Hollola expands protected-area network to 180 hectares

Hollola, a municipality next to Lahti, is developing one of southern Finland’s largest protected-area networks, Yle reports. The network already covers more than 180 hectares, equivalent to about 250 football pitches.

The protected areas in Paimela form a strip roughly 10 kilometres long and four kilometres wide. Their close proximity and large size are important for preserving biodiversity and different species.

Nearly 80 per cent of Finland’s statutory protected-area network and strictly protected forests are located in northern Finland. In southern Finland, protected areas are generally smaller and more isolated, making it difficult to create ecological corridors between them.

In Paimela, the areas have been successfully linked. Ecological corridors help many species move between habitats, particularly animals that travel slowly along the ground, such as snakes, frogs and hedgehogs. Flying squirrels also need to move between forest areas.

Researcher Atte Moilanen said the benefits of connecting protected areas vary between species. Species with populations in several areas can maintain regional populations if individuals are able to move between those areas.

Moilanen said the density of a habitat is the most important factor in preserving the species that depend on it. The decline of old-forest and traditional-biotope species has been particularly severe in southern Finland as ecological networks of those habitats have become more fragmented.

New protected area on Paimelanvuori

The newest protected area is Paimelanvuori, a glacial ridge rising above the village. The Natural Heritage Foundation is protecting more than 17 hectares of the ridge, much of it valuable herb-rich forest.

These fertile forests support a wide range of plant and other species. Vilma Kaukoranta, conservation manager at the Natural Heritage Foundation, described Paimelanvuori as an exceptionally valuable natural site with distinctive scenery.

The property that included Paimelanvuori was put up for public sale last autumn. Hollola nature activist Matti Peltonen bought the ridge and sold it to the Natural Heritage Foundation.

Peltonen also bought a 42-hectare plot next to the ridge with Marko Vertainen and Ina Rosberg. Much of the plot consists of younger forest. The three established a forest property partnership that manages the land using continuous-cover forestry, in which forests are managed and regenerated without clear-cutting and trees of different ages remain in the forest.

The partnership aims to develop the plot into a forest suitable for protection in the coming decades. The elongated plot connects Paimelanvuori with Päivänsalo, which is protected by the Natural Heritage Foundation.

With the new protected areas, at least 13 protected areas of different sizes will exist in Paimela and its surroundings. Five of them belong to the Natural Heritage Foundation, including Kullerolehto and Päivänsalo.

Kullerolehto is a 14-hectare fertile grove with giant spruce trees and large aspens. Anemones and mezereon bloom there in spring, followed by globeflowers in early summer.

Päivänsalo contains spruce forest more than 100 years old and covers 24 hectares.