Snowchange
17/09/2024
A new Koitajoki documentary film released
An American production company PrettyGoodProductions and Snowchange have finished a new documentary film about Koitajoki after three years of work. It is free to watch online.
Seining for a Song is a documentary by the American film director Thomas Miller, which deals with the history, culture and nature of Koitajoki in Eastern Finland.
The focus of the film is the country’s only river seining tradition, which renews the spawning areas of the endangered whitefish population. At the same time, the culture of the villages has changed and the restoration and rewilding efforts are under way.
The film is part of the cooperative’s extensive restoration activities in Koitajoki.
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Snowchange
13/09/2024
4th Festival of Northern Fishing Traditions Success
As the late-summer sun sets in the doorway of a hundred-year-old barn on the shores of Lake Mekrijärvi, Eastern Finland, Sutej Hugu sings about catching flying fish in the waters of his home island – Pongso no Tao – which lies in the Philippine Sea some 8,000km to the south east.
Listening to Hugu in a rapt semi-circle are fishing people from across the world: voyagers of star and sea from Taumako in the Solomon Islands; Inuit hunter-fishers from the Greenland ice shelf; glacial dip-netters from Alaska; Saamí from the Arctic Circle, and Finnish fishers from waters salty and fresh, east and west.
This unlikely and truly global community has gathered for the Festival of Northern Fishing Traditions – a unique fisher-to-fisher exchange which offers a space for Indigenous and small-scale fisherpeople to meet in-person, share knowledge and re-charge the stores of care and confidence needed to face up to challenges from climate change to the devastating impacts of industrial fishing.
A StoryMap summarizes the Festival results.
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Snowchange
21/08/2024
4th Festival of Northern Fishing Traditions in September
Snowchange is proud to announce in collaboration with the Endangered Landscapes and Seascapes Programme and other supporters the fourth Festival of Northern Fishing Traditions to be held in North Karelia, Finland from 4th September to 8th September, 2024.
The Festival, fourth of its kind, will collect fishers and associated organizations and focus on restoration of aquatic ecosystems, preservation of artisanal fisheries and renewal of fishing traditions. The Festival was originally conceptualized by fisher Olli Klemola, one of the founders of Snowchange to be a meeting place and direct exchange of artisanal and traditional fishers. This year as the Festival returns to Finland we wish to expand and inform all about the link between small-scale fishers, ecosystem restoration and rewilding and renewal and importance of artisanal fishers, especially female professionals.
Summary of the programme is below.
The programme will contain several workshops, panels, pop up events and lectures on the questions of artisanal and traditional fisheries, ecosystem restoration, traditional knowledge and field visits! Please check back in early August for travel and other precise information on the day to day specifics!
4th September delegates will arrive in North Karelia.
5th September will be an international ‘Fisher’s Market and Exchange’ in Tohmajärvi, Snowchange HQ including workshops and information booths on all international fishers, Snowchange fisheries and restoration using latest science and traditional knowledge especially from Koitajoki, a wide-ranging restoration landscape supported by the Endangered Landscapes and Seascapes Programme. The day will contain several events relevant to restoration, fisheries and waters.
6th September will be a day of field visits to see the unique river seining in the Koitajoki basin. Additionally the premiere of the Koitajoki Documentary and a public panel will take place in the evening. The documentary captures two years of work supported by Endangered Landscapes and Seascapes Programme in Koitajoki basin and is directed by Koitajoki artist in residency Thomas Miller (USA).
7th September will include visits to restoration sites in the area that support fish, water quality and have included the work of fishers. In the afternoon and evening we will proceed with Cultural Programme including a performance of Jukka Takalo and Heli-Maria Latola, Koitajoki artists in residency, international cultural programme and other events.
8th September the international delegates will return home.
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Snowchange
01/08/2024
Suomunjoki River Restored
Suomunjoki, a nine-kilometre river in the Koitajoki watershed, has undergone a significant restoration project led by the Snowchange Cooperative. Meandering through the old growth forests of Patvinsuo National Park, Suomunjoki has long been considered a diamond of the Koitere Lake Basin because of its natural beauty.
