In Our Foremother's Arms

All photography ©by Stefano de Rosa. For more of his photography please visit his blog: http://ofpink.wordpress.com/ The music artist in this video is Ulla Pirttijärvi.

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Music

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• Universe
• stars
• moon
• galaxies
• astronomy
• Stefano de Rosa
• Ulla Pirttijärvi
• photography
• newhealing
• joik
• sapmi
• saami
• joiking
• Lappland
• Lapland
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[TheMatt1120]

I love the Sami people of our land. Their culture is very old and in perfect balance with our nature.

[alette1977]

I agree, our lands would look and be very different if the all the worlds native people had been allowed to teach us!

[lauoks]

@mmikkone The lynx problem is real. Like all felids lynxes have sharp but brittle teeth; they cannot eat frozen meat (that would break their teeth). In cold weather they must therefore make lots of kills to survive. Not their fault but it makes them a problem. At least in Sweden lynxes kill many more reindeer than all other predators taken together. Before research was done, wolves were often falsely blamed for these kills because their tracks were found around carrions.

[mmikkone]

@lauoks I agree with most of this. I live in countryside in northern Pohjanmaa and I see propaganda against wolves all the time. I'd be happy to have wolves as neighbours but there's a lot of poaching here too.

As for the lynx, ministry of agriculture and forest issued way more licences to kill them than was the recommendation of game and fishing research center, so I don't quite agree with you on that. There's scavengers to eat frozen reindeer bodies so they don't go to waste.

[lauoks]

@mmikkone A major problem is the hypocricy in south (both in Finland and in Sweden). It is difficult for herdsmen to approve big losses of their livestocks when many folks in southern Finland and southern Sweden do not accept any big predatros there; they make a big fuss about a few killed dogs and spread prpaganda about the dangers with wolves. Go to the homepage of Jägareförbundet and you see. Then there are objective problems like the lynx issue where we should listen the herdsmen.

[mmikkone]

@lauoks I would rather see the Sami people prosper but I'm afraid that they have put themselves in us-or-predators situation along with other reindeer owners, a battle which I think they are going to lose. This attitude is not for the modern world. All the reindeer owners would have to do they'd have to honor the Finnish laws. There are signs of people getting really fed up with poaching, e.g. Lapin Kansa's story about poaching. Google "salakaadot poromiesten tekemiä" to find short version.

[mmikkone]

@mmikkone Reindeer don't belong only to herders but also to predators. There's grudge against reindeer owners because the government pays them for the killed reindeer. Reindeer business is the one of the few businesses that don't have to carry business risk. There's also talk that the reindeer owners misuse the system: keskustelu.suomi24.fi/node/103­29093

[mmikkone]

@lauoks Finland has a very low density of wolfs and people. We could take an example from Spain: 0,0039 wolfs per km2 and 91 people per km2 whereas in Finland there's only 0,00044 wolfs/km2 (about one tenth of wolf density in Spain) and 18 people/km2 (one fourth of Spain's), so how can we not fit in the same country? Here's a story about that in Finnish: (copy link to browser) suomenkuvalehti.fi/blogit/tari­noita-tieteesta/ylimaara-susia

[lauoks]

@mmikkone Their names are Maano Aunapuu, works in Jämtland's provincial govt. and Michael Schneider, works in Naturvårdsverket. Also Lena Bondestad working in Norrbotten's provincial govt has worked in my project. I can give their contact data so that you can check your facts. Predators are a problem for reindeer herding, especially lynxes which cannot eat frozen meat and must thus kill lots of reindeer in winter. Wolves make herding tough, because reindeer disperse when they smell a wolf.

[lauoks]

@mmikkone I have lots of contacts with reindeer owners and have never heard such claims. They are made by folks in south. The problems in Sweden are similar but worse. The Sámi try to be reasonable but it is hard when folks in south spread lies about the dangers of having wolves there and cry about a few dogs killed by wolves, while the Sámi lose thousands of reindeer each year. Two guys who got their PhDs in my proejct are working on big predator managment in Swden so I know what I talk about.

[lauoks]

@mmikkone Howe many wolves are there in Texas? Just ask a Texan rancher how he would feel about having 145 wolves in the state (but sign life insurance first). Let's get serious. Big predators need of course protection but where? 60 % of Finland's territory lies outside the area of reindeer husbandry and the policy, supported by nature protection organizations, is that that's where big predators should in first hand be protected; except for species whose natural range is restricted to north.

[mmikkone]

@mmikkone Reindeer owners also scare people by talking how wolves kill people although there's not a single proved case in Finland of a human killed by a wolf in whole written history. At the same time dogs have killed more than 10 people in Finland since late 1990s. Still reindeer owners don't speak about killing dogs into extinction. Talk about hypocrisy!