The LIFE project to restore alvar grasslands in Estonia is already bearing fruit: just a few years into the Life to alvars project and large blooms of orchids are a visible sign of recovery of this threatened semi-natural grassland habitat.Alvar grasslands are semi-natural grasslands with thin lime-rich soil on limestone bedrock. The project is restoring 25 alvar grasslands sites in Estonia totalling 2 500 hectares: two are found on the mainland and the rest spread over the islands of Muhu, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa in the Baltic Sea.