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When it comes to restoring mires during winter months, the anticipation lasts until the snow melts. Even though all the actions are planned carefully, anything can happen.

In February, Mets盲hallitus Forestry restored 220 hectares of state-owned peatland in Posio as an action of LIFE Revives. During the work Specialist of Ecological management Markku Lehtel盲 was about to find out that not only very good planning skills are needed but also very good physical condition when it comes to getting through the thick snow to visit the restoring sites.

Right after the work had begun the temperature fell to 鈥�25 degrees which was far too much for the excavator. It broke down and caused a break to restoring practices. When the work continued there was still one more problem to overcome. Peat was exceptionally deeply frozen, so it was difficult to get non-frozen material for building the dams.

Luckily entrepreneurs using the excavators are highly skilled, so all the dams were built as planned and the water was led to drained mires by using natural water channels which were located based on old aerial photographs.

Two different types of dams were used. The ones containing just peat and the others made of combining peat and wood i.e. timber dams. Timber dams are very strong, but it takes much more time to build them. That鈥檚 why in this case timber dams were used only in main drains. Some ditches were also filled completely.

You may ask why on earth restore mires when it is freezing cold and there is snow all over the place? It is true that restoring is mainly done in summer but there are certain benefits in operating in winter. Some mires to be restored are so wet that it is impossible to get there when the soil is not frozen. These specific mires of ours were just like this. No one wants to drown an excavator to a bog hole even though sometimes it happens despite of good planning. In winter, mires are frozen and support an excavator. So actually, winter is a friend of ours even though sometimes unpredictable surprises can occur.

鈥淒espite all the resistance and difficulties, I am quite confident that the result will be good. Final truth reveals when the snow melts. Until then I can sleep my nights peacefully鈥�, said relieved Markku when the restoration work was accomplished.