“Only in a real forest can you experience all the smells and feel the moss under your feet.”
“You have to see and feel the forest in person. Only in a real forest can you experience all the smells and feel the moss under your feet,” says Heikkinen. The centre was opened in 2019 in the grounds of Kirkniemi Manor, an old country house rich in tradition, which is now owned by Metsä Group. The name Nemus Futurum is Latin for forest of the future. On the tour, guests see how forest biodiversity is safeguarded in the various phases of forest management. They learn about retention trees, high biodiversity stumps, buffer zones, and so on. “Forest management is not generally used for grove forests, for- ested wetlands and the banks of forest brooks. They are important habitats for species such as the white-backed woodpecker, whose nesting numbers have recently begun to increase. Woodpeckers can also nest in commercial forests if they fulfil vital structural criteria,” says Heikkinen, who is a forester by training. Even though you might not see a woodpecker, its pecking can be heard from far away. At midsummer, you can often hear a cuckoo in the forest. With luck, visitors may encounter some of the European fallow deer living in the Kirkniemi forests. An important part of the tour is a visit to a lean-to shelter on a high hill. This rest area provides a view of a broad landscape, where trees of different ages and species form a green mosaic stretching towards the horizon. Transforming forest management The forest changes, and so does Nemus Futurum. The spruce bark beetle, an insect pest, was found to be damaging forests in Kirkniemi and an area previously used to demonstrate thin-
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