Nature

Helvetinjärvi continues to be the most popular national park in Pirkanmaa.

Finns’ greatest enthusiasm for visiting national parks seems to have waned. Visitor statistics published by Metsähallitus on Wednesday show that in Pirkanmaa, for example, the number of visitors to Helvetinjärvi National Park dropped significantly from 2021.

Helvetinjärvi continues to be the most popular national park in Pirkanmaa. It gained great popularity during the roaring years and visitor numbers doubled. Now the number of visitors has levelled off. In 2022, Lake Helvetinjärvi was visited 46 300 times, a 31% drop compared to the previous year.

Metsähallitus says in a press release that new hiking trails are planned for Lake Helvetinjärvi in the coming years. During the past year, maintenance roads, parking areas and foundations for new rest stop structures were paved along the future routes. New service roads were also built in Heinälahti and Helvetinkolu.

There was also a slight decrease in the number of visits to Seitseminen National Park. In the course of 2022, Seitsimeni was visited 43,500 times, which is ten percent less than the previous year. During the last year, work on updating the management and use plan of Seitsimenen National Park was started, which defines the measures for the recreational use of the national park for the next ten years.

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Visits to Pirkanmaa National Parks have levelled off after years of peak periodsRead More »

In the year 2021, for example, Oulanka National Park was still congested. Now, the number of visitors to national parks has returned to the levels seen before the koruna pandemic.

Visitor numbers to national parks fell slightly last year from their peak in the boom years. Metsähallitus attributes this to the opening up of society after the pandemic, general price increases and higher fuel prices.

For example, 176 000 visits were made to Oulanka National Park in Kuusamo and 97 200 to Syötte National Park in Pudasjärvi last year. The Rokua National Park in the Utajärvi, Vaala and Muhos regions attracted 54 800 visitors.

Hossa National Park in Suomussalmi had 77 700 visits last year and Hiidenport National Park in Sotkamo 11 300. Hossa and Hiidenport also celebrated five years and 40 years respectively last year.

According to Metsähallitus, the number of visits to Kainu, Koilisma and Pohjois-Ostrobothnia national parks and other excursion destinations maintained by Metsähallitus decreased by an average of 16 percent last year from 2021.

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Visitor numbers to national parks also fell in Kainuu, Northeast Finland and North OstrobothniaRead More »

The biggest drop in visits occurred between March and May. A total of 106 000 visits were made to the four national parks in Central Finland.

The number of visitors to the national parks in Central Finland has levelled off after the increase in visitor numbers caused by the koruna, Metsähallitus informs. In 2022, the number of visits will be 11-16% lower than in the previous year, depending on the park.

The biggest drop in visits occurred between March and May. However, a total of 106 000 visits were still made to the four national parks in Central Finland.

The South Konnevesi National Park in the municipalities of Konnevesi and Rautalamm continues to be the most popular in Central Finland with 34 200 visits. The drop compared to 2021 was 11%.

The number of visits to Leivonmäki National Park in the year was 28,700, a drop of 14 percent. 17,900 visits were made to Pyhä-Häki National Park Saarijärvi, i.e. 16 percent less than in 2021.

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Visits to Central Finland’s national parks decreased after the coronation, with Etelä-Konnevesi the most popularRead More »

The next time the volunteers will be knocking over utility poles on Lake Saimaa this coming weekend. Metsähallitus has permission to continue the pile-driving until mid-February.

Last weekend, the first collisions of auxiliary reindeer to help the endangered Saimaa ringed seal in its breeding season began on Lake Saimaa.

– It is estimated that over 50 utility stacks were knocked over last weekend. So far, I haven’t received accurate information from all the groups,” says Alakoski.

According to Alakoski, there were several dozen volunteers knocking over the auxiliary pile.

In Puumala, the cinemas were made slightly smaller than usual over the weekend, so that the ice can withstand the weight of a large snow mountain. Ice can loosen the weight of a large kinos and be a danger to the cubs born in the kinos in February-March.

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Volunteers are once again knocking over stakes to help the Saimaa ringed seal nesting – over 50 stakes were knocked over last weekendRead More »

Lauri Heiskanen, PhD candidate, says that climate change will reduce the carbon sink of Northern Lapland if extreme weather events hit every third growing season.

Heiskanen says that in the long term, southern plants will move north.

