FINLAND;
Area: 338,309km2
TOUR DESTINATIONS IN FINLAND;
- 1. PALLAS- OUNASTUNTURI NATIONAL PARK(FINLAND);
- Establishment: 1958. This is Finland’s largest National Park and is in a country at the edge of the great taiga, close to Arctic haunts. It comprises mountains, forests, tundra like heaths, lakes, and fens and has the characteristically melancholic atmosphere of the wild lapp expanse of the Great North.
- Geographical location: North western Finnish Lapland, above the Arctic circle.
- Size: 50,000ha
- Climate: Harsh
- Accessibility: Road connections, bus traffic.
GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY:
Rocks are of granite and gneiss. Moraine, sand, and peat are dominant soils with tarns, bogs, and gullies scattered over the area.
- Altitude: 300-820meters
FLORA: The virgin forests consist of spruce, pine, and birch. Spruce here reaches its northern limit.
MAMMALS: Reindeer, ermine, and voles are the chief mammals seen.
BIRDS: The birds of the area are bountiful; wood sandpiper, jack snipe, dotterel, yellow wagtail, waxwing, ring ouzel, blue throat, Siberian tit, Lapland bunting, rough-legged buzzard, long- tailed skua, willow grouse, ptarmigan: many others of the high boreal zone.
- 2. OULANKA NATIONAL PARK ( FINLAND );
- Establishment: 1956. This is a protected area, just south of the Arctic Circle, of rivers, canyons, precipitous cliff walls, and forests. It is totally protected and contains the biological research station of the University of Oulu.
- Geographical location: Salla and Kuusamo districts, eastern Finland, close to Rssian border.
- Size: 10,700ha
- Climate: Continental; summers rather mild but short, winters cold with deep snow.
- Accessibility: By road; trails for tourists.
GEOLOGY: Diver sifled bedrock; quartzite, metabasite, dolomites, mostly covered by glacial moraine.
TOPOGRAPHY: The oulunka River (Oulanka joki) and its tributaries have numerous rapids and quietly flowing stretches passing through sandy banks, deep ravines, moist meadows, and shores of coniferous and mixed forests. The Oulanka River empties into the White Sea.
FLORA: Forests consist of spruce, pine, and birch. In the coniferous forest zone, the flora has a glacial relic some rare alpine elements (Dry as octopetala, Salix reticulata).
MAMMALS: Reindeer is common. Bear and Moose can be found roaming in the forests.
BIRDS: Black grouse, capercaillie, hawk owl, Teng malm’s owl, black woodpecker, brambling, pine grosbeak, waxwing, Siberian tit, willow warbler, song thrush, and golden eagle. Wood sandpipers are found everywhere in the fens, but common sandpipers prefer the lake shores. Reed buntings sing in the willows. Cranes and the whooper swan nest in the fens.
- 3. LEMMENJOKI NATIONAL PARK ( FINLAND );
- Establishment: 1956. This is Finland’s second largest National Park- an untouched wilderness area of lower fields, vast forests, peatlands (aapa fens), and rivers. This National Park is centred around the course of the River lemmenjoki (Joki means “river”).
- Geographical location: Inari district, northern Finnish Lapland, above the Arctic circle.
- Size: 133,500ha
- Climate: chiefly continental, summers mild but short, winters cold and long; lakes covered by ice 7-8 months.
- Accessibility: Last stretch by motor boat; no roads;
GEOLOGY: Finland’s bedrock, chiefly granite and gneiss, is old, belonging to the pre-cambrian formation, but ice Age glaciations give the area a geologically younger relief of moraine and glacial river deposits of sand, gravel, boulders.
TOPOGRAPHY: Streams from the fields cascade down deep ravines and canyons to form waterfalls (the Ravadasjoki is particularly beautiful) and feed the River Lemmenjoki, which cuts through a narrow mt. gorge to broaden out, in lower country, into a group of lakes. There are a variety of habitats; field heaths, birch woods, sandy stretches and lake shores with pine forests, willow scrubs, and wet sedge meadows, shores covered with spruce, bogs and marshes with willows. Highest field peaks rise to 533-573 in above sea level.
MAMMALS: The most common are the various species of voles, but Mammals are not easy to observe in this terrain. Reindeer herded by lapps are common. There is some chance of observing moose or encountering carnivores like wolverine, brown bear, and wolf.
BIRDS: The bird life of this area represents species of the alpine heath and coniferous forests; hawk owl, redpoll, crossbills, wax wing, pine grosbeak, Siberian jay, meadow pipit, snow bunting, brambling, bluethroat, whimbrel, willow grouse and ptarmigan. On the fens these species may be encountered; wood sandpiper, greens shank, spotted redshank, broad- billed sandpiper and others.