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:
“There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge available to us: observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination. Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)
“Physical nature lies at our feet shackled with a hundred chains. What of the control of human nature? Do not point to the triumphs of psychiatry, social services or the war against crime. Domination of human nature can only mean the domination of every man by himself.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“Two well-assorted travellers use
The highway, Eros and the muse.
From the twins is nothing hidden,
To the pair is naught forbidden;
Hand in hand the comrades go
Every nook of nature through:
Each for the other they were born,
Each can other best adorn.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)