Dams constructed in the early twentieth century have altered the natural flow of the river and blocked the migration of several fish species. This is the first time that a civil society organisation has undertaken a restoration project on public lands in Finland, marking a significant milestone for the country.
Based on oral histories, place names and archaeological data, the very first inhabitants of Suomujoki were the Indigenous Sámi peoples. By the 1500s the Karelians and Eastern Finnish wilderness communities used the lake as a seasonal fishery and hunting area. While this 9-kilometer-long river has remained relatively intact, in the latter part of 1900s a dam was constructed to enable timber to float downstream to Lake Koitere from Lake Suomu, preventing fish such as common dace, grayling and brown trout from migrating to their spawning grounds.
After lengthy discussions between Parks & Wildlife Finland and Snowchange Cooperative – the organisation implementing the Koitajoki project in Eastern Finland – an agreement was signed in Autumn 2023 to enable a civil society organisation to restore public lands inside a national park. “This is a first for Finland” says Tero Mustonen, President and Founder of Snowchange Cooperative. “The dam at Suomunjoki had been a target of several priority lists in the region to be addressed, but no action had been taken before.”
In Autumn 2023, a small brown trout population was also discovered in the river. “Brown trout in the Koitajoki basin are extremely endangered,” says Mustonen. “It is important that we restore and protect the habitats for these fish, and in particular remove blockages which prevent their migration to their spawning grounds.”
Restoration work on the river began in December 2023, with 14 square meters of rocks installed to “bury” the wall of the timber floating dam to enable connectivity. Later in the year hydrological restoration of the stream downstream from the dam was carried out. “We reinstalled all of the large boulders and rocks in the stream, and also added gravel to rebuild the salmonid spawning beds,” Mustonen explains. This work helped to restore approximately 12 spawning areas, and additional work was carried out to provide habitat for juvenile fish in side streams.
The restoration work was completed in July with support from the River Guardians of Koitajoki. This included creating habitats for fish and insects and adding deadwood for ecological productivity. “Working together with local helpers and operators the former dam environment was brought to its final form – the first ever such operation in Finland in a national park by an NGO,” says Mustonen.
For the first time in 50 years, the surviving grayling and trout populations have access upstream and downstream in the Suomunjoki, with common dace, crayfish and other species also benefitting from the restoration work. “Before the 1950s, the Koitajoki region was famous for its trout, land-locked Atlantic Salmon and grayling populations,” says Mustonen. “Rapid build-up of hydropower cut the migratory pathways of many of these salmonids. In the subsequent years when the Finnish wilderness areas were utilised for a large-scale forestry activity the hydrological and aquatic habitats suffered further.”
Timber floating cleared rapids and spawning areas, altered hydrological conditions and peatlands were replaced with tree plantations. Lake Koitere has also been heavily regulated by the Pamilo hydropower plant. “This eliminated the natural hydrological cycle of the lake,” Mustonen explains. “From the 1990s, the lake where the Suomunjoki trout could go to feed was stocked with large amounts of pikeperch, increasing predation on the lake. Thus, the small population of trout that has survived in Suomunjoki is exceptionally important for genetic and ecological preservation.”
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Snowchange
23/07/2024
Ryökkylä Cultural Landscapes Being Restored
Ryökkylä, a traditional rune singing village is a target of efforts of restoration of rural traditional biotopes.
Iivananaho site is 8,81 hectares of traditional Karelian village pastures, biotopes and boreal forests situated in the biodiverse village of Ryökkylä. The site is connected with Korvinsuo-Parilamminsuo (FI0700022) Nature 2000 site, totalling 661 hectares. Iivananaho is an example of a traditional cultural and natural area in Koitajoki and therefore of high value.
ivananaho is a significant example of traditional Karelian life in the lake Megrijärvi area. It consists of field and boreal forest ecosystems, sites of traditional architecture and cultural heritage.
The site is located at the heart of the village of Ryökkylä. On the site there are examples of traditional Koitajoki houses and rural life. In Summer 2024 the traditional pastures of Iivananaho were restored and the process of maintaining iconic traditional biotopes of the site proceeds.
