Tareste Landscape Conservation Area

The Tareste conservation area sits just a few kilometres northwest of Kärdla and preserves a stretch of the open juniper heath for which Hiiumaa is known. The landscape is unlike most of northern Europe: low, twisted junipers across a windswept coastal plain, with glimpses of the sea and a silence that feels unusually complete.

Walking trails cross the conservation area, and the terrain is easy. In spring, the heaths come alive with migratory birds using Hiiumaa as a stopover on the way north. The area is also good for picking berries in late summer — bilberries, cloudberries, and cranberries grow across the heaths. The coastal edge of the conservation area looks towards the smaller islands of the Väinameri.

things to do nature sight
A story
The juniper heaths of Hiiumaa are among the most extensive in Estonia and are maintained partly by a tradition of light grazing that goes back centuries. When grazing stopped in the Soviet period, the heaths began to revert to woodland. Since the 1990s, conservation programmes have reintroduced grazing animals — mostly sheep and cattle — to hold back the forest and restore the open heath landscape.