LIFE to ALVARS the Restoration and Grazing Reintroduction on 2500 Hectares of Estonian Alvar Grasslands

LIFE TO ALVARS The restoration and grazing reintroduction on 2500 hectares of Estonian alvar grasslands

LAYMAN´S REPORT ON LIFE+ PROJECT 2014–2019 www.envir.ee/et/lifetoalvars • facebook.com/lifetoalvars/ Technical information of the project The name: Restoration of Estonian alvar grasslands, LIFE to alvars The number: LIFE13NAT/EE/000082 The coordinating beneficiary: Environmental Board The associated beneficiaries: University of Tartu; Estonian University of Life Sciences; Estonian Seminatural Communities Conservation Association The duration: 01.09.2014…31.08.2019 Total budget: 3,725,865 € EU contribution: 2,791,305 €

Contact: [email protected] or [email protected] tel: +372 5116738 or +372 680 7438 website: www.envir.ee/et/lifetoalvars FB: facebook.com/lifetoalvars/

This report on LIFE+ project „LIFE to alvars” is a publication of Estonian Seminatural Communities Conservation Association. The project was supported by the EU LIFE+ program and Environmental Investment Centre. The implementers of the project were Environmental Board, Estonian University of Life Sciences, University of Tartu and Estonian Seminatural Communities Conservation Association. Editor: Estonian Seminatural Communities Conservation Association Designer: TYYP OÜ Translation: Lõuna-Eesti Tõlkekeskus Cover photos: Stiina Sepp, Bert Holm, Annely Holm Printing house: AS Pakett Foreword

Alvar grasslands are heritage landscapes characteristic to western Estonia and islands, which have fallen out of use due to the changes taken place in society in the last 60…70 years. Traditionally, those were village pastures but without grazing, alvars overgrow with junipers and pine trees, and the biodiversity typical to open pastures disappears. As a result of these changes, by 2010, only a small portion of Estonian alvar pastures had preserved the look and diversity of this habitat type. To achieve a significant positive change in the status of the habitat, many large alvar grassland areas had to be restored. In 2012 the most valuable alvar grasslands in 2500 hectares of protected areas were cho- sen based on an analysis by scientists, and the search for the necessary resources for the restoration works and the involvement of private land owners was initiated. In 2013, the Environmental Board in cooperation with the University of Tartu, the Estonian University of Life Sciences and the Estonian Seminatural Community Conservation Association sub- mitted an application for the “LIFE to alvars” project to the European Commission’s LIFE + fund. In autumn of 2014, we began restoring alvar grasslands using machinery for the first time in Estonia. Before the alvar project, seminatural communities in Estonia were predominantly being Annely Holm restored manually using chainsaws and brush cutters. Already during the Project Coordinator, Environmental Board planning stage of the project, it was clear that manual restoration was too slow and expensive to be able to turn 2500 hectares of overgrown alvar grasslands into pastures within the project budget and in the frames of given time frames. To create suitable conditions for grazing reintroduction, restoration works on alvar grasslands involved the thinning of juniper thickets, cutting down pine trees and establishing cattle fences. During the works, common forestry machinery and equipment were used such as a harvester, a guillotine and a chain swipe mower fitted to an excavator, a forwarder, etc. Using machines enabled the alvar grasslands to be restored significantly faster and cheaper compared to manual work. Thanks to the use of machinery, it was possible to restore 2500 hectares of Estonian alvar grasslands in only five years. Monitoring results have confirmed that mechanised restoration does not affect the biota of alvar grasslands negatively and that the typical species will return after the end of the restoration works even faster than expected. By today, this methodology is also widely used in the restoration of other meadow areas as it allows to restore the favourable condition of habitats faster and cheaper, and to achieve the respective nature protection goals. Photo: Bert Holm

3 Foreword

A very important part of the implementation of the project has been the constant work with land owners and livestock keepers, and the promotion of cooperation between these two interest groups. Approximately 600 private land owners and 60 farmers were involved in the project. Only through a cooperation between the local farmers and land owners is it possible to ensure long-term maintenance of the project’s results in terms of ongoing grazing the restored areas. Having been part of the creation of the idea for the project, and the preparation and implementation of the project, I recommend the planners and implementors of future nature protection projects to plan these ini- tiatives on a large scale and boldly, because the diversity of our nature is our country’s greatest asset and a basis for the preservation of life. I would also like to thank everyone who has contributed to the alvar grassland Photo: Bert Holm restoration project one way or another!

The participants of the recognition event organised in 2018 in Muhu for partners, farmers, restoration entrepreneurs and scientists involved in the project. The representative of European Commission, Ms Sylvia Barova holding the Natura 2000 Award diploma.

