BALTIC FORESTRY FOREST LANDSCAPE ASSESSMENT FOR CROSS COUNTRY SKIING /.../ P. VASSILJEV ET AL. Forest Landscape Assessment for Cross Country Skiing in Declining Snow Conditions: the Case of Haanja Upland, Estonia PEETER VASSILJEV 1,2,*, TIMO PALO 1, AIN KULL 1, MART KÜLVIK 2, SIMON BELL2, ANNE KULL 1,2 AND ÜLO MANDER 1 1 Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Vanemuise 46, 51014 Tartu, Estonia, http://www.geo.ut.ee/ 2 Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Kreutzwaldi 5, 51014 Tartu, Estonia, http://www.emu.ee *Corresponding author:
[email protected],
[email protected], Tel: +372 7313 139 Vassiljev, P., Palo, T., Kull, A., Külvik, M., Bell, S., Kull, An. and Mander, Ü. 2010. Forest Landscape Assessment for Cross Country Skiing in Declining Snow Conditions: the Case of Haanja Upland, Estonia. Baltic Forestry 16 (2): 280295. Abstract Snow cover is an important climatic characteristic as well as a significant recreational attraction of Estonian winter landscapes. In Estonia, over the last decade, the intensity of various forms of winter recreation has significantly increased. However, due to climate change the variability of snow cover is increasing year by year. Variations in snow cover are more significant in lowland areas while uplands retain more stable conditions. In order to identify suitable areas for developing cross-country ski-tracks likely to retain stable snow cover in what are also psychologically restorative natural environments, an integrated approach for landscape assessment has been developed. Micro- and meso-scale (1:10 000) studies of snow cover and climate in a highly diverse landscape were combined with an evaluation of the restorativeness of natural environments.