Impressions of „the 14th international environmental camp school of Meri-Pori Upper Secondary”. 24.05–1.06.2007 r. Our Finnish adventure began in Helsinki – we visited the capital city of the country, and also Suomenlinna – an 18th-century fortress, one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites. From there, we made a trip to Turku, which used to be the capital of Finland between the 8th and 10th centuries, whose origins date back to the bronze age, and which is now a famous university city and cultural capital. We also had a unique chance to see nature reserves in the neighbourhood of Salo and admire the process of introducing the rainbow trout in a lake in Pernio, at the very heart of the reserve. We were given an opportunity to walk along a didactic path dedicated to tales of wood elves and to explore remains of bronze and iron age settlements.
Two Polish schools participating in the sulphur-content-in-pine-needles-research (Pine Needle Project) were invited to an international ecological camp in Pori. Thirteen people, including two teachers, from Nowodworski Secondary School in Cracow and Konopnicka Secondary School in Katowice could visit a nuclear power station in Olkiluoto, wind power station in Kirrinsanta and coal power station in Tahkoluoto. Titanium oxide factory "Kemira" was a place where we saw what happens to pine needles which we send every year in January to be tested for sulphur content. We were able to learn how an electron microscope works and we also saw the condition of our pine needles cuticle.
For field work we were divided into three international teams. We were doing the chemical analysis of the Kokemäenioki River, Bay of Bothnia and Lake Enäjärvi waters, watching 50 species of birds nesting and wading on the nearby wetlands and marshes and alson using bioindicators (tree lichens, mainly Hypogymnia physodes) to determine air quality.
An interesting event for all of us proved to be ringing, measuring and weighing young owls. We were all delighted by a long trek across vast areas of protected Isosuo turf marshes in Pomarkku, especially by an opportunity to marvel at colourful peat moss, dwarf birch (no bigger than a blueberry bush), blooming cloudberry, bog blueberry, wild rosemary, cotton-grass, sundew, nesting osprey, charming marshlands reaching the horizon and omnipresent silence, bearing a gentle scent of turf.
An additional ecology and history lesson was waiting for us in Arkki, where we heard a series of lectures and watched ecosystems exhibitions in the Nature Museum, in a 16th century village of Reposaari and in bunkers and trenches hidden in Yyteri forests ever since the times of World War II.
A military proving ground in Säkylänharju saw us uprooting poplars, pines, birches and trembling poplars to prepare a feeding and breeding ground for larvae of a small, blue butterfly called Pseudophilotes vicrama, chequered blue, which is a protected species in Finland and which can only be found in Säkylänharju.
In the evenings, tired after the exhausting activities, we got involved in making bonfires, singing and dancing, going to the sauna and walking along sandy beaches of Yyteri, which helped us forget how tiring it all had been. White nights and almost unnoticeable sunrises and sunsets were other phenomena which surprised us about Finland.
We would like to thank Simo and Veiko and Meri-porin lukio teachers for making the camp such an unforgettable experience for us all.
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