4 PROJECT LOCATION AND THE AIM

Nowadays the alvar grassland are located in Western Estonia and on the islands as those areas have the limestone bedrock. Therefore, the project was carried out in Western Estonia, mainly on the islands of Saaremaa, Hiiumaa and Muhu in respect to the historical presence of the most valuable and massive alvar grasslands. In total there were 25 project areas at 16 different NATURA 2000 sites involved. In each project area practical habitat restoration and grazing reintroduction was carried out. However, the area involved in restoration and grazing reintroduction varied between project areas ranging from 11...330 hectares per site.

The general aim of this project was to restore the most valuable, but overgrown alvar grassland areas on 2500 hectares together with ensuring the following continuous traditional management of these areas and ris- ing the awareness of different interest groups influenced by the project implementation. This project involves alvar grasslands situated on both private and public land and the emphasize was on a thorough involvement of private land-owners. Therefore, large effort has been put on direct involvement, fostering the multilevel cooperation, training, dissemination and increase of public awareness. Many of the project areas are visited by tourists. By connecting educational and recreational side of the alvar grasslands, it was also possible to increase the knowledge of the general Photo: Ants Animägi public about the importance of maintaining this habitat type in Estonia.

SCALE 1:550 000 Kärdla 1 cm = 5500 Hiiumaa Haapsalu

Lihula Hanila Muhu Kasselaid Kurese Virtsu

Saaremaa

Kuressaare

Photo: Bert Holm

After the cease of grazing alvar grasslands will be cowered with shrubs and trees. The map of project areas (red patches).

5 THE PROBLEM

Alvar grasslands are the only possible habitat for several endangered plant, animal and bird species. Less than 100 years ago the total area of grazed alvar grasslands was around 43 000 hectares. During the last century alvar grasslands have decreased significantly in their total area in Estonia due to cessation of traditional of management and subsequent overgrowing. In 2013 only around 2000 hectares i.e. less than 30% of since preserved and less than 5% of the historical area of Estonian alvar grasslands were under annual management. With the cessation of livestock grazing and beginning of overgrowing, the abundance of habitat specialist species starts to decrease, whereas gen- eralist species from surrounding landscapes start to invade the habitat. In overgrowing grasslands, species richness starts to decrease gradually, with abrupt decreases following when the shrub cover exceeds 75%. Due to changing light conditions, shade tolerant species gain the dominance, while light-demanding grassland species go locally extinct. However, before it is possible to reintroduce grazing to the overgrown sites, it is necessary to restore the habitats i.e. cut down trees and reduce the shrub layer to the coverage of up to 30% which is a resources consuming task for what the sufficient funds have not been available so far and large-scale restoration methodology was not tested in Estonia.

Photo: Ants Animägi The areal photo of the restored Sarve alvar grassland in Hiiumaa.

6 THE METHODS USED TO TACKLE THE PROBLEM

Overgrowing can only be prevented if traditional management – grazing - is reintroduced to alvar grasslands. However, before it is possible to reintroduce grazing to overgrown sites, it is necessary to restore the habitats i.e. cut down trees and reduce the shrub layer to the coverage of up to 30%.

So far the main problem in meadow habitat restoration overgrown with bushes or trees was that those areas have been tried to restore gradually, reducing the overgrowth coverage step by step without immediate grazing reintroduction and applying slow manual restoration techniques. This usually resulted in the situation where the newly restored area covers with regrowth of trees, bushes and reed as the restoration process was too slow. In terms of novelty we started to use the chain swipe mower fitted to an excavator and the common forestry machinery like harvester, forwarder and guillotine in alvar grasslands restoration. It turned out that chain swipe mower and guillotine fitted to an excavator is an effective combination for clearing the overgrown alvar grassland areas. The forwarder and harvester are also effective in collecting the harvested biomass and cutting larger trees. The largest fear before the start of restoration activities was that large machines like harvester, forwarder and excavator will make deep ruts during operation and damage the restoration sites. By now we can assure that if the weather conditions are taken into account there is no risk of habitat damage during the restoration operation with heavy machinery and the existing machinery can be used efficiently in alvar grassland restoration as those enable fast restoration in a large scale. Moreover, if compared with manual restoration, the cost effectiveness of mechanised restoration is also much higher. Therefore, when the goal is to restore several hundred or thousand hectares the time and budget needed clearly favours the mechan- ical restoration.

Photo:Photos: Annely Bert Holm In LIFE to alvars project the heavy machinery was used for the alvar grassland restoration in protected areas first time for the Estonia. Since then this practice become common.

