The first proposal for the foundation of 600 ha Matsalu bird reserve in the area between Penijõe and Kloostri was made in 1936 by Erik Sits, then a student of Tartu University, later to be known under the name of Eerik Kumari. As this region was also known as a good bird hunting area, the proposal was rejected due to the opposition of the Cabinet of the State Land and Forest and Tallinn Hunter Association.
The Matsalu Bird country got its long awaited protection in 1957 with the establishment of the Matsalu National Nature Reserve. Biologist and ornithologist Olav Renno was appoint as the first head of the nature reserve. In 1976, Matsalu was added to the List of Wetlands of International Importance or the Ramsar List.
Nowadays, the visitor centre of Matsalu National Park in Penijõe has about 5000-6000 visitors every year. The best time to visit the national park is during migration time in spring from March to May or in autumn from September to October. During these times movement is only allow on water and marked hiking trails to give the birds the chance to rest and gain energy for the migration.

During the spring freshet, the Kasari and its tributaries start overflowing and almost the entire Kasari flood-meadow gets flooded. The Kasari is one of the larger preserved flood-meadows in Europe. The flooded meadow is a habitat for thousands of swans, geese, and mallards. The flood is a very important period for a flood-meadow. The floodwater brings sediments facilitating herbal growth. The longer and more extensive the flood, the better the conditions for the birds nesting in the flood-meadow.
The Kasari flood-meadow has been strongly impacted by dredging and draining the river in 1926—1938 to improve the local farmlands and hayfields, as a result of which the floodwater stays in the meadow for a shorter time and the floods are not as extensive.
In 2014, the new Kloostri Bridge was opened on the Kasari River. The bridge has a water level regulator, which means that, if necessary, the floodwater can be held in the Kasari River for longer than usual. It allows extending the flooding period and also provides access for the maintenance of the flood-meadow. Of the 4,000-hectare Kasari flood-meadow, 3,000 hectares are regularly being mowed.
In 2011 the film “Purge” based on the book by Sofi Oksanen was filmed near Kloostri bridge.

Sources:
Hansen, V. 2007. Kasari River and a Tatar hat. Nature-lover. 2

“The Old Man and the Elk”, shot on the Kasari river flood-meadow, is the first Estonian film to win the main award of the Matsalu Nature Film Festival. The documentary by Joosep Matjus tells a story of the director’s grandfather Harri Põldsam and his relationship with elks.
Harri is an old hunter and nature-lover who has studied elks and their inner life for over 30 years. Walking with elks around the flood-meadow and talking to them in ‘Elkish’ is a special ritual for Harri. From his experience with elks, he knows the exact line, crossing which will destroy the bond and scare the elk away. All animals that can be seen in the film have been free to come and go when and where they please.
The Matsalu Nature Film Festival in Lihula is named after the national park. The first festival took place in 2003. In addition to modern nature films, the opening event of the festival also featured the oldest Estonian nature films ‘The Dredging of Kasari River’ (1931) and ‘Vilsandi Bird Country’ (1937).
The Matsalu Nature Film Festival has become an international event; in addition to Lihula, films are also shown in Haapsalu and Tallinn. The annual festival features a selection of new nature films from around the world.

“Stepping in front of a large audience as a fresh laureate made me recall an old episode. At quarter to five in the morning of 13 May 1977, I stood at a street crossing in Narva-Jõesuu, microphone on a tripod, headphones on, and a tape recorder at my feet, as I listened to the croaking of a murder of crows, infuriated by a chicken hawk on a hunt. Suddenly, an old woman appeared in front of me from behind a fence. She was terribly startled, made a cross, and cried timidly, “Dear lord, already working!” This spontaneous cry will always stay in my mind, as that scared lady was the first one to call my activities work. (…) The Kumari Award proves that now the people active in nature conservation have also understood: a way of life can also be considered work. This idea needs further development first and foremost for those people who are creating values of intellectual culture dedicated to their mission in our nature conservation areas.” (Fred Jüssi, 1989)

The ornithologist and naturalist Eerik Kumari, born in Kirbla village in 1912, had an important role in founding, studying and introducing Matsalu nature reserve.
The Eerik Kumari Award is Estonia’s most important nature preservation award, starting from 2010 it comes with the nature preservation gold badge. The first person deemed worthy of the Eerik Kumari Award in 1989 was nature enthusiast Fred Jüssi.

