Finland’s Mires Are Unique
Finland is a land of mires. One-third of Finland was originally covered by them. Now almost half of our mires have been drained. They have been cleared into fields and peat has been taken from these areas. For the most part mires have been drained so that the land can be used for forestry.
Finland’s mire nature is diverse. There are open bogs, pine bogs with twisted pines, spruce bogs with sturdy, strong trees and in Northern Finland birch fens. Vast and continuous mire areas can be divided into aapa and raised bogs according to their structure.
In the southern part of the country rain waters and the nutrients that flow with them nourish spaghnum moss covered raised bogs. The centres of raised bogs are higher up than their edges.
Aapa bogs are located mainly in central and northern Finland. The centres of aapa bogs are usually lower than their edges. For this reason both surface and ground waters flow through them. This in turn ensures that their vegetation is rich and diverse. These vast aapa bogs are the most unique part of Finnish nature. Together with the mires of northern Sweden, the Kola Peninsula and the Republic of Karelia the Finnish aapa bogs form Northern Europe’s unique Aapa Mire Zone.