Man’s behaviour is destroying a beautiful gorge valley - litter and dangers at Posio Korouoma

Korouoma, known for its spectacular icefalls, has seen an increase in visitor numbers. This has resulted in littering and human droppings on the floor of the toilet and on the wall of the café.

The Korouoma in Posio is an important grove conservation site, with 36 000 visits recorded last year. The biggest crowds are in February and March, when the Korouoma’s spectacular icefalls are at their most beautiful.

As the number of visitors increases, the adverse effects are also forced into the open.

Karkola says that the area used by group trips and larger groups is small in Korouoma, so problems arise when there are large crowds in the area.

Venla Karkola of Metsähallitus' Nature Services has a campfire in front of her on her porch. — Karkola has had to think of different ways to steer people’s behaviour in a smarter direction.

The current break places are perceived as cramped during the busiest months. The Nature Services of Metsähallitus are aware of the matter, and in the coming summer they will think about possible solutions.

– At the same time, you have to think about whether the sensitive grove can withstand this. The areas have been demarcated quite deliberately, Karkola mentions.

The canyon eaves seen from above. — The area is equipped with break areas for businesses and other visitors. In the picture, the canyon’s lavas are open to all.

A new kind of problem has also been created by visitors going down the hill with slides, safari company overalls, plastic bags or sticks.

– The hill has simply been reduced to such a condition that Metsähallitus has had to mark the route as dangerous in places and recommends using skid barriers in winter. The fact that these invoice videos are shared on social media doesn’t help at all, says Karkola.

– Counting is certainly nice, but couldn’t it be done elsewhere. The hill is calculated to be really slippery and is therefore dangerous, says Sillanpää.

Trace the slippery path that the woman is walking down. — The route to the bottom of the Korouoma gorge valley is very steep in places and therefore dangerous in places due to its slipperiness.

Accidents for climbers

Metsähallitus also reminds us of the importance of safety aspects. Karkola mentions that not all tourism companies and visitors understand how snow and ice really behave.

An ice climber on the wall of Korouoma. — The Korouoma area has a number of popular climbing routes.

– During the busiest times, a group of dozens of people may come under the most popular falls, such as Ruskea virta, behaving loudly and not following the climbers’ advice or exhortations, says Sillanpää.

Freely hanging ice may also come down by itself.

Sillanpää is concerned about the increased number of tourists, which, based on his observations, can be seen as general littering, disruptive behavior, deterioration of nature, and rescues of lost people.

– I believe that Metsähallitus wants to influence the situation with the resources they have, but sometimes it feels like it’s not enough. In the end, it’s all about budgets and values.

– Do we want the current development to continue or do we intervene? What would be the best ways? Can travel be restricted or limited? Personally, I would like the nature values \u200b\u200bto be preserved for future generations, Sillanpää sums up.

Warning texts in front and in the background - Brown current icefall. — The Brown Stream is Korouoma’s most visited icefall, and is also often climbed. A warning sign with texts in English, Finnish and Hebrew has been placed in front of it.

Difficulty of hitting the hole

Toilet behavior also causes problems. Karkola guesses whether a safari tourist’s sled coveralls can be so difficult to use that you can’t bend down to do things in the toilet the right way.

– It’s hard to say how these toilets end up in such a bad condition, but that could be one explanation, Karkola thinks.

Garbage in the men's toilet urinal. — Rubbish that does not belong there has ended up in the urinal of the Korouoma men’s toilet.

Korouoma toilet with a seat, litter box and instructions on the wall. — – Sometimes we receive reports that people have squatted on the toilet seat with their shoes on and it is very dirty,” says Karkola.

Korouoma’s toilets do not stay in a clean condition, although according to Metsähallitus they are built to be very easy to use so that you should hit a hole. Karkola doesn’t know why the hole is not used, but he wonders what the responsibility of tourism companies is and whether toilet behavior should be controlled in some way.

Talking about waste

Even though the hermit cafe’s season has been very good, Moilanen is still upset that the increased number of tourists is seen as bad behavior towards nature.

Korouoma wilderness cafe owner Teemu Moilanen in the cafe. — – From the café’s point of view, it’s great that there are plenty of customers, but of course the natural values are very important to us,” says Moilanen.

– Yes, it does force us to incur costs, when we have to carry away with us garbage that was left here for us when the cafe was closed, says Moilanen.

– Sometimes, some also go next to the hermit cafe for their needs. Yes, there are quite a number one and two, so to speak. For that, we had to put a sign next to the house that this is not a toilet.

The wall of the wilderness cafe, solar cells and a sign with the text: \ — A sign on the wall of the Korouoma café reminds visitors in English that the café building is not a toilet.

The littering in the parking area is annoying and Metsähallitus has now put trash cans in the toilets, which it has to empty from time to time.

– Yes, the expenses arising from the garbage are unfortunately removed from the rest of the development work, Karkola says.

Moilanen is on the same lines and says that there have been attempts to leave trash for them even during the cafe’s opening hours.

– We have not accepted them, but have instructed people to take their own rubbish away from the area. We do take care of our own, Moilanen adds.