Great to see how commitment can bridge project gaps where budgets sometimes fail.
Volunteers gathered in the first weekend of May as part of Teeme ära 2026 to support the LATESTadapt project site — planting native trees and sowing local species and clean the site from trash. Due to inflation, the project had to scale back planned investments for vegetation as well as desired aesthetics from original project plan. It was more important to invest to meaningful flood protection. But the Haapsalu team (Gerda Ladva & Peep Aedviir) chose not to scale back ambition. Instead, solutions were found:
🌱 Rowan trees were carefully transplanted from a nearby site where they would otherwise have been cut
🌱 native water flags (Iris pseudocorus) were brought from ponds of neighbouring Uuemõisa park (plenty were still left there as well)
🌱 Native seeds were provided by project partner @NordicBotanical
🌱 project partners as well as local residents spent a day to work and landscape a significant share of the project site according to the original design.
I would say this is what long-term ownership of nature-based solutions looks like in practice. I also really enjoyed the good weather, meaningful work, and great teambuilding with colleagues. Moreover, it was also great to see how the event initiated discussion among locals how to gather momentum for autumn planting season and how the Konnaküla neighbourhood association could contribute next. I hope to be invited to those next events as well 🙂
Author: Murel Truu, TalTech project expert