In a scrubby forest an hour outside the Lithuanian capital on a recent day this spring, excavators were digging ditches and tree harvesters were whirring in an effort to restore a waterlogged, mosquito-infested ecosystem that was drained in the Soviet era.

The reason is twofold: to help the climate and to defend the country from invasion.

The area was once a vast peat bog, and peat bogs are highly efficient at storing planet-warming carbon dioxide. They also happen to be very good at stopping tanks, because the spongy soil can’t support the weight of armored vehicles. The tanks get stuck and sink, often permanently.

Tomas Godliauskas, the Lithuanian vice minister of defense, said the bogs would form “an integral defensive line” when combined with other military tactics. The project also has the advantage of being relatively cheap compared with other measures like tank ditches and minefields, he added.

Lithuania isn’t the only European Union country using bogs to deter a Russian invasion. Latvia and Finland, for example, are also seeking to restore bogs for both environmental and defense purposes. And Ukrainian bogs helped to delay Russian troops in a failed push toward Kyiv in 2022.

Richard Hooker, a former director at the National Security Council who’s now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a research organization based in Washington that focuses on international security, said peatland restoration could play an important role in Lithuania’s defense against an invasion from the east.

He noted that only one major highway runs from Minsk, in Byelorussia, to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, and that the Russian Army is heavily mechanized, without the kind of light infantry units that the U.S. Army has. That means restored, impassible peat bogs would force invading troops onto roads and trails, where they would be more vulnerable.

“The idea that you can use natural obstacles to tie in with man-made obstacles to slow down an attacker is an excellent one,” Mr. Hooker said. “A lot more could be done than has been done, but the early signs anyway are promising.”

The hazards of the bogs were illustrated in March last year, when a 70-ton M88 armored recovery vehicle from the U.S. Army sank during a training exercise near Pabrade, a city in eastern Lithuania near the border with Belarus. Four crew members died.

The bog restoration project is part of Lithuania’s total defense doctrine, a security strategy mobilizing the military, civilian and private sectors to be prepared in case of Russian aggression. The country is looking to restore 6,000 hectares of peatlands, Mr. Godliauskas said.

But it’s about more than just defending the border. It’s also about carbon capture.

Peat bogs form when oxygen-poor conditions in wetlands prevent bacteria and fungi from fully breaking down organic matter like plants and dead animals. In Lithuania, some of the resulting peat was extracted by the Soviet authorities to burn in power plants and to expand agriculture.

The restoration effort is a priority across multiple agencies in the government, said Aira Paliukenaite, Lithuania’s vice minister of the environment. The ministry is planning for restoration to continue for the next 30 years as a part of its policy of aligning with the European Union’s Nature Restoration Law.

That measure requires every country in the bloc to implement a plan, with targets, to mitigate carbon emissions and restore biodiversity and habitats in the coming decades.

Lithuania appears to be in a good starting position. The country still has large quantities of undisturbed peat underground. By rewetting it, officials said they could transform the land back into a what’s known as a carbon sink, or storage system, because peat can lock away carbon for much longer than forests can.

It’s not a simple process, though. The technical planning and site preparation can take years. The projects are still in the early stages, especially those along the border, but they are starting to work with nongovernmental groups like the Foundation for Peatland Restoration and Conservation.

While some in the country are skeptical about the restoration process and its efficacy, others are welcoming the plan.

Albertas Lakstauskas, 52, a teacher and politician, has lived his whole life in Zasliai, a small town near one of the foundation’s projects, the restoration of about 150 acres of drained land where peat was extracted to supply energy to the Soviet Union.

Mr. Lakstauskas said he, like some others in the town, was doubtful that peat bogs alone could stop a Russian invasion, but he said he thought supporting the environment was a matter of national pride.

“If we can do some things to do better, I think that’s a good opportunity,” he said. “And I choose to participate.”

Stargazing, it turns out, doesn’t have to be a stationary activity.

On railway lines around the world, from the Arctic Circle to New Zealand, a select set of evening train excursions take riders deep into dark-sky territory — some en route to remote station stops decked out with telescopes, others featuring onboard astronomers.

These five rail journeys (all of which are accessible) range from two- to three-hour desert outings to a hunt for the northern lights. One route even has a planetarium on rails. All promise a renewed appreciation of train travel — and of our pale blue dot’s improbable place in the cosmos.

Nevada

The Great Basin Star Train

Any stargazing train worth its salt requires one thing: a dark sky. The Star Train resoundingly checks that box, traveling through a part of eastern Nevada that is one of the least-populated places in the lower 48.

