Activists test water filters after cottage plot freezes in Pälkäne

Local conservation activists are testing ways to remove humus and organic carbon from water after a 150-square-metre cottage plot froze in January in Pälkäne, Yle reports.

Miia Jatuli suspects the freezing was caused by a clear-cut on a neighbouring plot, where debris left in a natural stream may have blocked the watercourse. The blockage is believed to have caused water to flood her property.

After Jatuli contacted the Kukkiajärvi Conservation Association, member Leena Ilmola began looking for ways to limit the damage.

“I was, of course, ready to take to the barricades, but the first concrete step was to consider how we could minimise the damage that had already been caused,” Ilmola said.

The association, Jatuli and her siblings have made the stream beside the cottage one of the association’s test sites. They are experimenting with different methods of filtering humus and organic carbon from the water before it reaches Kukkiajärvi.

The work is being carried out with experts from the University of Helsinki and the Finnish Environment Institute. “Our goal is to save Kukkiajärvi,” Ilmola said.

Inspection has still not taken place

Yle has previously reported that the permits and supervision authority promised to inspect Jatuli’s property earlier this year. The visit has still not happened.

In an email sent at the end of August, the authority said the municipality’s environmental inspector was expected to visit during August. Jatuli said in September that the inspection had not yet taken place.

Company denies responsibility

Forestry company Versowood denies responsibility for the flooding. Its forestry director, Pauli Otava, said the flooding was caused by an ice buildup resulting from natural conditions.

“Last winter, when there was little snow and the temperatures were very low, ice buildup really did occur. This is a natural phenomenon,” Otava said.

Otava previously told Yle that the flooded channel was not a natural forest stream. The company has referred to aerial photographs indicating that the channel served as a field ditch until the 1980s.

Clear-cutting raises concern

Kukkiajärvi is a Natura 2000 protected area because of its unique vegetation. Conservation activists say the lake’s water has become darker and its waterbird population has fallen by half, while extensive clear-cutting continues around the lake.

Jussi Alanko, who has spent five years at a cottage at the northern end of the lake, said he had seen the lake’s condition change. He said there were fewer waterbirds and that clear-cut areas had increased around the lake.

Alanko has visited Torronsuo in Tammela with docent Heikki Simola, comparing an area of clear-cut forest with an old forest. The ground in the clear-cut area had fallen by half a metre.

Alanko believes organic matter has been released into the air as carbon dioxide and into lakes as humus. He said both peat extraction and clear-cutting carry humus into waterways, darkening the water and harming or killing organisms and vegetation on lakebeds.

Alanko said the effects of clear-cutting on lakes should be included among the costs of forestry. He blamed the forestry industry rather than individual forest owners, whom he described as misled.