Does Finland have forests?
The forests of Lohtaja were already threatened by overuse during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. At the time, the parish priest of Lohtaja, J. Snellman, described the situation with concern:
“As rich as the parish of Lohtaja once was in pine timber, it is now desperately poor, because the forests have been depleted to an alarming extent by excessive tar production, numerous forest fires, and, to some extent, shipbuilding. During the past three years, trees have also been felled for saw logs to supply the sawmill recently established by Anders Roos of Kokkola at Raumankoski, apart from the annual felling of timber for home construction.”
Since then, the situation in Vattaja has improved thanks to conservation measures. However, concern for the forests has remained. A natural old-growth forest contains trees of many different ages, as well as standing and fallen deadwood. Around half of Finland’s remaining old-growth forests are protected. The other half is still threatened by logging, and they are the subject of conservation disputes.
More than a quarter of Finland’s forest species depend on deadwood. The willow tit (Parus montanus) needs standing dead trees for nesting.