Nature
Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve covers large portion of the Võrtsjärv Basin, a vast bowl-like lowland area, which following the last Ice Age was inundated by the waters of Lake Big Võrtsjärv. When the lake formed in early Holocene the water level was 4–5 m higher than today. The lake started receding after 7500 BP, when an outflow to the east developed via the Emajõgi Valley.
The nature reserve is largely a wetland, including a complex of five large bogs and floodplains of the large rivers (Emajõgi, Põltsamaa and Pedja). Wetlands cover 82% of the nature reserve's territory. The only types of lakes found in the nature reserve are oxbow lakes and more than 2000 bog pools. Lots of floodplain meadows have traditionally used for haymaking. However, in recent decades the extent of floodplains mowed has greatly decreased, threatening species associated with such valuable semi-natural landscapes. Continuing management of floodplain meadows is one of the main aims of the nature reserve.
Most of the forest in Alam-Pedja are also wet. Alluvial broadleaf and old-growth forests are particularly valuable.
Alam-Pedja is the most important breeding area for Great Snipe in Estonia and the Baltic countries. Greater Spotted Eagle is another threatened bird species breeding in the area.
Read more about this topic: Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve
Famous quotes containing the word nature:
“Panurge was of medium stature, neither too large, nor too small ... and subject by nature to a malady known at the time as “Money-deficiency,”Ma singular hardship; nevertheless, he had sixty-three ways of finding some for his needs, the most honorable and common of which was by a form of larceny practiced furtively.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“There is much in nature against us. But we forget:
Take nature altogether since time began,
Including human nature, in peace and war,
And it must be a little more in favor of man....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“People generally will soon understand that writers should be judged, not according to rules and species, which are contrary to nature and art, but according to the immutable principles of the art of composition, and the special laws of their individual temperaments.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)