Chasing Estonia’s “fifth season” in Ontario’s Minesing Wetlands

VINCENT TEETSOV

Estonians in Pärnu County and Viljandi County are well aware of the viies aastaaeg, or “fifth season” that happens in their region of Estonia, but it’s only more recently that it’s started to receive attention from international media.

This visibility grew in March 2021, when the BBC shared a travel piece by Mike Mac­Eacheran about Soomaa National Park. The national park, established in 1993, is a 390 square kilometre area of forests, meadows, and bogs that straddle Pärnu and Viljandi counties. Each year, as winter melts into spring, water runoff from adjacent hills floods the rivers of the national park, bringing water levels up to five and a half metres high.

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Photo: Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority