Natura 2000 Biogeographical Process – Boreal Region The Boreal Restoration Tour Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania 15 – 19 August 2016 Tour Report A dammed ditch in a restored mire area in Soomaa National Park, Estonia. Photo: Aulikki Alanen. The Boreal Restoration Tour in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (15 to 19 August 2016) – Tour Report _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Editors: Jussi Päivinen, Metsähallitus, Parks & Wildlife Finland Tuomas Haapalehto, Metsähallitus, Parks & Wildlife Finland Inka Keränen, Metsähallitus, Parks & Wildlife Finland Hans Van Gossum, Arcadis Authors: Ludovic Le Maresquier, European Commission Kaisu Aapala, Finnish Environment Institute Aulikki Alanen, Ministry of the Environment, Finland Marja Hokkanen, Metsähallitus, Parks & Wildlife Finland With contribution of: Agu Leivits, Environmental Board, Estonia Sandra Ikauniece, Nature Conservation Agency, Latvia Žydrūnas Preikša, Aleksandras Stulginskis University Copyright: © European Union, 2016 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. Funding: European Commission as part of contract number 07.0307/2012/60517/SER/B.3. Disclaimer: The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Commission, nor is the European Commission responsible for any use that might be made of information appearing herein. 2 The Boreal Restoration Tour in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (15 to 19 August 2016) – Tour Report _______________________________________________________________________________________________ FOREWORD ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 6 2 Into the field: the Boreal Restoration Tour ..................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Day 1 – Estonia ....................................................................................................................................... 8 2.1.1 Soomaa National Park (Natura 2000 site) ........................................................................................ 8 2.1.2 Laulaste Nature Reserve (Natura 2000 site) ................................................................................... 15 2.2 Day 2 – Latvia ....................................................................................................................................... 17 2.2.1 Gauja National Park (Natura 2000 site) .......................................................................................... 17 2.2.2 Melnā ezera purvs (Melnais Lake Mire) ........................................................................................ 20 2.2.3 Ķemeri National Park (Natura 2000 site) ....................................................................................... 21 2.3 Day 3 – Lithuania .................................................................................................................................. 24 2.3.1 Kamanos State Strict Nature Reserve ............................................................................................. 24 2.3.2 Adomiskiai raised bog (Kamanos Nature Reserve) ........................................................................ 26 3 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................. 27 3 The Boreal Restoration Tour in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (15 to 19 August 2016) – Tour Report _______________________________________________________________________________________________ FOREWORD The Boreal Restoration Tour (BRT) has been organised under the umbrella of the Natura 2000 Biogeographical Process launched by the European Commission together with the MS in 2012. Overall, this process is the result of a commitment taken by the European Commission and the Member States in the context of the 2020 EU Biodiversity Strategy, aiming to help the Member States to enhance the management of Natura 2000 as a coherent ecological network. The first Natura 20000 Seminar was organised in the Boreal region, in 2012, generously hosted by Finland. Since that date, the Boreal region has been organising several follow-up events related to the Process such as networking events, workshops, field trips and conferences allowing experts from the five member States to share best practice on common issues. Boreal colleagues have also structured their network of experts in order to enhance the exchange of information related to Natura 2000 and nature conservation management. As a result, each country has now one expert playing the role of national focal point for each of the four selected groups of habitat types (forests, freshwaters, wetlands, grasslands). Given that exemplary cooperation at the biogeographical level, Boreal experts felt the need to organise a field-oriented Tour to exchange information and share best practice from restoration projects at the field level, focusing on bogs, mires, peatland and forests where still many challenges need to be addressed in order to improve the status of conservation. The BRT was born! Having participated to that field event, as a representative of the European Commission services, I can confirm that this event was a most fruitful forum for discovering and exchanging experiences in the field, presenting successes as well as difficulties inherent to some major restoration projects in Natura 2000 sites, for which many of them have benefitted from financial support from the LIFE programme. After 3 full rainy days walking in fens, bogs, marshlands, peat, bogs and forests, it was clear from the sky and from the ground that water matters! Indeed, the BRT could have been called the "Water and Dams" Boreal Tour as the measures seemed to be mainly aiming at mastering the flow of water with dams everywhere. Every day, each project was proud to show its strongest, biggest, most effective dams; sometimes small, sometimes big, some made from peat, others from wooden sticks or plastic devices. This was done in order to reverse the damaging effects of ditches and drainage systems that had been installed in earlier times in order to maximize forest production or to exploit peat. Sometimes it was clear that the dam was a success and allowed to keep the water in the ecosystem and even to raise its level whereas, sometimes, it was unfortunate to realise that the water had nevertheless found the way to escape from the system. On forest ecosystems, people exchanged a lot on different techniques to restore diversity, for instance in monoculture pine forests (Pinus sylvestris). Different silvicultural technics were debated such as making selective cuts, creating small or medium patches, removing bark rings to smooth the dying process etc. However, the most striking difference in the approaches was the use of fire. Indeed, whereas controlled burning is common and traditional in Finland and Sweden to restore the ecosystem, it is not socially accepted 4 The Boreal Restoration Tour in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (15 to 19 August 2016) – Tour Report _______________________________________________________________________________________________ in the Baltic countries, despite many efforts from colleagues to explain the benefits of such approach for biodiversity. According to many experts I had the opportunity to discuss with, it appears that early feedback already shows that this kind of field visits are important for adjusting actions in on-going projects but also for optimizing new measures still under preparation. Participation in this event also offered a unique opportunity to see what the effects of such restoration measures can be 1, 2, 5, even 10 or 15 years after the work had been carried out. The event produced also gave some input to the forthcoming 2nd Boreal Seminar which will take place from 5 to 7 October in Vilnius, in particular for the discussions in the "wetlands" habitat group. I would like to conclude that this BRT has been a real success for sharing best (and sometimes less successful) practice for nature conservation and restoration. We not only had great opportunities to learn from each other's experiences, but also to discover the beauties of Baltic countries! Some colleagues who participated in the Tour have already indicated that similar events could be organised elsewhere in the Boreal region, for example on forest habitat types. This is a good sign of the usefulness of such events, and overall, of the fact that cooperation among the European nature conservation experts works very well! For all those reasons, the European Commission services would like to hereby thank again the efforts of the colleagues from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden and of the European Commission consultants Arcadis and ECNC (European Centre for Nature Conservation). Without their commitment and efforts, this BRT would not have been possible. *** Ludovic Le Maresquier, Nature Policy Officer – European Commission – DG ENV, September 2016. 5 The Boreal Restoration Tour in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (15 to 19 August 2016) – Tour Report _______________________________________________________________________________________________ 1 Introduction The purpose of the New Biogeographical Process