– If the new ecosystem consists mainly of conifers, the carbon sink can be expected to increase. But if it consists mainly of broadleaved trees, the carbon sink will decrease,” says Heiskanen.

The thesis is based on measurements taken in Utsjoki and Inari in 2017-2019.

Carbon sequestration briefly turned into a carbon source

In the dissertation, it was found that the warm spring season brings forward and accelerates the ability of plants to bind carbon. However, in Tunturikoivik, part of the advantage gained was lost due to insect damage.

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Dissertation: extreme weather events weaken carbon sinks in Northern Lapland – warming springs increase carbon sequestrationRead More »

The Natural Resources Institute Finland conducts elk flight counts in south-western, southern and eastern Lapland. The aim is to complete the counts by the end of February.

The Natural Resources Institute Finland has started flight counts of moose in Lapland. On Monday, a helicopter was used to fly in Salla. On Tuesday, the counts will start in Simo and continue from there via Keminmaa, Tervola and Tornio to Ylitorno.

Later, counts will be made in the areas of Savukoski, Pelkosenniemi and the game management associations of Kemijärvi, Posio and Ranua.

The aim is to end the flights by the end of February.

The calculation is based on the distance method. In the method, the distances of deer herds and individual deer from the counting line are observed, which is used to evaluate the observability of the count.

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Elk population flight counts have started in Lapland – Salla on Monday, Meri-Lappi on TuesdayRead More »

The University of Turku’s pollen information service expects the pollen season to start in southern Finland already in February with dust from other parts of Europe.

The pollen season will start in the coming weeks, says the University of Turku’s pollen information service.

Hazel and alder are already in flower in central Europe and the UK. The University of Turku points out that during the southern air currents, pollen may already be carried to Finland. Next month, pollen will be more abundant in the air.

The most sensitive pollen allergy sufferers can start to show symptoms as early as January.

In Finland, the flowering of the hazel bush usually begins in the south at the turn of February and March, and the flowering of the alder in March.

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Pollen season is starting, the most sensitive allergy sufferers may start to show symptoms as early as January-FebruaryRead More »

In addition to the origins of the Saimaa ringed seal, a recent study has provided new information on the collapse of the genetic diversity of the Saimaa ringed seal.

The Saimaa ringed seal does not appear to be a close relative of the current eastern sea lions, as has been thought until now. According to new research, the evolutionary history of the Saimaa seal places it within the Arctic region, and more specifically within the North American seal group.

A surprising finding was revealed in a joint study by several Finnish universities and international research institutes. The evolutionary history of the Saimaa ringed seal was investigated using DNA from museum specimens.

The Saimaa ringed seal lives only on the Saimaa, where it is previously thought to have become isolated from other seals around 9,000 years ago, when land uplift cut off its route to the Baltic Sea at the end of the Ice Age. However, new research does not seem to support this view.

Also, the present-day Norse of the Viennese Sea, which are geographically the closest Arctic Norse to the Saimaa Norse, do not seem to be closely related to them. The same applies to the tile holder.

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New information on the origins of the Saimaa ringed seal: no close relatives of the Saimaa ringed seal are found in the present-day eastern sea orphansRead More »

Several tonnes of household waste have ended up in a river in Bosnia as a result of illegal dumping.

The Drina River, which flows through the Balkans, has become a huge garbage raft containing more than ten thousand cubic metres of rubbish.

The raft in Bosnia-Herzegovina has slowly formed as people illegally dumped various types of household waste into the river.

The bin contains plastic bottles, car tyres, used household appliances, etc.

The waste has accumulated in the river from several tributaries of the Drina, as well as from the illegal landfills located near it.

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The Drina River became the biggest garbage dump in the Balkans – see video of the huge waste binRead More »

On Saturday morning, the activists interviewed were about to go skiing on the fells. The demonstrators said they would again stop logging by Metsähallitus near the Aalistunturi protected area.

Demonstrators protesting against logging by Metsähallitus returned to the Aalistunturi area in Kolari today.

This Saturday morning, representatives of the so-called Forest Movement went skiing in the Aalal tundra. The protesters intend to stop the logging by Metsähallitus.

According to Korhonen, there are 14 demonstrators whose aim is to stop the forestry machines. On Saturday morning, Korhonen believed that they would “be carried out of the forest again”. Protesters have come to Aalistunturi from all over Finland

– Quite a large group is from Rovaniemi, says Korhonen.

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Protesters returned to Aalalunturi and plan to stop logging againRead More »