The fascinating and diverse Hukanvuori conservation area is located in the Ristiina region of Mikkeli. It is made up of two forest estates that neighbour each other while existing in different villages, one bought and the other given as a generous gift by a woman named Marja-Liisa Särkkä. This new conservation area, which was born in August 2018, was thus granted an area of approximately 21 hectares.

The area is bounded in the east by the beautiful Ahvenlampi pond, to which the steep rock descends in a partly picturesque manner. This section of Hukanvuori, which originally was a forest belonging to the Kökkö estate, is made up of a pine-dominated heath that contains some wetlands as well. The pines are impressive with their shield barks.

The new conservation area continues in the west into the former Vuorenlisä lands more exuberant with its deciduous trees; it conceals former meadows, wild strawberry habitats, and a place that a very long time ago had a house built on it, the traces still being visible among the ferns. Vuorela remains west of this area along with the birth home of the Särkkä siblings’ mother. Vuorenlisä was originally an additional piece of land acquired for Vuorela.

The deal that we made allowed us to purchase five hectares of the former Vuorela pasture forest with 15 hectares of the Kökkö forest given as a donation. The lands inherited from the siblings’ parents are thus united by this protective measure, which honours in many ways the history of the families that have lived there in harmony with nature.