Patagonia fund gives Heinävesi two million dollars for rapids restoration

Patagonia’s Holdfast Collective fund is donating two million dollars, about 1.7 million euros, to restore the Palokki rapids in Heinävesi, Yle reports. The project would involve removing the Palokki power plant dam in North Karelia.

Actor and environmental activist Jasper Pääkkönen, a longtime Patagonia advertising ambassador, said the donation exceeded anything he could have imagined. He has campaigned for the restoration of the Palokki rapids for more than a decade.

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard visited Finland more than 10 years ago, and Pääkkönen says he may have discussed Palokki with him in a sauna.

The donation is being made by Holdfast Collective, which manages Patagonia’s funds. The organisation’s chief executive, Greg Curtis, said the money was intended to support a project that already has backing from the Finnish government and an advance donation from the international Open Rivers programme.

“Nature conservation projects take time. We are committed to this, and we are not in a hurry,” Curtis said in an email response to Yle.

Pääkkönen said the endangered landlocked salmon and brown trout found in the area may not have time to wait. His view of restoration has changed over the past two decades.

“I used to think that fish passages around power plants were the solution. But they are not, because spawning grounds are also needed, an entire restored habitat. It is obvious that animals should be able to reproduce in their natural breeding areas,” he said.

The Palokki dam is part of a chain of 10 rapids between Lake Juojärvi and Lake Varisvesi in Heinävesi. The power plant was built in 1961 and produces about 0.2 percent of Finland’s hydroelectricity. Removing the dam is included in Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government programme.

The project would be Finland’s largest river restoration project to date. The rapids are a breeding area for endangered landlocked salmon and brown trout.

Pääkkönen is known as a fly fisherman, but said the fish are only one reason to restore the rapids. In his view, the project is about restoring an entire habitat and the Finnish landscape.

“Most importantly, this would restore the Finnish environment and nature, the national landscape,” he said.

According to the Technical Research Centre of Finland, hydropower accounts for 17 to 20 percent of Finland’s electricity production, compared with about 12 percent elsewhere in the European Union. WWF Finland says more than 90 percent of Finland’s major rivers have either been dammed or contain obstacles that hinder fish migration.

Power plant has several owners

The restoration project depends on the power plant and dam being removed. The Finnish government offered 40 million euros for them, but the board of North Karelia Electricity, which owns the power plant, rejected the offer, saying it amounted to only half the desired price.

The government said it would not enter a bidding contest. The decision surprised the municipalities that own shares in the company, some of which questioned why the offer could not serve as the basis for negotiations.

Municipalities in eastern Finland own most of North Karelia Electricity. Representatives of the 17 owner municipalities have also made statements supporting removal of the dam.