CrimeaPRESS reports:
On the territory of the Ladoga Skerries National Park, the work of the Protected Karelia project has been completed. The project took place from October 2 to 12 and its participants included 15 volunteers from various parts of Russia — Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Samara, Ivanovo, Simferopol, Yalta and other cities. The Republic of Crimea was represented at the project by the organizers: Ekaterina Petlyukova, Alexandra Nikiforova, Maxim Repetsky, participants — Kirill Melikhov, student of the Faculty of Geography, Geoecology and Tourism KFU. IN AND. Vernadsky — Maria Dudka.
The project team visited the Priozersky district of the Leningrad region and three districts of the Republic of Karelia (Lakhdenpokhsky, Sortavala and Pitkyaranta), got acquainted with their history, assessed the impact of man on nature, and also created media content for the Ladoga Skerries National Park and representatives of the tourism industry .
One of the main objectives of the project was to create the first bank of seasonal photographs and videos for the young Ladoga Skerries National Park. As part of the project, dialogues were held with representatives of a number of tourist complexes in the Northern Ladoga region. The project partners noted record seasonal indicators, shared their experience of working under peak load conditions, and spoke about plans for the development of their facilities. An equally important task of the project team was to test existing eco-routes and tourism products associated with the Ladoga skerries as a geographical area. One of the goals of the project is to gradually convey high-quality, verified, processed scientific information to tourists and local residents. A separate area of work for media volunteers included meetings with new employees of the national park, local residents, representatives of the tourism business, local historians and experts from the Russian Geographical Society. After processing and approval, a series of interviews and podcasts will be published online over the coming monthsnotes the scientific director of the project Anton Yushko.
The project started on October 2 in St. Petersburg. The ceremony took place in the historical building of the Headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society. An important outcome of the meeting at the Headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society was the initiation of the opening of the Youth Club of the Russian Geographical Society on its basis, as part of a meeting with the director of the Headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society in St. Petersburg, Roman Ryabintsev, as well as the proposal to create a project “Recommended by the Youth Club of the Russian Geographical Society.”
Later, a tour of the historical halls of the St. Petersburg Headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society was organized for project participants. With the support of the sponsor of the event, the unique excursion service “Tripster”, an excursion was also organized around one of the ancient districts of St. Petersburg — Kolomna.
The first stage of the project was the work of media volunteers in the Priozersky district of the Leningrad region, in the village of Berezovo. Here a meeting took place with the acting director of the Ladoga Skerries National Park, Elena Kutukova. She noted that the national park now does not need advertising, but it is necessary to structure everything that is on its vast territory. The fact is that on the land of the national park there are about 5 thousand plots owned by private individuals and organizations. And it is with them that the organization’s management needs to build cooperation in the near future.
For now, we have decided that we will go two ways: we will create a public council at the national park, which will include all interested citizens. We invite participants of the “Reserved Karelia” project to be the first to join it. And the second way is a club of friends. I believe that it should include the owners of all sites and organizations that work on its territory. In general, I assess the Ladoga Skerries National Park as a platform for the development of many projectssays the acting director of the Ladoga Skerries National Park, Elena Kutukova.
On the same day, the project participants visited the Streletsky Fortress, the Viking Village and the Border Outpost. These are private living history museums established in the spring of 2014. Here the children got acquainted with the historical heritage of Karelia.
Media volunteers crossed the administrative border of the Leningrad region and Karelia by water, visiting the first routes of the Ladoga Skerries National Park and seeing with their own eyes the autumn beauty of the amazing landscapes. Afterwards, the activists went on a water expedition along the Ladoga skerries, and also walked along a path to Mount Rullalahdenvuori. An analysis of the state of the eco-trail was carried out for the further development of proposals for the modernization of this section.
One of the goals of the media expedition was to prove that even in the off-season, the Northern Ladoga region is of serious interest to various categories of researchers and travelers. Young journalists, photographers, videographers, and experts not only walked along the routes, but also helped the national park staff at a series of working meetings and round tables formulate the main directions of scientific and creative research for the coming years. Difficult weather conditions significantly affected the plans of the participants. We had to adjust a number of routes and even abandon one of the four water excursions to the Ladoga Islands, replacing it with a serious walking journey through the difficult terrain of the mainland part of the national park. But at the same time, bad weather allowed photographers and videographers to record special states of nature at the border of elements and landscapesnotes the scientific director of the project Anton Yushko.
The second stage of the “Reserved Karelia” project was a visit to the village of Kurkiyoki (Lakhdenpokhsky district, Republic of Karelia). This is not only a place with a rich history, but also a unique economic cluster. The guys took an excursion to the production of a large holding in the field of aquaculture “Kala Ranta”, thanks to which the village lives and is actively developing.
Another point to visit is the private museum “Lars Sonck’s Estate”. A tour of it was given by the creator and owner of the museum, Lydia Ivanova. She enthusiastically spoke about the history, features and value of this place.
