In Navi village, near to the town of Võru, pine and birch seedlings are being planted, most of them to end up in the local private forest owners.

Since weather conditions were already warm enough at the start of April, land owners were supplied with seedlings early.

Mirko Raup, manager of Navi Mets, said: "We have been planting here for about a week already, and likely the next week and the week after that will see the peak."

Although recent conditions have been warm, especially in southeastern Estonia, this is relative to the time of year; sub-zero temperatures have still occasionally been experienced at night, in recent days.

"I would think that most of the saplings will get planted in the forest. We also hope that there won't be any severe frosts going forward. Just a few degrees of frost, if it lasts for a few hours only, a sapling can survive through quite nicely, and in reality it won't really harm the plant if it's properly embedded in the soil," Raup went on.

This year, the State Forest Management Center (RMK) plans to plant about 21 million forest seedlings across the country, mostly evergreens.

The majority of pine seedlings will be planted in Põlva and Võru counties, sparsely populated counties in the southeast.

Kaarel Tiganik, a forest grower in the RMK's southeast region, said: "In my area, 964,000 plants are to be planted this spring, and most of them are pine – 825,000 in fact, since most of my zone consists of pine forest. Add to that 69,000 spruce saplings, about 50,000 birch, and around 7,000 black alders too."

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