Today the municipality of Tohmajärvi in North Karelia has sold the former school of Tietäväinen to Snowchange. The first rewilding center of Finland has been thus established.
The Tietäväinen school is located on the Asematie in the municipality of Tohmajärvi, a famous Karelian location. It has 2000 m2 of space. The building was originally built in 1971 and underwent large renovations in 2004 and 2017. It has several classrooms, a 160 seat auditorium for conferences and concerts and a fully equipped kitchen.
The building will be repurposed to house several Snowchange key work processes:
- fish storage and fish processing
- conferences and workshops
- public exhibits about the rewilding programme and Snowchange work over the past 20 years
- equipment depot
- Indigenous and traditional knowledge oral history archives
The organizational HQ will be transferred to Tohmajärvi, which is appr. 50 km from Selkie. Snowchange continues to operate field bases in Lieksa, Selkie, Mönni, Ilomantsi and other locations in North Karelia.