Kemi residents fear planned thinning will damage coastal forest

Residents and cabin owners in Korostennokka, a coastal area in Kemi, are concerned about plans to thin 7.5 hectares of nearby forest. The city plans to remove about 620 cubic metres of trees, Yle reported.

Resident Satu Peltonen said the prospect had left her worried and waiting for forestry machinery to arrive. Cabin owner Juha Taanila fears the work will change the sounds of nature, remove bird nesting places and leave machinery tracks visible from his porch.

The city says the work will be a careful thinning, not a clear-cut. Forestry consultant Jukka Kotajärvi said it would follow recommendations from Tapio, an independent organisation, and include deadwood, artificial snags, groups of retained trees and protective zones for wildlife and nearby properties.

Most of the trees removed will be pines, although some spruce and other trees will also be cut, said Petri Nevanperä, head of the city’s municipal engineering department. He said the forest would remain mixed woodland.

Residents fear the work will reduce the forest’s biodiversity and turn it into commercial forest. The city says the area was last thinned in the 1980s and has since grown stronger. Kotajärvi described it as a commercial forest that also generates revenue for the city.

The city estimates the thinning could bring in just under 25,000 euros, with the final amount to be confirmed after the work. The city says the visible effects of thinning will last a couple of years before the forest begins to recover.

The environmental committee approved a forest management plan for the area in 2023. However, after residents submitted a request for the decision to be reviewed, the city paused the thinning work. The committee will consider the request before the city proceeds. The Finnish Forest Centre also visited the forest last week and, according to Kotajärvi, found nothing that would prevent the work.