Vegetation around the river systems

The river Kitkajoki is part of a bigger river system of river Kovda (Koutajoen vesistö in Finnish). The waters of this river system drain eventually to the White Sea in Russia. The videos on this page are from along the Kitkajoki and the surrounding areas. The big waterfall/rapid is Jyrävä. This place is imprinted in my consciousness from a very early age. I am saddened that some day this place might be spoilt by uranium and all the rest shit coming from the mining project. This place is connected to me. It breathes to me and its sound is like singing to me.


From here the river continues down towards the Russian border where it connects with the Oulanka river. Later after the border the Kuusinki river connects to Oulanka. From there the waters flow to lake Paanajärvi that used to belong to the Kuusamo before the WW2. The early 20th century artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela visited Paanajärvi in 1892 and painted three paintings in there:Mäntykoski (1894),The Shepher Boy of Paanajärvi (1892) andThe Great Black Woodpecker(1893). An oil painting version of the latter was recently purchased by the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. From Paanajärvi the waters flow to lake Pyaozero (Pääjärvi) in Russia. Eventually the waters will reach the Kandalaksha Gulf of the White Sea.


Paanajärvi was known as the “Switzerland of Finland” as it had a microclimate that made it possible to grow wheat even so high up north. Similarly the ravines and the rivers of the Oulanka, Kitkajoki and Kuusinki create remarkable microclimates and conditions. Also the granite-gneiss bedrock is one of the oldest in the world. The area has also a lot of calcareous carbonate rocks that release high levels of lime to the soil which is not that typical to Finland. The lime in the soil mixed with other minerals and  microclimates give the area a very distinct type of vegetation. Plants from south, north, and east can survive here in areas where they are not normally found. There are several plant species that are a relics of different climate eras like the Tartarian Catchfly, Silene tatarica.


The numerous mining projects around Kuusamo and South Lapland are going to interfere with the distribution of the plant species in this area. Currently vast lands have been claimed by big mining companies. The lands are home to many plant species that are so rare that they are protected by Finnish laws. 


One of the species that is threatened by the mines is theCalypso orchidCalypso bulbosa that is also the emblem of the Oulanka national park. Calypso orchid has very particular needs for it to thrive: it needs to have a specific fungus species to form a symbiosis with, then the fungus and the plant need a big old spruce to live with. Then the plant and the fungus need just the right kind of lighting conditions, right levels of humidity, right mixture of nutritions in the soil and right amount of snow to cover it in the winter. All this is possible only in old growth forests in the area. 


The areas around the Oulanka national park is also home to an endemic plant species Erigeron acris ssp. Decoloratus (see video on the left). There are only a few endemic species in Finland and this is one of them. There are no other places in the world where this species exists but only in this part of Kuusamo.


There are also plants that currently aren’t endangered but could become endangered in Finland if all the mining projects are established. One of them is the Fringed Pink. The species is currently protected outside Northern Finland and is relatively common in the North. But if all mining projects in the north are to actualize the habitat of this plant shrinks so that it will become endangered.