Although thousands of years ago, the European red deer also roamed the territory of Estonia, the climate change forced this creature’s habitat further south.
Deer parks became fashionable in the 19th century and they were also established in the mansions in Estonia. Some deer would even escape the yard, but it was not enough to make a permanent and viable population at that time.
In 1963, a 38-hectare yard was created in the Vana-Vigala deer park and was first populated with eight roe deer. In the summer of 1964, a human-raised elk calf and some roe deer yeanlings were also taken to the deeryard. In 1965, 16 red deer were taken from the Voronezh reservation to Estonia and divided between three areas. Two males and six females were taken to the Vigala deeryard, four animals were taken to Abruka and three deer were set free in Loode forest Saaremaa.
Vigala deeryard had eight small mangers, one large manger-storage, and many salt licks. During winters, for some extra food, the deer were given grains, carrots, hay, aspen bark, rowan, apples, and salt. The deer were doing well in Vigala and their numbers increased quickly. In 1970–1975, 28 animals grown in the Vigala deer park population were taken to Hiiumaa. As the deer damaged the park’s trees, it was decided to free them in 1982.

The Department of Recreational Facilities was created in 1966 at the Ministry of Forest Management and Nature Conservation. The need for this department arose due to the rise in tourism and the popularity of nature holidays in the Soviet Union. Estonia was a popular holiday destination, especially among the citizens of big cities like Moscow or Saint Petersburg (Leningrad at the time). In the most popular areas, the excessive use, motor traffic and making fires in undesignated areas led to forest and soil damage as well as to an increased threat of forest fires.
Camping areas were then created in forest districts to protect the forests and create better conditions for holidaymakers. The Department of Recreational Facilities arranged the creation of motels and campsites (for tents and cabins). The first camping site for cabins in Estonia was opened in Rannamõisa in 1965.
The Kabli Campsite was opened in 1968. In 1973, the campsite for cabins could accommodate 126 people. The Estonian experience in preparing recreational facilities also found recognition and interest elsewhere. A model of the Kabli Campsite was ordered for the union-wide agricultural exhibition in Moscow. The 1.5 × 2 metre model was made by artisan Hein in the basement of the trade and production association Loodus. The model looked like the real thing, including trees, dunes, holidaymakers and their cars. The model provided Kabli with great publicity in Moscow and brought over new holidaymakers.

Source:
Kusmin, J. 2011. Metsa kõrvalkasutus Eestis. Akadeemilise Metsaseltsi toimetised XXV

The bird station was built in 1969 upon the initiation of Henn Vilbaste, a long-term director of the Nigula Nature Reserve. The main goal of establishing the bird station was to study the abundance of the great tit as a model species.
The birds are caught with a 17-metre-high and 28-metre-wide mesh trap and are then studied, banded and released. Birds often gather near the coast during migration, as it acts as a guiding line for the rest of their journey.
Over 100 species of birds have been banded here over the years. Kabli has been the initial place of finding the woodchat shrike, yellow-browed and Pallas’ leaf warblers, Siberian tit and the red-tailed shrike. Thousands of messages on re-finding have been received about the banded birds. Many of the re-findings are from other bird stations around the Baltic Sea which enables calculating the migration speed of the birds and observing the migration in time and space in cooperation with other bird stations.
Goldcrests, great and long-tailed tits have been banded the most at the Kabli bird station. The most important research topic at the Kabli bird station is partial migration – why do some individuals remain here while others travel hundreds and thousands of kilometres.
Birds are great indicator species that provide information on changes in the environmental status. The data collected in Kabli is important from the aspect of monitoring thanks to the long data row that helps provide information on the population changes of bird species that are small in number or that nest in a dispersed manner.

