Model Wetlands

Model Wetlands
Find information about wetlands restored in Return of Rural Wetlands LIFE+.
View wetland presentations:
Note: in Salo, two sites are located close to each other, Lake Vähäjärvi and the Saarenjärvi beach wetland.
Model SOTKA wetlands
In this section selected SOTKA wetlands will be presented once restorations has taken place and wetlands are full of water and waterbird broods.
Summer of 2023 will be the first year for many revived wetlands, such as Vitmossen, Leväjänkkä and Viikskangas. These sites had concrete action during 2022 with the support of the Finnish Game Foundation and Italian hunting federation in cooperation with the Waterfowlers Network. Waterbirds are a shared resource and long-term conservation is most successful at Flyway level incorporating coordinated actions on sustainability of hunting and conserving and restoring key habitats.
Vitmossen – landowner developing 5-hectare wetland from wet farmland




Leväjänkkä – old peatmine turned 50-hectare bird paradise
Almost 1,5-kilometre dam construction started during 2021. Dams were build to hold water at three different levels to optimize the surface area of shallow brood habitats on this wetland.


Viikskangas – drained 9-hectared aapa-mire brought back to life almost at Arctic Cirle

Finland has the black belt on peatland drainage for forestry purposes. There is enough ditches on peatlands to stretch four times the distance from Earth to Moon! Many open mires that used to hold water through the summer and provide brood habitat for wetland birds suffer from the drainage. Many of these habitats can be brought back to life by plugging ditches, directing drainage waters back to the mires and by damming where necessary.
The aapa mires usually have extremely soft soils where machinery work is often possible only when the soil is frozen. Dam building took place in the heart of the arctic winter. The daylight is not very bright at 12 noon on 21st of December at Viikskangas. Six months later there is just as dark at midnight, so plenty of sunlight for ducklings to enjoy the summer!
The summer of 2023 will show how waterbirds react to the revived Aapa mire.

