In the year of the European Green Capital, Tallinn is organizing various biodiversity-preserving action days all over the city and invites all city residents to participate in them. It’s a year-long volunteer program where citizens can get involved to support the biodiversity of their area.

The plan includes, for example, garbage collection campaigns, including the cleaning of small garbage from the Baltic Sea together with various cities across Europe at the end of the summer. The traditional “Let’s Do It” action day will take place this year on May 6, and as part of this, we will organize garbage collection in various conservation areas of Tallinn, the sources of the Pääsküla bog, the forests of Astangu, the areas of Klindipark, etc.

But in addition to the traditional garbage collection works, improvement works are planned to create better conditions for animals living in Tallinn, such as frogs and sand lizards. At the end of March, the action day for frog ponds in Merimetsa is planned: it is necessary to clear the ponds of larger brush – before the start of the spawning season of the frogs, the brush should be fenced off from the sunny side of the water body in order to open the water surface to the sun. At the same time, the restoration of sand lizard habitats is taking place in the Pääsküla bog. Restoration of the stone lizard and pollinator habitats at the edge of the Pääsküla bog in Männiku is also planned for the second half of the year. There are also plans to repeat last year’s successful Pääsküla bog restoration efforts.

During the summer months, part of the action is focused on the removal of non-native species that threaten our wilderness, such as the Himalayan balsam and the curly-leaved rosehip.

However, the first action day will be the making and installation of shelters for bats in cooperation with schools in Tallinn, where the winged creatures can spend their days in the summer.

In March, attention will also be paid to our bird’s nest boxes, which often stay up after being put up – the plan is to take care of the nest boxes in cooperation with the city districts.

We hope to make people more aware of and notice the biodiversity in their home area – for this, we are planning various mappings, for example, nature observations of hedgehogs and orchids.

In addition, during the spring and summer months, we invite all interested parties to nature tours to discover the exciting biodiversity in our hometown and to learn how to protect and preserve it more.

Biodiversity action days and works are done manually, with minimal intervention in nature. All tools are provided by the city.