Urho-Kekkonen-Nationalpark
The Urho Kekkonen National Park is a national park in the north of Finland. It was founded in 1983 and is named after the longtime Finnish President Urho Kekkonen. The task managed by the Finnish Forest Service Metsähallitus national parks is to protect the landscape of Lapland and to preserve the traditional branches of industry in the region such as reindeer husbandry.
Location
The Urho Kekkonen National Park is located in the northern Finnish Lapland at the Russian border. It is located on the territory of the municipalities of Inari, Sodankylä and Savukoski. In Tankavaara and Savukoski are information centers in Saariselkä the park office. With its 2550 km ² (about as much as the size of Luxembourg ), he is after Lemmenjoki National Park is the second largest national park in Finland. The nature park Sompio borders west to the Urho Kekkonen National Park.
Nature
To the vast area of the National Park are both fells as well as broad wetland and forests. The northern part of the park consists of a Fjellgebiet. Here grow mainly birch, the higher elevations are deforested and are covered only by lichens. The highest Fjell in Urho Kekkonen National Park is the 718 m high Sokosti. Also the Korvatunturi, the Finnish popular belief the home of Santa Claus, is located in the area of the national park right on the Russian border. In the southwest there are wide Aapamoore, endless number of birds as a breeding ground. The south part of the National parks cover extensive pine and spruce forests, from which occasionally rise fells. In Saariselkä in the north of the National Park spruce reaches the northern limit of its range, north of which come only pines before.
Total breed in National Park 130 bird species, including Brambling, willow warblers, Meadow Pipit, Redwing, Common Redpolls and also rare species such as the golden eagle, the falcon and the peregrine falcon. In the forested areas of Siberian Jay, Lapland tits and woodpeckers occur. On the treeless fells live among other Golden Plover and Dotterel. The marshes provide species such as the sandpiper, the ruff and the snipe habitat.
In the Urho Kekkonen National Park 21 different mammal species occur, including all four large carnivore species in Finland ( brown bears, wolves, lynx and wolverines ), besides reindeer, moose, hares, foxes, shrews, moles, pine martens, stoats, weasels and otters. In the rivers of the national parks in addition to numerous live trout and the rare freshwater pearl mussel. The viper reached here the northern limit of distribution.
Visitor
The Urho Kekkonen National Park, with its vast wilderness areas opportunities for challenging multi-day hikes or ski tours. For less experienced hikers shorter marked trails from one to seven kilometers in length are reported in the western part of the National Park in Kiilopää, Tankavaara and Saariselkä.
History
Originally the territory of the National Park was inhabited by semi-nomadic seeds, hunting and fishing in the summer and operated gathered in the cold season in their winter villages. In the area of the national park, there were four such winter villages. Especially the Porcupine Caribou was hunted. For this purpose, the seeds used a pitfalls, whose remains are still sometimes be seen in the landscape. From the 16th century the culture of forest seeds began to die out. Under the influence of Finnish settlers and the Christianization of the seeds slowly assimilated to the Finnish farming culture. The Finns used to farm and cattle and used the wilderness areas, including the area now part of the National Park, as hunting grounds. Due to the intensive hunting the Porcupine Caribou mid-19th century was eradicated. The current Sami population of the area migrated only one end of the 19th century from northern Norway. They brought their halbdomestizierten reindeer with him and founded the reindeer husbandry in the area of today's national parks.