Dredging and straightening of rivers, removal of soil from the rivers, and using the soil for building migration barriers has damaged the river habitats and impoverished the aquatic life.

As a result of the project, ten to fifteen river habitats in the extent of 10 km will be restored. By involving the local communities, action days will be organised to create spawning grounds in the bodies of watercourses, to restore rapids, and remove debris. Purtse River will be restocked with at least 100,000 salmonidae in the course of restoration of the habitats.

In order to accelerate the recovery of the salmon population in Purtse River, the river has been populated with more than 800,000 juvenile salmon since 2005. The river has been restocked with larvae, parr, smolt, post-smolt, as well as two-year-old juvenile fish. At least 100,000 further juvenile fish will be restocked within the next five years to create a self-renewable salmonidae population. In the first year of the project, Purtse River was populated with 27,000 juvenile salmon.