While wading in the small bodies of water and under the guidance of amphibian researcher Riinu Rannap, the international group discovered the eggs of a great crested newt as well as one female specimen. The great crested newt has found a home in the newly restored small bodies of water in Mõdriku-Roela, while frogspawn of the common spadefoot toad has not been found. Riinu explains that the very cold spring and the drought that immediately followed are the main culprits for this. The karst lakes near the Mädapea oak forest are dried out, and the common spadefoot toad or its frogspawn are also not found in Otepää, where Riinu is currently conducting a preliminary survey of the areas and where we will start restoring small bodies of water in the fall. The great crested newt seems to have coped better with the cold spring!

Our international guests were genuinely interested in the restoration work. ‘They asked a lot of questions about whether we would introduce common spadefoot toads and great crested newts into the restored ponds ourselves, but we will not do that, we will wait for them to find the habitat on their own,’ Riinu explained, ‘and we were also asked how our cooperation with landowners is going and whether we use the restored ponds as a water source, for example.’ Cooperation with landowners has been very smooth throughout the restoration process – we have restored 37 ponds so far, most of them on private land – and we will not restore ponds in a certain area if the landowner is against it.

From the Mädapea oak forest, the group travelled to the natural sites of Ida-Viru County, which have been restored or rehabilitated with funding from the LIFE programme. The purpose of the visit was to maintain and develop the international partnership, and the people were delighted with what has been done within the framework of the LIFE programme in Estonia.