Just before Christmas 2012, the Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation acquired an area called Metsäpirtti, a forest of seven hectares in Nyrölä, Uurainen.

Over half of the area is made up of an almost hundred-year-old spruce forest growing in the middle of the backwoods. The environment is diversified by its wetlands: there are rivulets and brooks running close to a special swamp that forms an endangered nature type.

There is diversity in the tree stand, which includes junipers, for instance.

There are deciduous trees growing all over the area: aspens, quite grand ones actually, as well as rowans, alders, and birches that have turned into rotten logs still standing in the wild environment. There is also decayed wood appearing in the ancient trees that have fallen down. Metsäpirtti also includes a croft that is gradually reverting to forest.

Metsäpirtti is the 35th conservation area of the foundation and the second one in Central Finland.

Photo: Ari Aalto.