RMK started restoring 300 hectares of the Öördi bog in Viljandi County five years ago. As part of the work, two ditches were closed off with dams. However, due to excess moisture, 50 hectares of trees were lost.

This is only a small section of the 7,000-hectare bog.

"Permanent flood zones have formed in these areas — places where, due to drainage, the ground has significantly subsided, and we aim to restore the water regime. In some places, water accumulates and does not flow away, leading to poorer growing conditions for the forest and trees, which gradually start to die. The trees die, fall to the ground, and over time become buried in the peat," Priit Voolaid, RMK's nature conservation planning manager, told Thursday's "Aktuaalne kaamera."

The official said that although tree dieback on this scale is exceptional compared to other restoration areas, it is still a natural process.

"I do not think anything particularly bad has happened from a conservation standpoint. The main goal is to improve the condition of habitats and the species associated with them. Due to drainage, our natural open bogs have been replaced by forests, and the wildlife has moved elsewhere," Voolaid said.

The Environmental Agency called the restoration a success story.

However, forester Mart Erik is critical of the project and said it damages the preexisting ecosystem.

"The issue here is not about the trees. The real concern is that an ecosystem, over a 100 years old, has been destroyed. Nature can regenerate itself, and now a completely normal ecosystem has developed in that area," he told the show.

Erik said former peat fields situated in bogs should be restored, but not forested areas.

Ülo Mander, professor of physical geography and landscape ecology at the University of Tartu, is not so critical.

"There is the option to simply remove the trees and trunks from the area, but the decision has been made to leave them there to contribute to the carbon content of the peat moss, allowing them to decompose slowly. I cannot say definitively whether this is right or wrong, but I believe the idea behind it is sound," the academic said.

Mander said long-term bog peat restoration does not always have to be the priority. For example, wetlands could be cultivated instead. He said more diverse solutions could be used to restore bogs and marshland in Estonia.

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