Jaani-Tooma boulder in Lahemaa. Photo: Riina Kotter
Lahemaa National Park celebrates its 45th year of activity on June 1st
Aarne Kaasik, long-time director of the Lahemaa National Park presented an invaluable gift to the celebrating park – a collection of nearly 20 000 slides together with material showing the history of the national park and nature conservation.
The establishment of the national park on June 1st, 1971 was a significant event in the history of nature conservation in Estonia since the park then created was the first of its kind in the system of protected areas at the time, and it had a significant role in upholding the national Estonian identity. From 1972 Aarne Kaasik made the development of the Lahemaa National Park a matter of the heart for himself. Aarne Kaasik devoted 33 years of work to the Lahemaa National Park and made an important contribution to the development of nature conservation in Estonia.
„The photo collection that we have received mirrors the lasting values of the national park in time – nature, landscape and culture and the people who have formed the park. We are very grateful to be trusted with this gift,”, Maret Vilde, main specialist of the conservation department at the Environmental Agency said.
On June 1st we celebrate the 45th year of Lahemaa National Park in Palmse, the nature centre of Lahemaa, where the permanent exhibition of nature and cultural history of the area can be seen as well as a small part of the photo collection donated by Arne Kaasik. During the anniversary year many events will take place to introduce the values of the park and to discuss the position of national parks in conservation and local development.
With the current photo competition ”The year at Lahemaa – nature and man” we invite you to document the local life and share the emotions that the environment offers,
On July 2nd we celebrate the birthday of the national park, ”Villages of Lahemaa – The jewels of the natiaonal park”, which emphasizes the local villages and communities. The anniversary culminates in Palmse with the Viru Säru joint singing. In the conference in October the cultural values of the parks and their maintenance will be discussed. A detailed programme for the anniversary year is on the web site of the Lahemaa Naitonal Park
„In Lahemaa National Park there is a very strong community that helps to maintain the natural and culutural values of the area, where the preservation is important both from the cultural as well as the national and local identity aspects. In the centre of the anniversary year of the national park are the local people and the villages here with their rich inheritance, as well as the community based conservation of nature, “ Maret Vildak explained.
The most vital value of the largest and oldest national park of Estonia is its diversity of nature, landscape and culture. Different forest, meadow and marsh biotopes,and the sea and inland water bodies are habitats for many rare, endangered and protected species such as the golden eagle, eagle owl, capercaillie and others. Lahemaa is also notable for its great number of erratic boulders and boulder fields, the 400 ha sized Käsmu boulder field is the largest in Estonia. The inheritance from ancient times and from the manor period is rich. The Lahemaa National Park belongs to the European Natura 2000 network as the Lahemaa bird site and protected habitat and it is one of Europe’s most important forest conservation areas.
More information:
Maret Vildak
554 4646
