Keijo thinks that the conditions were good for reindeer herding when he started, because the family had enough animals. Despite this he doesn’t know if he can offer his children a chance to continue with the same livelihood. "I have no family, and I don’t know if I should get one, because first I have to see if I have to get another job. But I have already put so much effort to this thing..."

A few years ago Keijo completed an educational program for nature production and forestry in the Educational Center for Sámi area. There they studied for example meat processing and small business accounting for reindeer herding. Besides working full-time he has also been forced to work to defend the conditions for his livelihood. The loggings have made it so difficult for the herders to earn their bread that the young herder has ended up putting up signs together with people from Greenpeace.

"I am very proud that I am a reindeer herder, I want to be close to the nature. Being in contact with the nature a lot, moving around there peacefully, that's what I like myself." Another advantage of being a reindeer herder is that he can decide his working hours himself. "You decided yourself if you work for eight or 20 hours." The working hours are on the other hand decided also by the time of the year, the weather and other conditions. When he leaves to the forest in the morning he doesn't know what time he’s going to get back home.

In the summer there is some spare time before and after earmarking the calves, except of course for those who have to harvest hay. Also the Pirttijärvi family has a hayfield next to their yard. Just recently hay was needed to lure the wild yearling calves to the fence for earmarking. This can be done once the spring weather has got warmer, and the wild animals have to be fed for a couple of days so that they get used to people and can be marked. In addition to that there is a lot of maintenanace to be done in summer, fixing the fences and so on. Once the evenings get darker toward the autumn also the working days get longer. "You gather the reindeer to the fence, then number them, that takes easily 12-13 hours." In all, a working day can be easily 20 hours long. In winter the time is consumed by taking care of the grazing reindeer. This time in spring the work is even slower when the wet and heavy snow is stuck in the snow scooter.

Grazing forests are the food reserve for the reindeer in this co-operative. "We are not feeding the reindeer in winter, we don’t want to make reindeer herding into a form of farming. In south the forest is more like a place for the reindeer to hang out, here it is their only resource of food." Even tourism industry needs forests and reindeer herding. Tourism can even be advantageous for herding "They tend to sell tourism with reindeer. And tourists buy reindeer meat. Of course there are good and bad sides with tourism, but so far my impression about tourism has been only positive." Clear cut areas are not good for tourism, either: "tourists are shocked if they are taken to a clear cut area."

"Lumberjacks and reindeer herders are being forced to take sides, but it shouldn't be like this. Both livelihoods should exist, and the problem is about agreeing on the areas". Reindeer herding is being accused for the rising costs. People say that the herders have "cars and quadbikes", but Keijo thinks this critique is one-sided. "The lumberjacks have their chainsaws and they are taken to the forest by car, bigger enterpreneurs have forestry machines and they cost, too. In this day and age everything costs. One could ask why the lumberjacks are not sawing with a two-man handsaw like they used to, but we reindeer herders are not the kind of people to say such things, we are not that impassioned."

In connection to the forest dispute it is said that forestry and reindeer herding have been coexisting for hundreds of years. "This livelihood has changed within a hundred years. It is strange that they say that the forests were being logged already in the 18th century, I would really like to see those stumps and clearcuts... It really pissed me off the other day when I was driving around on the clear cut area and my snow scooter got broken when I drove into a stub, then I really got angry and thought that they should have taken the stubs with them. I started to think whether this really is the end of reindeer herding, I don’t know if I'm ever going to be able to pass on my knowledge of the livelihood to for example my own children. If it is not profitable any more then I don’t know if there is any point to scrape a living."

In the local press reindeer herders are claimed to be responsible for making the locals argue with each other by asking Greenpeace to the area. What happens if a young man goes to a local bar with a Greenpeace T-shirt on? "A couple of older men complained a little, someone threw an ice cube at me, but I got more positive response at least from the people in reindeer herding and tourist industry. "Even though there are drawbacks all the time Keijo doesn’t want to give up: "I believe that traditional reindeer herding is also a part of the future if we are only given a chance to continue with it," he says.

Interview by Eini, transalation by Satu