Puhtu-Laelatu Nature Reserve was established and the protection procedure was determined in 2003. The current protection rules entered into force on 26 October 2017.

The protection procedure determines the different zones of the reserve and the prohibited and permitted actions in these zones. In addition, an implementing plan of action (management plan) is compiled regarding the reserves. The management plan of Puhtu-Laelatu Nature Reserve, including Rame limited-conservation area, has been compiled for the years 2018–2027.

Puhtulaid was inhabited in the middle of the 18th century, when a local landowner, Carl Thure von Helwig, who was a district executive, established a summer resort here and redesigned the deciduous forest into a Dutch garden. A so-called Chinese house and many smaller houses and pavilions were built on the islet. The landowner Von Helwig was also an eager stonemason, who made tens of monuments for the important people in his family. Some of these monuments have survived and have been gathered to a small valley in the southern point of the peninsula.

The islets of Adralaid and Puhtulaid were taken under protection for the first time in 1939, the prohibited botanical-zoological area of Virtsu-Laelatu-Puhtu was founded in 1957 and Puhtu-Laelatu Nature Reserve was first founded in 2003.

The wooded meadow of Laelatu is considered one of the most species-rich communities in Europe with more than 400 species of vascular plants and 30 species of moss growing there. In addition, 2/3 of all the orchid species growing in Estonia have been found in the wooded meadow.

  • Drive a vehicle only on designated roads. As an exception, it is permitted to drive a motor vehicle on the ice-sheet of the River Emajõgi and Lake Peipus and off-road vehicles on the ice-sheet of the bodies of water in the reserve and on the Piirissaar Island when it is covered with snow.
  • It is allowed to drive water vessels on the waters in the reserve, except a water vessel with an engine on Lake Koosa. It is prohibited to drive water vessels with an internal combustion engine on lakes smaller than 100 ha.

The Peipsiveere Nature Reserve has been created in order to protect the local nature. In Emajõe Study Trail (length 3 km) you can enjoy the nature of riverbank Emajõgi and wet forrest. The trail starts from the Emajõe- Suursoo Nature Centre, wanders around the riverfront flood plain, on the bog meadows with cane turfs and passes through a bog birch shrub. The study trail is influenced by the high water of the river, so during the flood it's not passable.

The area of the Piirissaar Island that is located in Lake Peipus on the border of lakes Suurjärv and Lämmijärv is nowadays only 7.5 km2, but it used to be considerably larger and more populous in the ancient times. It is known that in 1796, the area of the island was 20.1 km2. Nowadays there are the villages of Piiri, Tooni and Saare on the Piirissaar Island, but their built-up areas and port are not a part of the reserve. Porka village used to be in the northwestern part of the island, but it was swept away by a storm in 1862.

The oldest settlement finds of Tartu County, the Stone Age settlement sites by the River Emajõgi in Agali and Kullamäe are at this moment buried under a peat layer several metres thick. Many former farmsteads on bog islands are covered with a varied forest where one can find mighty ancient trees, former strips of wetland meadows by the rivers have become overgrown with willows and alders, winter roads that ran over marshes are barely recognisable. A unique village that is accessible only by water, the Praaga village in the delta of the River Emajõgi, has persisted.

Mires

The River Emajõgi and Lake Peipus have played a big role in developing the landscape here. The River Emajõgi that starts in Rannu-Jõesuu from Lake Võrtsjärv and flows into Lake Peipus in Praaga flowed actually in the opposite direction after the ice age – from Lake Peipus to the larger Lake Võrtsjärv. The current direction of the flow from Lake Võrtsjärv to Lake Peipus developed only 6,000–7,000 years ago.

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