Climate
What makes Soomaa unique is the so called "fifth season" - the spring flood, which can raise the water level five metres above the low-water level! Everywhere floods - meadows, fields, forests, roads and sometimes even houses.
Understand
The national park, situated in South West Estonia, has been created to protect large raised bogs, flood plain grasslands, paludified forests and meandering rivers.
Flora and fauna
Soomaa is home to, and a breeding zone for, rare European mammals including roe deer, elk, wild boars, beavers, lynx, wolves and brown bears. Soomaa bog is also a breeding ground for several rare bird species, including golden eagles, black storks, black grouse and capercaillies. It is a habitat for some rare orchids as well.
Landscape
The territory of the national park is mostly covered with large mires, separated from each other by the rivers of the Pärnu River basin â the Navesti, Halliste, Raudna and Lemmjõgi rivers.
On the eastern margin of the national park lie the highest dunes on the Estonian mainland, situated some 50 kilometres off the contemporary coastline.
History
Established: 8 December 1993.