Soomaa national park misses 'traditional' spring floods for second year running
The traditional floodwater canoeing in southwest Estonia's Soomaa national park is off the agenda due to low water levels.
While spring floods usually see enthusiasts taking to canoes in the flooded park, crisscrossed as it is by creeks, streams and rivers, this year spring arrived so quickly this year that most of these watercourses have not burst their banks.
This is the second year in a row that this has happened, forcing tour operators to replace the canoeing with activities such as bog-shoe hiking.
"Here is an old river channel where you can paddle a bit. And when the ice breaks, a loop forms here between the old river, the new river, and the Halliste channel — you can still canoe, but it's not as attractive as paddling between trees and across open meadows," Soomaa guide Edu Kuill. "And it probably won't come either," he added .
Kuill said he believes the higher waters will still reach Soomaa, but later in the year.
"The old folk used to say that if the river doesn't clean its banks in spring — doesn't carry away the reeds and detritus — then it will come back for that come summer," Kuill added.
"The situation in Soomaa is such that the snow melted quickly and the big flood never came. The floodplains had always been submerged, even if only by a couple of dozen centimeters, but not this year. There are only streams and the old riverbed. There is somewhat of a water level, of course a bit higher than in summer, but there has been no significant high water or flooding," Kuill said.
Spring flooding in Soomaa typically came in March and has been a continuously recorded phenomenon for the past hundred years.
According to the Environmental Agency (Keskkonnaagentuur), the current river levels may remain the peak for this spring unless there is a proper snowfall.
"At first glance, water is flowing and the level is high, but when you look at the figures and historical data, it is actually around the average level for the comparison period. This is due to the fact that the winter was poor in precipitation and snow, and in some places water levels were even record low, so the starting point for the rise in water level was very low," said Taaniel Holter, a hydrology specialist with the agency.
--
Editor: Andrew Whyte, Marko Tooming
