One of my favorite, silly Monty Python songs begins with "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK", and then quickly jumps into the absurd – something, as many CR4 readers know, Monty Python is famous for. Another, continuing the forest-related theme, is their Finland Has It All song – click here to listen and to view a nice YouTube tribute from member ruikka89's slide show. A note of caution to parents – slide show includes profanity on one of the YouTube slides.
With the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change happening this week, both the themes of responsible timber harvesting and Finland, the country in Scandinavia sandwiched between Russia and Sweden, have been occupying my thoughts.
One summer in 1986 – just after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and while taking time off from school - I saved-up some money, borrowing some from Dad, bought a Eurail pass, and traveled to Finland (Suomi in Finnish).
I stayed with a friend on a small family farm near the city of Kouvola. While there, to earn my keep, I went out early November mornings, during the brief Scandinavian days, with a 50+ year-old Finn who spoke no English, deep into a lush, snow and tree-filled dense forest, and harvested small trees with simple tools designed for small tree cutting. An amateur lumberjack I was for a few short weeks, just like in Monty Python's song!
Along with chickens, pigs, and standard vegetable crops, trees were an important cash crop I remember also harvested on the scenic countryside farm that was surrounded by forests. I very happily lived, worked and played-some on this small farm, as well as in nearby lakes and small cities, all in the south-western Finnish region, for about two months.
The farm was located in Valkeala, a tree-filled former municipality in the south-west of Finland, in a region bordering South Karelia. The Karelia Suite, a famous piece of classical music often played on my local classical radio station WMHT (located in Troy, New York - near our GlobalSpec headquarters building), was written by national hero Jean Sibelius, and was partly inspired by the beauty of this lake-filled region I had the opportunity to enjoy.
Finland is on my mind this week because of the Copenhagen Summit, and because of its world-leading reputation on sustainable forestry. This engineer, who spent part of my engineering education at the north side of New York's Adirondack Mountain region, still remembers that reputation from my trip in the eighties.
Among other important customers for Finland's timber products, The New York Times newspaper was in 1986 – and likely still is - one of Finland's most important global customers for their timber  products.
Forestry continues to be a major part of their economy, and currently accounts for 13.1% of Finland's gross domestic product (GDP), with heavy subsidies to tree farmers in rural parts of Finland.
Finland has more forests relative to its area than any other country in Europe: 75% - 23 million hectares - of Finland's land mass is covered by forests. There are four native coniferous species. The most important economically for Finland are Scotch Pine, Norway Spruce, and Silver and Downy Birch. Coniferous trees Juniper and Yew also exist in Finland. There are also twenty species of deciduous trees.
 Strict laws govern harvesting and re-plenishment of timber-producing forests, but with good result. According to the report The State of Forestry in Finland 2000, 25% (5.4 million hectares) of the forests in Finland exist today as a direct result of re-forestation with direct seeding or planting. An inspiring statistic and a number that provides hope to those working now to reduce CO2 through forestry efforts!
- Larry Kelley
RESOURCES:
Images –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Finland.svg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Keskuspuisto.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:COP15_Logo.svg
Datasources –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelia_Suite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valkeala
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_forest_management
The State of Forestry in Finland 2000…
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