Logging blamed for frozen holiday plot in Pälkäne

A clear-cutting operation blocked a natural stream in Pälkäne, southern Finland, causing water to flood and freeze on a neighbouring holiday property, according to Yle. The property owner, Miia Jatuli, is seeking 10,000 euros in compensation from forestry company Versowood, which denies responsibility.

When Jatuli arrived at her cottage in Luopioinen, by Lake Kukkiajärvi, in January 2026, about 150 square metres of the plot had become covered in ice. In places, the ice was up to half a metre thick.

Jatuli said logging waste from extensive clear-cutting on a neighbouring plot had blocked a natural stream that had flowed through the area for decades. The water then rose onto her property and the stream froze.

“The stream had remained open all year for decades. Now it froze for the first time,” Jatuli said.

The ice also damaged the cottage property. A concrete support under an outbuilding shifted because of the rising ice, one window in a shed broke and a composting toilet in the flooded area was destroyed.

Jatuli’s compensation claim is based on engineering calculations and includes replacing the composting toilet and repairing the shed’s support. It does not include the cost of restoring the stream. She also said she spent three visits a week at the property from January until April dealing with the damage.

Jatuli’s insurer, If, ruled in February that the damage was not caused by a natural phenomenon but by an outside party. The insurer identified the cause as a blocked ditch, where logging waste from the neighbouring worksite had accumulated.

A damage inspection report commissioned by If said the neighbour had carried out logging and that logging waste was lying over the stream, which flowed throughout the year. The report said the ditch may have become blocked by branches and other logging debris.

If directed Jatuli to seek compensation from the other party. She has not received any compensation.

Versowood, which commissioned the logging, and its contractor, Tuominen Oy, deny responsibility. Their insurer, Pohjola, said in March that the “few loose branches” from the logging could not have blocked the ditch.

Versowood forestry director Pauli Otava said the company believed the flooding was caused by ice formed from water seeping onto the ground, rather than by logging waste. He said this type of ice had formed widely during the previous winter, when there was little snow and temperatures were low.

Jatuli rejects that explanation. She has referred to the insurer’s report and to her own videos, which show wood fragments and logging debris in the stream channel.

Versowood has also said that the winter conditions were worsened because the channel had not been maintained and was in poor condition. The company said individual branches or logging debris would not alter the ditch’s flow and that there were no actual piles of logging waste in it.

Jatuli measured a 14 to 17 centimetre difference in the ice level on either side of the suspected blockage. She considers this technical evidence that logging waste had formed a dam in the channel.

In April, a Versowood forestry expert removed branches from the channel without notifying Jatuli in advance. She interpreted the action as the destruction of evidence.

Finland’s Forest Act requires a protective zone of 10 to 30 metres along a stream. Versowood denies breaking the law.