Sustainable forestry
Quality wood on nature’s terms
MARIA LATOKARTANO, Kuvat: Hanne Manelius
Every forest owner can nurture the nature values of their forest and safeguard its vitality in changing climate conditions.
As snowflakes fall on the branches of spruce trees, Juho Junkkala and Jussi Reko wade in single file through snow that comes up to their knees. Reko is a Forest Specialist at Metsä Group. Junkkala, the forest owner, stops and bends down to examine the prints in the snow. “A deer, and the tracks are pretty fresh,” he says. Deer and elk are common in these areas. The men are on Junkkala’s home estate in Eura, Satakunta, in Southwest Finland. Junkkala’s family has lived here since the 16th century. Over the years, the estate has been split, partitioned and then recombined repeatedly. It was transferred to Junkkala in a generational handover in 2010. “I had quite enough of farm work in my childhood and made up my mind never to be a farmer. Instead, I went to university to study chemistry. But somewhere along the way, I had a change of heart,” Junkkala explains. Talking about the forest and more The terrain rises to form a small hill before falling away towards the shores of Lake Koskeljärvi. Dark-barked spruce trees grow among the pine trees, the predominant species here. Here and there one can also spot birches and aspens. Reko points to a spruce tree with a crown that has grown nearly half a metre long. Fertilisation to boost growth, carried out a couple of years ago, has clearly done its job.
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