Networking in Ilomantsi - my experience

Tuesday morning (28.10) we picked up our partners by bus in Joensuu from Green Star Hotel. It was announced at once that participants arrived to Forestry Capital of Europe. While moving on the bus long story of history of development forestry sector has been told. Before passing by Ilomantsi the small historical background has been given. Thus, looking back into 1950-80s the population was relatively high in the areas. However, recent trends of urbanization (mostly because of job) affect in constant decline of population. 20% of the forest land in Ilomantsi is owned by private company (mainly Tornator), 20% by state forest company (Metsähallitus) and the rest is private landowners. They are about 3500 private forest owners and about 30% of them do not live in Ilomantsi area anymore. On the way to Mekrijärvi Research Station the wide use of peat mainly for combustion in mixture with other substances (wood residues, reed canary grass) was explained.

Kick-off excursion at Mekrijärvi research station was lead by local expert. He explained the current research activities with pellets, energy wood and different plants (in greenhouses). In greenhouse laboratory they have 16 individual chambers where plants grow under certain growth conditions with possibilities to influence on level of CO₂, UV light, moisture, temperature etc. Another interesting experiment is constant measurement of water content in logs for optimizing seasonality of energy wood transportation. Samples are constantly weighted to measure the optimal timing of transportation.

 

In the afternoon we had an excursion to Patvinsuo National Park which represents a huge mire lands. The last clearcut within National Park took place in 1950s, today they make controlled nature burnings to establish new biodiversity. The evening was spent in the Traditional Karelian Restaurant Parpenpirtti – fish, root vegetables, karelian pirogi and vatruskas. Afterwards we had a special offer from the hosts – smoke sauna at Mekrijärvi Research Station.

On Wednesday morning introduction in morning session started with welcoming words from Peter Bessau from International Model Forest Network stating that Ilomantsi Model Forest was officially accepted and recognized. Then Mr. Alpo Hassinen gave a life performance on how to use UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) for small-scale inventory and recording the state of landscapes in different time span. Unfortunately it was too windy for an outdoor demonstration, but Alpo showed us his planes and photos with great enthusiasm. His first plane was acquired from Canada, but it was too expensive to crash so he started to build his own planes from cheaper materials. These are also very easy to repair, as Alpo said “You fly one day they you repair for three days” because the landing places are often full of stumps, rocks and trees.    

The plane can be used for many experiments; one was to calculate how much reed canary grass was growing around the lakes, to know where to harvest it in the winter.

Then we went to see the most eastern point of Finland – the Finnish-Russian border. To show us how a very simple thing can become a tourist attraction. We were standing less than hundred meters to Russian border, but no passport was asked or checked.

After this we spent the rest of the day at Erä-Eero’s place starting with small snack and then straight to watching cabins where for three hours were waiting for a wolverine to come, but they did not show up. Our guide (Esa Muikku) told us this was the first time this year no wolverine passed by. As reward after that we had a warm sauna afterwards and then a nice Finnish dinner in a joyful atmosphere.

  

On Thursday indoor session in Mekrijärvi started with presentations of Mr. Maxim Trishkin and Dr. Eugene Lopatin explaining different approaches for assessment of sustainable forest management level by new methods and explaining the potential utilization and ways to measure energy grass by using UAV. Then we went with visit to a landscape farm. The hosts, Meri and Sauvo bought farm house which was built in the late 1800 with 6 ha land. In order to keep the land open they brought sheeps for grazing purposes. When EU countries have introduced Natura 2000 Meri and Sauvo used it as opportunity for the protection, they understood that the landscape where they live will look the same and maybe they could get some funding for their business. A lot of other local inhabitants couldn’t understand their choice, they were afraid that it might be forbidden to do anything.



After that we had a lunch at Erä-Mantsi in Ilomantsi. Heikki Lyhykäinen is a local entrepreneur who runs the business on nature guiding in Ilomantsi area. After this we had an excursion to Petkeljärvi National park with a presentation by Finnish State Forest Service. Mr. Arto Kammonen was kind enough to show the place. This is park about 7 sq. km with old pine, some remains from the winter war and walking paths. Finnish State Forest Service works with both timber production and nature conservation, they own about 35% of Finland forest.