Forest cover over one half of Estonia. The most common types of tree are pine, spruce and birch. The forests are rich in game. There are some 11 700 elk, 50 000 roe deer, 17 000 wild boar, 17 000 beavers, 800 lynxes, 600 bears and 100 wolves. Estonia, along with Finland and Sweden are the countries with the greatest percentage of forested land. One third of Estonian forests are protected areas. In these protected forests you can come across types of primeval forest cover, which have long ago disappeared from other parts of Europe.
Meadows in Estonia are rich in different species much more so than in Western Europe. In the summer, tourists travelling around the countryside can discover the variety and colour of the roadside meadows. The type of meadow richest in species is the wooded meadow. Such a density of botanic life is rare in Europe. Centuries ago, there were many such wooded meadows in, among other places, southern Finland, Sweden and elsewhere in Europe. Nowadays, such meadows can only be found in Estonia.
Estonia is a country of thousand of lakes. In the Estonian territory there are about 1200 natural lakes whose water area exceeds 1 ha. The largest of these is Lake Peipsi, which is the fourth largest freshwater lake in Europe. Most of Estonia's lakes are small and are found in the south of the country. Larger lakes such as Lake Peipsi and Lake Võrtsjärv are rich in fish.
About one fifth of Estonia is covered with marshes and bogs. Most of these are located in the central and eastern parts of the country. The best place to visit marshes is in the Soomaa National Park in Western Estonia. Soomaa means "Bogland" in Estonian and impressive bogs cover the majority of the park with the thickness of the peat layer reaching up to 7 metres in some places.
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