Sources:
Website of Kabli bird station – kabli.nigula.ee
Vainu, O. 2012. 100 aastat lindude rõngastamist Eestis. Eesti Loodus no. 12
Alunurm, M. 2005. Kabli küla läbi aegade

The Mukri Bog is often colloquially referred to as Mukre, as it was named after Mukre Village. The southern part of the bog is also called the Ellamaa Bog. It is actually all a single bog that is simply split by the road built in the 1920s that connected the people of Mukre with Eidapere. This road, built on logs and bundles of branches, that crosses the bog has historical importance. The Mukri Bog is connected to many objects of cultural heritage. There is a spot in the southern part of the bog known also as the Krõõda Bog. According to a legend, a woman called Krõõt drowned in this bog and since then, the pines growing in the Mukri Bog have had red bark.
The former forestry workers’ building is located by the edge of the Mukri Bog. The local legend speaks about the landlord Mukre Toomas who kept taking trees from the state forest and was sued often for this. It is said that Toomas wrapped some nice spruces he planned on stealing with birch bark so he could tell in the dark which trees to cut. In the morning, he headed home with the trees he had cut down in the night. The forest ranger Anvere who met him on the way back complimented Toomas on his load of alders. The ranger then discovered the ruse and tied the bark around alders instead.

Sources: 
RMK Database of Cultural Heritage
Kristian, R., Tihkan, K. 2011. On maa, aga ei kanna, on vesi, aga sõuda ei saa. Eesti Loodus no. 6-7

The Estonian state forest is divided into rectangles or blocks. This distribution originates from the era of manors, as dividing forests into blocks made it easier to keep accounts on and manage the forests. Posts indicating the location and number of the blocks were installed in the intersections of the rides. The side of the block post with a number was aimed towards the block with a matching number.
Hikers and people picking berries and mushrooms sometimes use the block posts to find their way around in the forest. A story is known from the Tõrvase area from the early 1990s: people used to take the bus from Valga to the state forest in order to make extra money by picking berries. The berry pickers from Valga also used the block posts to find their way around the forest, believing them to show the road numbers, as all the block rides could be travelled by car. A meeting at the post “doroga sto sorok vosem” (Russian for “Road 148”) was arranged without the people involved realising that posts with the same numbers would be on four corners of the blocks. Thus, it happened that a berry picker waited in one and the bus in another corner of the block. In the end, the berry-picker had no other choice but to spend the night in the forest.

Source:  
RMK heritage culture objects database

August Wilhelm Hupel was the first person to mention the occurrence of the common spindle in Livonia in literature. The species grows naturally in Estonia, as it is on the northern border of its distribution area. Spindle seeds are dispersed by birds: robins, magpies, ouzels and starlings.
Eduard Viirok studied the natural habitats of the common spindle on the banks of rivers Koiva and Mustjõgi in 1931. According to him, spindle shrubs grew on the Estonian bank of the Koiva River and about five kilometres upriver from where the Mustjõgi River flows into the Koiva River in the area around the Mustjõgi River.
Valdek Ritslaid began studying the natural habitats of the spindle in 1956. According to his research, spindles naturally grow on the floodplain of rivers Koiva, Mustjõgi and Peetri in an area that is about 30 km in length.
The bark on the roots of the spindle contains a rubber-like substance called gutta-percha. A plantation was established on the bank of Mustjõgi River in the 1960s in order to explore the possibilities of producing gutta-perch. The testing was conducted at the Tartu State University. The main components of the gutta-perch found in the bark of the roots of the spindle are gutta and resin. The higher the content of gutta in the rootbark, the more valuable the raw material. The average content of gutta in the spindles used in the research was 9.1%. Gutta-perch was used as a rubber-like substance in, for example, medicine as an insulation material and as a glue ingredient.

Sources: 
Kasesalu, H. 2015. Valdek Ritslaid, Eesti kikkapuude uurija. Eesti Loodus edition no. 10
Ritslaid, V. 1961. Eesti NSV kikkapuude gutapertšisisalduse uurimine.
Sander, H. 2015. Kikkapuu Eestis: looduslikud ja metsistunud leiukohad läbisegi. Eesti Loodus edition no. 10