Lars Sonck is one of the largest Finnish architects of the late 19th — first half of the 20th century, and the house-museum “Lars Sonck’s Estate” is an architectural find. The estate was built in 1914 on Andersinenmäki hill, and today is the only surviving building of Lars Sonck in Russia. The preservation of historical memory is an important area, and it is here that one can see how carefully we preserve the historical and cultural heritage, — emphasizes Alexandra Nikiforova.
On the same day, the project participants visited the Kiryazh local history center, where they got acquainted with the exhibits and played traditional Karelian instruments — kantele and jouhikko. At the end of the excursion, there was a meeting with the director of the museum, Marina Petrova.
The stay in the village of Kurkiyoki ended for the participants of “Reserved Karelia” with a meeting with employees of the Ladoga Skerries National Park. According to the head of Department of Environmental Education, the organization is now taking its first steps, but does not stop at protecting nature.
This is not the first time I have participated in RGS projects. In Karelia, we have assembled the strongest media team I have ever been a part of. Working with such professionals is an invaluable experience! It’s interesting that everyone has their own view and approach. Some specialize more in video, some in creating clips, some in photos of people/landscapes, others produce bright texts. And everyone was happy to share their knowledge and help their colleagues in their work. And the official permission to fly for our small aircraft was a real gift! For which I thank the head Ekaterina and the national park. Our tasks were truly ambitious: creating content for “Ladoga Skerries” and tourist sites under the program, for our own projects and partners of “Reserve Karelia”. We produced the first result already during the project! There is a lot of joint work ahead,” shared project participant Maria Lazareva.
Next, media volunteers drove through the cities of Lakhdenpokhya and Sortavala and visited the bunker-museum “Owl Mountain”. The last thematic point of the route was the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on the island of Riekkalansaari (which is the Serdobolsky St. Nicholas Metochion of the Valaam Monastery). There, the project participants were met by the rector, Father Bartholomew. He spoke about the temple, its role in history and the difficulties he encountered in restoring the shrine.
As part of the project, a series of events took place with schoolchildren — with young travelers from the Lomonosov district of the Leningrad region on the basis of the Streletsky prison museum, and Alexandra Nikiforova and Maxim Repetsky went to the Kurkiyok school. Experts spoke about the activities of the Youth Clubs of the Russian Geographical Society, projects of FADM Rosmolodezh, prospects for the development of children’s and youth tourism.
Further, the work of the project continued in the Sortavala region. Here the team studied the model of interaction between the Ladoga Skerries National Park and the Kamennaya Karelia ethno-farm. The eco-trail “Pages of a Stone Book” was recently created at the ethno-farm – the participants filmed it, recorded a track and studied its features in the autumn. Rosvokallio in the vicinity of the neighboring picturesque Lake Ristijärvi, and also studied tectonic grottoes on its slopes.
At the end of a busy expedition day, at one of the viewing platforms of the new eco-trail “Pages of the Stone Book of Karelia”, a meeting of media volunteers with the ethnographic ensemble “Vereya” (leader Margarita Berezhnaya) took place. Members of the ensemble introduced the guests to traditional Karelian tunes, and also performed the legendary song by Alexander Kolker and Kim Ryzhov “I will dream of Karelia for a long time.” It is noteworthy that this song appeared 60 years ago here, on the shores of Kiryavalahti Bay, and over time it became the unofficial anthem of Karelia.
A separate day of the project program was dedicated to the Ruskeala Mountain Park, the most visited tourist attraction in the Republic of Karelia. On the way to the mountain park, the guys visited the Akhinkohski waterfalls. Project participants visited the unique caving route “Underground Ruskeala”. The underground journey continued in a picturesque marble grotto, created in 1896 and named by speleologists of the Russian Geographical Society after William Forström, the head of the Ruskeala Marble enterprise at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Then the guys went “to visit the Mountain King” through the Speleologists’ Tunnel. Here, media volunteers listened to a fascinating modern musical composition and a runic Karelian chant, performed by the already familiar Sortavala ethno-group “Vereya”. The next route points were: the new Historical and Cultural Center of the Ruskeala Mountain Park, the art project “Abode of Angels” and the new alley of marble sculptures. Volunteers visited the Italian Quarry and admired the views of Svetloe Lake. Thanks to the sponsorship of the Ruskeala Extreme Park project team, media volunteers had the opportunity to take pictures of the quarry by riding a zip line, one of the longest in Karelia, as well as filming from an innovative self-propelled eco-platform.
After visiting the Ruskeala Mountain Park, the team climbed the new eco-trail to Mount Paaso in order to admire how the Ruskeala Express retro train moves and conduct drone photography.
The last stage for the media volunteers of “Reserve Karelia” was work in the Pitkyaranta region. Over the course of several days of the program, the project participants went on three water excursions to the Ladoga skerries, where they were able to film the territories of the national park from the air and water, go on a new all-terrain vehicle “Ural” to the White Bridges waterfall, study the tourist complexes of the region, and ecological routes . Researchers paid special attention to the problems of interaction between the national park and local residents in the field of tourism.
An equally productive part of the program was cooperation with the local history club “Obereg” (city of Pitkyaranta). The best guides of the club conducted special excursions for project participants to the unique “Brick Courtyard” on Cape Ristiniemi and along the new military-patriotic route “Granite Trails of Line U”.
