Nature area Evo in southern Finland: great for hiking and observing beavers

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 June 2022

Evo is located in southern Finland, about 20 km from the village Lammi and 50 km from Hämeenlinna. It is a beautiful natural area consisting mainly of coniferous forests, lakes, peat bogs and wet meadows. It is a great place for hiking. You can follow some of the marked trails and use one of the wooden shelters with a fireplace for camping in the heart of the Finnish wilderness.


Camping place by Majajärvi lake

 

Evo is proposed to get the status of a Science National Park, which would make it the world's first national park with this label. This is because the Evo area is very important in terms of science, research and study.




Forestry

In the second half of the 19th century, the first forestry institute in Finland was established in Evo. To this day, the forests in Evo are still used for forestry education. Speciality is fire management, which has been applied here since the 1950s. Controlled burning imitates a natural fire caused by a storm. There is not much of a natural fire in Finland as they are being effectively suppressed. Fire is an effective tool for the natural regeneration of the forest, especially for the pines. Pine seedlings emerge very quickly on burnt land, they require a lot of light and cannot compete with other plants. Moreover, many other organisms benefit from fire.



For example, on a previously burnt area we collected culinary valuable False Morel mushrooms (Gyromitra esculenta), which grow specifically on disturbed sandy soils.




Busy beavers

Beavers are very active in Evo, and their dams and lodges can be seen in many places. They are highly beneficial for biodiversity, as they create habitats that are also used by many other animal and plant species. The wetlands created by beavers are rich in aquatic invertebrates, and for that reason broods of the Common Teal and the Green sandpipers can often be observed there. Bats and small rodents, for example, also benefit from beaver doings. Not only newly created beaver ponds, but also old, abandoned beaver ponds are valuable. There is a lot of dead wood and succession is taking place in the vacated areas.


Beaver dam
 

Beaver lodge


Old abandoned beaver patch 


My beaver observations

Beavers are charismatic creatures and definitely worth to see. Evo is ideal for that. Evening hours are the best for observation, at least after six o'clock. But it takes patience and a little luck. I really wanted to see them, so we went to several places with beaver lodges. After visiting a number of sites, tiring waiting, and a lot of mosquito bites, we gave up. We got in the car and head to our accommodation. On one of the forest roads, my Petri pointed out to me in the distance that there is something sitting on the side of the road. I replied that it looks to me more like a piece of wood than an animal. However, when we got closer, it was a young beaver! It couldn't have been any closer. When it saw us, it moved to the ditch beside the road and swam away. It was a beautiful experience.




My second beaver sighting was also unexpected. We went around a site inhabited by beavers, but it was just before noon, not a good time for beaver watching. We were there to collect data. First, we heard from a distance something dive into water. When we got closer, we saw a beaver snout above the water surface. The beaver also noticed us and started swimming back and forth, giving warning splashes to the other beavers. I didn't even know beavers do that!



Butterfly swarm

Sometimes it´s just enough to look around and notice what's going on. I was enchanted by the bunch of butterflies flying over the Labrador tea and Vaccinium bushes. There are many different species of butterflies that live on peat bogs and that are more or less closely related to these plants, e.g. Olethreutes lediana, Eupithecia gelidata, Stigmella lediella, Arichanna melanaria, Vacciniina optilete, Colias palaeno.



Evo is a great place to visit when exploring Finland. Ideal for hiking, camping, photographing, and nature watching.

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