Game and Fish Habitats

Together with its partners, Metsähallitus manages game and fish habitats in state-owned land and water areas. When you purchase hunting and fishing permits, you always invest in not only your personal wellbeing but also that of the environment; revenue from permits is used for restoring and managing game and fish habitats.

Spawning grounds and migration routes for fish

In fisheries management, Metsähallitus strives to preserve and revive natural fish populations. The aim of management measures is both to safeguard fish reproduction and to promote possibilities for sustainable fishing.

Every year, Metsähallitus and its partners invest hundreds of thousands of euros in managing fishing waters. Watercourses can be improved by removing obstacles from routes used by migratory fish, restoring gravel beds for spawning grounds, reverting the flow of water back to a dry course, and restocking watercourses to build up fish populations. Mires restored by Metsähallitus also promote water protection in river basins.

In addition to restoration projects, conditions associated with fishing permits are used to manage fish stocks, including catch quotas, minimum catch sizes and protection periods.

Habitats for game

Game species’ habitat requirements are addressed in many ways in Metsähallitus’ activities. Since 2007, Metsähallitus has restored around 5,000 hectares of mires in total. Mires provide key habitats for such species as the willow grouse, bean goose and forest reindeer. Spruce mires have also been restored, and wetlands with open water have been created.

The needs of game species are also accounted for in the management of multiple-use forests. The most essential principles are maintaining sufficient forest cover, for example by preserving game thickets and protecting capercaillie courtship sites.

In addition to hunting, careful adjustment of hunting pressure to fluctuations in game populations and supporting the culling of small predators are used to manage game stocks.

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