POST-CONFERENCE TOURS DESCRIPTIONS

TOUR 1: SAAREMAA ISLAND (ESTONIA)

Saaremaa is Estonia’s biggest island. We will visit Mukri bog (2.5 km, has a watch tower) on the way, enjoy the island culture and have an overnight stay. Participants will visit the island's capital city Kuressaare, enjoy views from Panga cliff which is the highest bedrock outcrop of the Silurian period in Western Estonia and see the Kaali meteorite crater. We will visit an attractive trial area: there is an ongoing project between Estonian University of Life Sciences and the State Forest Management Centre: “Forest Tree Improvement Programme of the Estonian State Forest Management Centre”, and a trial plantation has been established in Mändjala. Initiated in 2011, the collaboration between aims to identify the best progeny of plus trees of pine, spruce, silver birch, and black alder. The seeds of these top-performing offspring and their mother trees will form the basis for future state forest generations.
On the next day, the excursion will finish in Tallinn where it is easy to catch a flight home.

TOUR 2: LATVIA

Finieris plywood factory, about 3.5 hours’ bus ride from Tartu. The bus will make a stop on the way in Valgesoo bog (1.8 km, has a watch tower). We will visit the factory and there will be an overnight stay in Riga. Birch plywood is the company’s core business where they invest in the latest technologies, research and innovations. They have a Chemical Product Development Laboratory where they develop adhesive formulations for plywood and coating, they are a part of the international consortium project VIOBOND aiming to create the world’s first industrial production technology for a greener formaldehyde resin and use Riga ECOlogical: a new lignin-based environmentally friendly glue. Participants can easily catch a flight home from Riga Airport or return to Tartu on the bus.

TOUR 3: FINLAND

We will visit Metsä group, a Finnish forestry company near Helsinki. Their sawmill turns logs into sawn timber while a pulp mill refines pulpwood into pulp, bioproducts and renewable energy. When the production plants work together, wood raw material is used as completely as possible. The bus will take participants from Tartu to Tallinn (approx 2.5 hours), and will make a stop at the Pääsküla bog (2 or 4 km, has a watch tower), after which they will catch a ferry to Finland (approx. 2 hours). There will be an overnight stay in Helsinki. Participants can easily catch a flight home from Helsinki Airport or take the ferry back to Tallinn.