Run by the Nevada Northern Railway in partnership with nearby Great Basin National Park, the train departs the historic East Ely Depot, in Ely, Nev., early enough in the evening to catch the sunset over the Steptoe Valley, and then cruises through darkening skies to its destination: a remote corner of the desert appropriately called Star Flat, where a stargazing platform outfitted with telescopes awaits. There, riders disembark (equipped with red-light necklaces to help preserve their night vision) and take turns viewing the cosmos, guided by professional astronomers. (Last year’s onboard stargazing guides came from Caltech; in previous seasons, the National Park Service’s Dark Rangers, who specialize in night-sky activities, accompanied trips.)

The Star Train makes its two-and-a-half-hour round-trip journey most Friday evenings between mid-May and mid-September, and tickets ($65 for adults) can sell out almost a year in advance — though members of the Nevada Northern Railway Museum get early access. Alternatively, the railroad’s more frequent Sunset, Stars and Champagne excursions trade telescopes for desert sundowners but feature the same expert stargazers and the same Nevada night sky, which is often dark enough to see the Milky Way with the naked eye.

New Mexico

The Stargazer

While plenty of heritage railroads across the United States offer twilight rides and nighttime excursions, at the moment there’s only one other dedicated, regularly scheduled stargazing train in North America besides the Star Train: the Stargazer, operated by Sky Railway, in Santa Fe, N.M.

Much like its Nevada counterpart, the Stargazer makes a two-and-a-half-hour round trip through dark-sky country, though in this case, the journey really is the destination, because it doesn’t make any stops. More of a rolling night-sky revue, the Stargazer features live music and professional astronomers who share their celestial knowledge and stories as the train rumbles into the vast Galisteo Basin south of Santa Fe. Sky Railway’s colorfully painted trains feature heated, enclosed passenger cars to stave off the evening chill and flatbed cars open to the night sky.

Departing from the Santa Fe Depot downtown, the train normally runs once a month (adult tickets from $139, including a champagne welcome toast). Sky Railway also occasionally schedules excursions for special celestial events.

New Zealand

Matariki Rail Experience

With its alpine landscapes and rugged coastline, New Zealand’s South Island is practically tailor-made for scenic daytime train journeys. But when night falls, the sparsely populated island — home to the Southern Hemisphere’s largest International Dark Sky Reserve — is heaven for stargazers, too.

This year, Great Journeys New Zealand, which operates the country’s tourist-centric long-distance trains, is offering a special nighttime run of the Coastal Pacific, whose route skirts the South Island’s northeastern coast. Timed to Matariki, the Maori new year, which is heralded by the first rising of the Pleiades star cluster, the eight-hour round trip from Christchurch is a cultural and astronomical celebration.

After the first half of a four-course onboard dinner, the train arrives in Kaikoura, in dark-sky country, for a guided stargazing stop with a range of telescopes — and fire pits and a night market. (The rain plan involves a virtual stargazing session at the local museum using virtual reality headsets.) Dinner resumes back on the train as it returns to Christchurch. This is a strictly limited engagement, on the rails for one night only: July 11, for 499 New Zealand dollars, about $295, per person.

In the far northern reaches of Norway, inside the Arctic Circle, you can ride a train that chases another wonder of the night sky: the aurora borealis. Twice a week from October to March, the Northern Lights Train takes its riders into the dark polar night in pursuit of the aurora’s celestial light show.

From the remote town of Narvik, the train travels along the Ofoten Railway, the northernmost passenger rail line in Western Europe. The destination on this three-hour round-trip excursion (1,495 kroner, or about $160) is Katterat, a mountain village accessible only by rail and free of light pollution, making it an ideal place to spot the aurora. At the Katterat station, local guides and a campfire cookout await, as does a lavvu, the traditional tent used by the Sami people of northern Scandinavia, offering a respite from the cold (as well as hot drinks and an open fire for roasting sausages).

And aboard the train, the lights stay off, which means that on a clear night, you might even catch the northern lights on the way there and back.

Leave it to Japan to take the stargazing train to another level.

The High Rail 1375 train — so named because it runs along Japan’s highest-elevation railway line (the high point is 1,375 meters, or roughly 4,500 feet, above sea level) — is one of JR East’s deliberately unhurried Joyful Trains, which the railway company describes as “not only a means of transportation, but also a package of various pleasures.” This astronomy-themed train certainly packs plenty of joy into its two cars, with seat upholstery inspired by constellations, a snack bar, a souvenir shop and a planetarium car with a library of astronomy books and images of the night sky projected onto its domed ceiling.

The train makes two daytime runs along the mountainous Koumi Line, taking a little over two hours to travel between Kobuchizawa (accessible by express train from Tokyo) and Komoro. But the main event is the High Rail Hoshizora (“Starry Sky”) evening trip, which includes an extended stop at Nobeyama Station (the highest in the country) for a guided stargazing session. A one-way ride on High Rail 1375, which runs on weekends and occasional weekdays, requires a seat reservation if you’re traveling on a Japan Rail pass, or a stand-alone ticket plus seat reservation (2,440 yen, or about $15). And remember to preorder a special “Starry Sky” bento box.

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