Snowchange
19/07/2024
Koitere Theatre Has Still Three Showings
Koitere Theatre (in Finnish) has three shows remaining, please see below
The play, based on the River Guardian and other materials, recounts the changes on Koitere since 1954 onwards.
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Snowchange
15/07/2024
Koitajoki Restoration With ELSP Receives Tremendous Boost, Expands the Work
Snowchange initiated the Koitajoki Restoration Project titled "Land of Epic Poetry" in 2022 with the Endangered Landscapes and Seascapes Program. In April 2024 together with ELSP and other partners the project expands to 2027, and includes thousands of new hectares of restoration.
Land of Epic Poetry had completed approximately. 890 hectares of peatland restoration by December 2023. Following an invitation from the ELSP for further talks late in the year, in April 2024 a sweeping expansion to the Koitajoki restoration was agreed to. This will enable up to 2500 hectares of peatlands to be restored up to 2027, several rivers and water bodies to be subject of restoration and also expand the cultural and traditional activities in Koitajoki area.
The new sites include nationally important Valkeasuo at 456 hectares, enabling trout passages and habitat to the Suomujoki river inside the Patvinsuo National Park, Festival of Northern Fishing Traditions in September 2024 and Artist Residencies in Koitajoki over the next years.
Koitajoki.org will be a central portal where all restoration and major sites can be accessed in English and Finnish and it will be rigorously updated now that the project sites are expanding.
Check back in September for summer re-cap and news from the Festival - see link for the Festival info.
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Snowchange
09/01/2023
River Guardian Program Kicks Off
The River Guardian Program of Koitajoki is a pioneering initiative that engages local people and their knowledge in the restoration and monitoring work across the Koitajoki basin.
In November 2022, Snowchange launched a call for an entirely new concept in the Koitajoki area - the River Guardian Program. River Guardians are local people who care for their local environment and wish to be involved in the rewilding work by monitoring the conditions and changes in nature in their own areas across the Koitajoki basin.
The program is first of its kind in Finland. There are, however, successful examples from across the world. The efforts of River Guardians have remarkable potential in producing more detailed, holistic and in-depth knowledge about the Koitajoki river and improving its state.
15 newly selected River Guardians held their first meeting on January 8th in the village of Kivilahti in Ilomantsi. The guardians will start their monitoring work this month across the Koitajoki basin. The pilot-phase of the programme will last until the end of 2023.
Snowchange
16/12/2022
The Guardian Highlights Koitajoki Rewilding
The Guardian wrote about the Endangered Landscapes Programme (ELP) of which the rewilding project of the Koitajoki basin is part.
"In Finland, a $1.5m award will fund attempts to save from extinction a unique, land-locked population of Atlantic salmon by revitalising the fish’s spawning grounds and improving river water quality by restoring 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of carbon-sequestering boreal peatlands.
There are just 30 to 50 mother salmon returning to spawn each year in the Koitajoki watershed. Two hydroelectric dams block the migration routes of the landlocked salmon, which are a population that naturally never journey into the sea but migrate to lakes within Finland. The fish survive only because conservationists physically move them over land to assist their migration.
“It’s a knife-edge moment,” said Tero Mustonen of the Koitajoki watershed project. “This $1.5m project will do massively important work to support the last remaining spawning habitat and juvenile fish habitat that exists and also improve water quality. It is addressing, finally, degradation across Koitajoki in scale. I have a vision of uniquely landlocked Atlantic salmon and precious whitefish swimming in restored rivers and streams. Above this, golden eagle and bar-tailed godwits fly as they once did, perhaps smiling to themselves, seeing their homes saved, restored – in short, alive again.”
Read the full article here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/15/landscape-restoration-projects-across-europe-boosted-by-26m-awards
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This website is maintained by Snowchange Cooperative, an independent non-profit that was started in late 2000 to document climate and environmental change in the North and work with local and Indigenous communities of the Northern regions. The Landscape Rewilding Programme of Snowchange advances community-based and -controlled efforts to fight climate change, enhance biodiversity and protect waterways.
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