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Ecological Diversity and Landscape are Planned as Part of Logging Works

JSC “Latvia's State Forests” (LVM) implements sustainable forest management in the entrusted state property: regenerates forests with high-quality seedlings, performs regular forest maintenance, ensures forest accessibility and, when planning felling works, takes care of ecological diversity and landscape, preserving ecological trees.

“Thanks to the purposeful planning of felling areas, the chosen size and location, it is possible to reveal and highlight the most characteristic and significant elements of the landscape, especially in hilly areas. Landscape is a common formation of nature and man, the result of the long-term interaction of these two forces,” says Gatis Ansons, LVM Vidusdaugava Region Planning Manager.

In situations when upon planning a felling area, it is necessary to cover a wide landscape, it is important to select and plan the groups of ecological trees to be preserved in the felling area. Ecological trees (living trees, older, larger trees) are left untouched in clearings in order to ensure the presence of biologically old trees in the forest, thus creating a habitat for those forest dwellers who have adapted to living in old trees. Ecological trees are left in clearings both one by one and in groups of ecological trees, which become an integral part of the landscape.

There are several benefits to maintaining ecological trees in groups:

Laws and regulations stipulate that at least five ecological trees per hectare of felling area must be preserved in the forest. At least ten ecological trees per hectare of felling area are preserved in the forests managed by LVM. Neither the preserved ecological trees nor their groups in Latvia are included in the areas of any kind of protected areas.