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Meenikunno IV

Published: May 19, 2009

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Description

_{The Meenikunno Nature Park was formed in 1981 as a bog protection area with the
aim of protecting the Meenikunno bog, Lakes Must and Valge bordering it to the east
and the undulating landscape around them.
The nature park is in Veriora municipality on Ilumetsa forest district land.
While marshes in Estonia generally formed when the thousands of lakes left by the last
ice age became overgrown, Meenikunno mostly came about as a result of the
swamping of the dry, sandy land, beginning in the boreal climatic period more than
8000 years ago. The bog’s peat layers are saturated with water with only a partial layer
of sand beneath them, giving the impression of it ‘hanging in the air.’ What this means
is that the groundwater is deep and there is a dry layer under the bog.
The process of forming the bog has lasted thousand of years and continues very
actively to this day, with hollows and 3 bog lakes having been produced, a bog pool in
the making, and large numbers of islands – the largest of which are Pikksaar and Pähklisaar.
Local stories say that the Swedes built a wooden pathway through Meenikunno during
the Northern War.
The reserve is rich of birds ( 40 species ), the bog area serves for stopover for thousands of cranes every year.}