After the ice age the Finnish landscape was mostly steppe which grazing mammoths and other large herbivores kept open. After they disappeared due to human activity, forests conquered the steppes but forest fires regularly created open areas in the woods.
Thousands of years of history has created a distinct flora and fauna on sunny sandy slopes. Today, there are few factors that keep these areas open, so the openness required by the species has to be created artificially. The adjacent slope was cut open for this reason.
Breaking the soil not only increases sun exposure but it is also important to the germination of plant seeds. In addition, many insects in sun-exposed environments need bare soil to be able to dig nest holes. Dead wood is important to many species, too, so snags have been made in the area.