Reader’s Opinion | Espoo runs through an outdoor passage that threatens the city’s oldest nature reserve

Espoo has outlined in its strategy and land use planning that biodiversity is an important value. The city has communicated that it is “nature-wise” and has drawn up a road map to nurture diversity.

To the same At the time, Espoo is going through a project on Lake Lippajärvi, where an outdoor trail that would severely undermine nature values ​​would be drawn through Espoo’s oldest nature reserve. A stone-ash three-meter-wide lighted outdoor path would cut through the shores of the lake and the wetland. Key parts of the area belong to Espoo’s oldest nature reserve, established in 1933.

The planned route would take significant parts along the coastal area that regularly floods. Alder-dominated floodplain forests are habitat types protected by the Nature Conservation Act. For such a lake, maintaining the water level at the current level is essential. Extensive land construction threatens the entire ecosystem.

The area is valuable for its birdlife on the scale of Espoo and there is a significant population of bats. The nature reserve has a spawning area for cape frogs, it is forbidden to weaken it. In the forest, there are observations of flying squirrels, their nests, suitable forest and hollow trees. The construction of the route, the felling of trees from the edges and the increase in recreational use would create a disturbance and weaken the living conditions of the species.

Uusimaa ely center decided in May to grant an exception permit to build a route in a nature reserve, even though according to a nature survey commissioned by Espoo itself (Keiron oy, 2023), the construction clearly threatens the natural values ​​of the area. Espoo’s environmental association, the local fishermen’s Myllykylä cooperative and the residents of the area appealed the decision to the administrative court.

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Espoo is pushing the project through with a vengeance, contrary to the environmental report.

The planned outdoor route is contrary to the valid site plan: there is no marking for it in the site plan on the east side, a narrower path is marked on the Länsirantna. Espoo has not made an outdoor route plan or outdoor route delivery as required by law. They are a prerequisite for evaluating whether the plan endangers the purpose of establishing the nature reserve.

According to Espoo’s own report, the planned route alignment is “geotechnically challenging”. The soil base requires extensive earthworks and embankment. Construction will be expensive due to the soft, flooded soil and partly steep slope. Espoo is carrying out the project coldly, contrary to the nature report and good governance, without following its own values.

Natural people coastal forests have enormous value for the preservation of species. Finland is involved in the EU’s restoration project, in which habitats that have already been lost are being restored. Lippajärvi is not lost. You can also move around in nature areas without a wide lighted path.

Jaana Arvo

chairman

The Leppävaara Coalition

Aili Pesonen

secretary, Viherlaaksolaiset ry

Marjaana Salminen

member, Tringa association

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