Everyman's rights in Finland

Quidelines for visiting the national park

Trail of the tops

We went to Koli national park to see the Finnish nature and the scenery over Lake Pielinen from the highest peak of Koli: Ukko-Koli. Tour included the most famous view of Koli National Park. From the peaks of the Koli hills you can see the old forests and Lake Pielinen 250 meters below you. During the tour the guide told stories about Koli’s history and culture, and the artists who have visited Koli seeking inspiration. We saw Finnis nature and heard interesting facts about it. We also had plenty of time to enjoy the views and take photos.

Some things we learned during the tour

Koli National Park was established in 1991. It covers an area of approximately 30 km2 and includes around 80 kilometers of marked trails, the longest of which is 61 km hiking trail called Herajärvi trail. The purpose of the pacification of the area is to protect the forests in the hill area and to maintain the traditional Slash-and-burn agriculture and the habitats that depend on it, for example meadows.

Koli was chosen as one of the 27 national landscapes in 1993, as it reflects Finnish nature, culture and history in many ways. Today it’s one of Finland’s most famous national landscapes. More than 200 000 tourists come to Koli every year to admire the scenery and the pure Finnish nature.

The hills of Koli are the remains of the ancient Karelide mountain range. The Karelids were born just under 2 billion years ago. They were once around 4km high but have been eroded to the point where only a peneplain remains. On Pielinen, you can see a row of ridge islands, which were created at the end of the last ice age, approximately 11-12,000 years ago, when sand accumulated along with the melting waters at the stream that flowed under the ice. Lake Pielinen was freed from continental ice approximately 9,600 years ago. Later, the biological deposits of the bogs were created. Together with these, the time span of the different parts of the national landscape covers more than half of the earth's development history. 

Koli is the southernmost place in Finland where Crown snow-load occurs. Crown snow-load is snow and hard rime that accumulates on tree crowns in a cold climate. It is formed when water vapor in the air freezes into snow on the tops of trees. One spruce in Northern Finland can collect 3–4 tons. Therefore, tree tops can break off and fall to the ground.

This is also important to diversity of nature, because broken and fallen treetops provide an important habitat for various rotting organisms and fungi.

Due to the different habitats, many animal and insect species also occur on Koli. More than 4,000 different species have been found here. There are a lot of different plants, insects, mushrooms and birds in the area, but also all the large beasts that live in Finland can be found here. 

It's no wonder that the lake landscape opening from Koli to Lake Pielinen became a symbol of our national epic Kaleva's nature and Finnishness at the end of the 19th century.

One of the first artists to travel to Koli was Juhani Aho, who sought inspiration and an emotional landscape for his literary production here. Soon after Aho, other artists arrived in Koli in search of an authentic Finnish soulscape. Eero Järnefelt has painted 120 works of Koli landscapes. You saw some of his works yesterday at the Onni art museum. Jean Sibelius also traveled to Koli several times. He also took his honeymoon here and during the trip sought inspiration for his compositions from the Kalevala and Karelia, following the same route that Elias Lönnrot took when collecting poems for the Kalevala. After his honeymoon, Sibelius composed the Karelia series. Around the same time, painter Pekka Halonen, photographer I K Inha and architect Viktor Sucksdorff also travelled to Koli. And it didn’t and there. Last summer in the footsteps of Sibelius, cellist Jussi Makkonen came to Koli and organized a concert on the roof of the hotel together with pianist Nazig Azezig. 

Slash-and-burn agriculture 

After the lunch people from Eno Online came to tell us about Slash-and-burn agriculture. The quide walked with us down the northern part of Koli hills and showed us the places where we cold see the traces of slash-and-burn agriculture.

Some things we learned during the tour

Slash-and-burn agriculture in a method of growing grain in which forest is clear cut and all the remaining vegetation is burned. The resulting layer of ash provides the land with nutrient-rich layer to fertilize the crops. In Finland this method is called Kaski. 

The clear cut for slash-and-burn was cut to sunny slope and the dried clear cut land was burned on sunny day with light breeze. The wind helps the burning and moves the fire forward. Burned tree trunks are moved forward after the ground below has burned. Fire was prevented from escaping with piles of young spruces. People wished for rain to days following the burning so fire would go out naturally.

Slash-and-burn agriculture started in eastern Finland about 2000 years ago. It has been estimated that about 4 000 000 hectares of forest land has been affected by it. Eventhough the slash-and-burn agriculture stopped totally during the 1940's many signs of it can still be found in Finland's forests.

Koli national park was established in 1991. At that time the restoration of slash-and-burn agriculture and landscapes created by it was identified as one of the main tasks of the national park. The Finnish parliament designated this mission by law. Since 1994, small area of forest has been cut down and burned and cultivated according to the traditional methods every year.