At the end of the wonderful project “Reserved Karelia”, I would like to note that despite the fact that the time that has passed since the official creation of the Ladoga Skerries National Park as a protected area has passed the five-year mark, the period of its formation can absolutely rightly be considered barely begun, because it was created in This year, the Federal State Budgetary Institution is just taking its first steps to manage the national park. It is very valuable in such an certainly interesting, but also difficult period to realize that in the modern world there is a special category of energetic and caring citizens who strive to provide selfless assistance in various areas of activity. We are happy to express our gratitude to the “Reserved Karelia” Project and the young people who took part in it for the work done, selfless initiatives and concern for the problems of establishing a national park, — says Svetlana Naumova, head of the environmental education department.
Following the results of the project, a final round table was held, at which the results of the work of the “Reserved Karelia” project were summed up. It was attended by the administration of the Ladoga Skerries National Park, participants and organizers of the Protected Karelia project, representative of the Directorate of Specially Protected Natural Areas of Regional Importance of the Republic of Karelia Elena Kuznetsova, and management of tourist complexes. According to the head of the “Reserved Karelia” project, Ekaterina Petlyukova, media volunteers did a great job and achieved all their goals.
We have come a long way in these 10 days. We implemented all the plans that we wanted to implement and even a little more. The main result of the project was the creation of a huge photo and video archive for the Ladoga National Park skerries”, a bank of tracks of ecological trails, materials on the territories we studied. After processing and systematizing the files, all this will be transferred to the National Park, as well as to the event partners. Each member of our team worked one hundred percent. I want to thank all project participants for their productive work. Your help and your contribution are invaluable. Without all of you, this story called “Reserved Karelia” would not have happened.— shared the head of the project “Reserved Karelia” Ekaterina Petlyukova.
During the final round table, participants also shared their impressions of the project and talked about the work done.
My first priority on the project was to create photos and videos for the Ladoga Skerries National Park. However, one of my personal goals was to exchange experiences with the participants of “Reserve Karelia”. I wanted to see how professionals from different media fields work. We have a very friendly, strong team: some have been working in the industry for a long time, others are just starting their journey. And this is a very good chance to learn something new, exchange experiences, make friends and keep in touch in the future, come to visit, stick together,” shared project participant Denis Orekhov.
In Crimea, we also have stunning nature, excellent eco-trails, and tourist sites. But it was in Karelia that I liked the stunning views, forest, completely different air and the Ladoga skerries, which form the basis of our expedition. You feel admiration when you sail somewhere on a boat, then land on an island, climb a mountain along an eco-trail to a relatively small height, but before you open up stunning sunsets and many islands stretching to the horizon, — Kirill Melikhov shared.
The project “Reserved Karelia” ended in St. Petersburg. On the way back, media volunteers visited the city of Sortavala, the Bastion historical park and the Winter Dacha complex.
The project team not only made its creative contribution to the history of the young national park, but also became a kind of driver for concluding the first comprehensive agreements of the national park with the Executive Directorate of the Russian Geographical Society, with the Karelian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with the Interregional public organization “Karelian Commonwealth”. These agreements are being prepared and will be signed by the parties in the near future.
In addition, during the implementation of the “Reserved Karelia” project, competitive applications were prepared for the upcoming grant competitions of the Presidential Grants Fund and Rosmolodezh with the implementation of projects in the Republic of Karelia.
Our project inspired me to expand another grant application from the youth expeditionary training school “Tourist of Crimea.” This project ends this year, but we want to scale it up to 2024 and increase its target audience. One of the points of this project will be an expedition of Crimean teachers outside the peninsula so that they can improve their skills in unusual conditions. At first we planned a trip to the Caucasus, but in Karelia I looked at local opportunities, resources, and educational experience. As a result, we prepared a project during which Crimean teachers will go on an expedition to the Ladoga skerriessays Maxim Repetsky.
Joint research and creative projects on Karelian soil will continue. Ahead are the processing and analysis of the collected materials, dissemination of the project results, editing of films about the project and the national park.
We thank the partners and sponsors of the project for their assistance in organizing. The general partner is the newly created FSBI National Park “Ladoga Skerries”. We would like to thank Terve Ranta LLC, Kolmas Karelia LLC, ROO Association Russian All-Terrain Society, ROO Kamennaya Karelia, White Bridges LLC, ROO KRTSOO, Local History Club «Obereg», Karelian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Commission for Eco-Efficient tourism of the Leningrad regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society, the military-historical complex “Mount Filina”, the service of unique excursions “Tripster”, the Historical Park “Bastion”, the Park Hotel “Dacha Wintera”, the tourist center “Drive Park Ladoga” for cooperation, the tourist complex “Akhinkoski Waterfalls” , tourist complex “Mount Paaso”, Art project “Abode of Angels”, project “Ruskeala Extreme Park”. The media partners of the project are the Sampo 360 TV channel and the Karelian Commonwealth.
The next stages of the project are ahead, which will take place until June 2024 in the Republic of Karelia and the Murmansk region. The project is supported by grants from FADM Rosmolodezh and Zapovednoe Delo RGS.
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