🔊 Listen Pääsküla bog was formed from a loose ice bank at the end of Ice Age and the lake which developed behind the sands. Today, the thickness of the peat layer is on average 2.5 meters. Since the 19th century, after the bog was replaced with hayfields, drainage canals have been built into the bog.

Pääsküla bog even has remnants of the construction work related to the Peter the Great’s Naval Fortress– from 1913–1918, an east-to-west dam road that passed through the bog was built. The dam road joined the Männiku ammunition warehouses in the east with the fortifications in the western edge of the bog.

In the first half of the 20th century, the bog was drained for the peat industry, which covered about 10 hectares of bog in the northwest. Mining peat was ended in the 1950s, after which it became a waste ground. In 1974, the official Pääsküla landfill was opened. Waste was no longer taken there after 2003 and in 2007, the landfill was finally closed. In 2002, a large fire ocurred in Pääsküla bog forest. Its traces can still be seen. Due to the size of the green area and its great natural diversity, Pääsküla bog was placed under protection in 2013.