There is so little snow on Lake Saimaa that it is threatening the nesting of seals – even knocking over auxiliary rafts can be difficult

Four people stand with snowmen on the ice of the lake and look at the shore of the island. — This is how auxiliaries were crashed in Saimaa’s Pihlajavedi in January 2024.

WWF’s relief efforts are at stake if there is no more snow.

Poor snow conditions threaten to hamper Saimaa ringed seal breeding.

If the knocking is not successful this week, the time for knocking the cinemas is running out.

– In the middle of February, a nesting truce is declared for the Saimaan norpa. The mothers start looking for nesting sites where they can dig a nest cave. At that point, of course, we can no longer crash, says Kaartinen.

There is still a long way to go

In addition to WWF, Saimaanorpa auxiliary cinema talks are organized by, for example, the Finnish Nature Conservation Union. According to Metsähallitus, which is coordinating the talks, around 60 cinemas have been knocked down in the entire Saimaa region, while the target is 250.

The talks started a couple of weeks ago, when the conditions were good. However, the snow situation has varied.

According to him, there is also little snow in the Savonlinna region, but the ice strengthened earlier than in the south. That’s why it was possible to start the talks earlier.

It is possible to make auxinos even with a fairly small amount of snow, although the snow then has to be collected from a larger area.

– The worrisome thing is that not much natural cinema has been formed. \”Norpat\” is possibly largely dependent on the helpers, unless there are more snowfalls at the turn of February-March, says Alakoski.

The auxiliary boxes are at least eight meters long, three meters wide and one meter high. They are purposely made large enough so that the snow can melt a little. In addition to the kennels, artificial nests are taken to the roe deer.