7 THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE RESULTS

In order to ensure the long-term persistence of the restored area, as well as to support the desired recovery of vegetation, it was important start grazing activities as soon as possible after the initial restoration. If the grazing is not initiated right after the removal of evergreen bushes and trees during the habitat restoration the deciduous bushes start to proliferate. Therefore, the grazed area had to expand generally following the progress of habitat restoration. In the restored areas there are different species of livestock presented – sheep, cattle and horses. The grazing pressure has to be adjusted in according to the species used and the characteristics of each area.

The future outlook for the targeted habitat is continuous and efficient grazing also after the project has ended in which case the favourable condition of the alvar grasslands restored and the protected species characteristic to well-managed areas would be preserved. The long term traditional management of the restored project areas will be assured through the measures of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU. The areas included to the official national seminatural meadows inventory database are eligible to apply for the management subsidy paid from the sources of the Estonian Rural Development Plan (RDP). The subsidy for grazing alvar grasslands in NATURA 2000 areas is also included there. There is no reason to believe that this scheme would not continue also after the year 2020.

Photo: Annely Holm Photos: Bert Holm Sheep, cattle and horses - all species of domestic herbivores are suitable for grazing restored alvar grasslands. Grazing has to start as soon as possible after the restoration to supress bushes regrowth.

8 THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT

All the restored areas of the project were ready to join the agri-environmental subsidy scheme of CAP that allows long term management of the restored areas to continue. In several cases we have witnessed that if large enough alvar grassland is restored, the farmer can completely relay on the income received from the management of that land and by-products like high quality meat. Therefore, a lot of effort was invested to come up with the efficient use of by-products from the alvar restoration and management during the project. For example, the wood cut from the restored sites was used for fence poles, handicraft and heat production. In Muhu island the local farmers involved in the project founded a co-op to solve the common problem with the lack of meat processing facility in the island and planning to establish a small-scale butchery in the future.

During the project farmers were equipped with necessary grazing supplies like cattle fences, watering facilities, collection pens, animal shelters and access roads to the restored pastures. This enables them to implement the annual management of the restored habitat by grazing without any remarkable investments needed and turns the management economically more viable in the long term also.

Photos: Bert Holm

Farmers involved in the project were supported with different grazing supplies and equipment to ensure the sustainability of restored alvar grassland management.

THE LONG-TERM ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

The results of the biodiversity monitoring carried clearly indicate that open alvar grasslands are the keepers of high biodiversity for many groups of species. Based on the comparison of open areas, juniper stands and alvars with planted pine stands, the restoration works on alvar grasslands are expected to significantly increase the biodiversity and abundance of vascular plants, bryophytes, lichen, bumblebees, butterflies, spiders, mycorrhizal fungi and protected bird species in the open landscape.

9 Summary of project results

The project has achieved the following: Better awareness of local community, landowners, farmers, entrepreneurs involved in the restoration Involving approximately 600 private landowners process, visitors and decision makers about the to get the confirmations for habitat restoration and nature values of alvar grasslands through produc- later grazing; ing and distributing project leaflets in 4 languages, Large scale implementation of novel mechanised displaying two project exhibitions, organising more restoration methodology at protected meadow than 25 guided tours and seminars at the project habitat; areas for different interest groups; Improved conservation status of 2500 hectares More than 100 publication in local, regional and of alvar grasslands achieved by removing the international media to introduce the project impor- overgrowth of bushes and trees; tance and development; Improved habitat conditions for several protected Local coop of farmers initiated at Muhu in the plant species including the fen orchid (Liparis frames of added-value products working group; loeselii), lady's-slipper orchid (Cypripedium calceou- Social media campaign carried out in the project lus), prairie crocus (Pulsatilla patens), butterflies like webpage and Facebook (more than 370 regular the large blue (Maculinea arion) and birds like the followers), regular publications in local and national barred warbler (Sylvia nisoria) and the red-backed media channels; shrike (Lanius collurio) achieved by livestock grazing reintroduction at the restored alvar grasslands; Increased cooperation and better understanding between livestock keepers, land owners, government Grazing infrastructure (25 shelter, 200 km of fences agencies and experts achieved by regular meetings, etc.) established for the traditional management of seminars and common fieldwork; restored areas; Winning the NATURA 2000 Socio-Economic 51 information panels set up at the 25 different Benefits Award for the work involving local farmers project sites; in the long-term management of Natura 2000 sites.

Photo: Bert Holm Sheep, cattle and horses – all species of domestic herbivores are suitable for grazing restored alvar grasslands. Grazing has to start as soon as possible after the restoration to supress bushes regrowth.

10 The most crowded publicity event of the project organised in the frames of the annual cycling weekend called Roheliste Rattaretk "How are you, Hiiumaa?" in Hiiumaa island in 2017. The number of the participants of the cycling weekend was approximately 2000 people.

Photos: Bert Holm

The NATURA 2000 Socio-Economic Benefits Award nominated to the project in 2018.