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The Spring Season of Reforestation has Come to an End

Every spring, JSC “Latvia's State Forests” carries out forest restoration works. The total volumes of forest planting works are increasing every year. In 2016, about 21 million high-quality forest tree seedlings were planted, restoring an area of more than 8 thousand ha, whereas in 2023, LVM will plant more than 28 million forest tree seedlings, restoring an area of about 13 thousand ha. The prolonged drought period was the biggest challenge in the 2023 spring forest restoration season.

In 2023, LVM started forest restoration works with mechanized forest sowing, sowing 651 ha and a little later continued with forest tree seedlings grown in tree nurseries, where the basic work tools are used: for container seedlings – planting barrels or planting heads, for planting with a machine, for bare roots – shovels and planting spears. In April and May, 95 % of the planting and sowing work planned for the spring of 2023 were completed – 12.6 thousand hectares.

“This year, spring came later as compared to previous years. During this time, we continued to tend the young stands. As the air temperature rose, we received a reforestation task from LVM, and forest tree seedlings were available – we started an active reforestation season. Although we started the works later than planned, this did not prevent us from completing the works within the deadlines set by LVM,” says Jānis Šteinbergs, an entrepreneur and forester.

“Mechanized forest planting is a type of work in which the young forest tree seedling is planted at the same time as the soil is prepared. Mechanized forest planting can be done all year round, except for the winter period, when the air temperature is below 0˚C and the soil is frozen, as well as in the hottest summer month – July. When the air temperature is below 0˚C, as the seedling slides through the planter, it may freeze and not reach the prepared planting site, whereas in the hottest month of summer, the desired regeneration results are at risk: the young tree may lack moisture, and there is a greater risk of damaging the current year's growth, which has not yet hardened and is fragile,” says LVM Forestry Expert Juris Katrevičs.

In 2023, LVM received services from eight entrepreneurs who work with 10 units of machinery to restore the forest by mechanized planting. In general, it is planned to restore 1261 ha of forest by mechanized planting.