable land consisted of marginal soils, including sandy, sandy‐loam, solonetzic and erosion‐prone areas.The cultivation of soils poorly suited for agriculture in the southern chernozem and dark chestnut soil zones led not only to a sharp decline in natural fertility with humus reserve losses ranging from 30 % to 50 %, but also to the withdrawal of tens of thousands of hectares of arable land from production. This abandonment resulted from frequent crop failures or critically low yields, averaging approximately 0.25 t/ha (affecting 30 % of the developed area). Under these conditions, many virgin land farms were forced to reduce grain crop areas and livestock numbers, triggering rural depopulation and the degradation of agricultural infrastructure. To address these ongoing issues, it is proposed to establish a land fund for the restoration of steppe landscapes (ecosystems) in all post‐Virgin Land districts.