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More than 5 000 Participants have Gone on LVM Forest Expeditions This Autumn

This September was full of adventures for many Latvian 6th graders, starting the new school year, as well as going on the annual LVM Forest Expeditions and getting to know the story of forest restoration. This time, 5 374 sixth-grade students and 423 teachers from 280 classes participated in forest awareness activities.

“The number of children who learn about the forest only from books or a computer screen is increasing, as a result of which nature can become abstract and alien to them. To prevent this, we organize expeditions for the sixth grades every year, so that the students also get practical experience in responsible forest management. We see that in the LVM Forest Expeditions children acquire not only new competences, but also gain positive emotions from meaningful learning in nature. Also, children can appreciate the forest as a perspective place for their career, thanks to the fact that the expeditions are led by more than 100 LVM employees representing various professions,” says Līga Abizāre, LVM Environmental Education Manager.  

According to the feedback from the schools, this year, in addition to the picnic by the bonfire and building a wooden bridge, the children were equally pleased with other practical activities. In total, the groups went through 10 educational forest stops, each one carrying out an educational task related to forest regeneration, from selection and soil science to wood products and climate issues.

The teachers themselves recognize the following benefits of the expeditions:

• Being together in the forest and having the opportunity to learn from the professionals what is current, as well as to see the equipment;
• The exciting journey to checkpoints. The tasks are not long or complex, so students do not lose focus;
• Opportunities to go with the class in nature and learn in the fresh air within the framework of natural sciences;
• Practical activities at forest expedition stops and new knowledge about forest and wood products. I had the opportunity to get to know the different professions that LVM employees work in;
• Organization, exciting tasks, forest expedition notebook, pleasant, patient and knowledgeable station managers.

In turn, students appreciated the following:

• Finding way around in the forest and building a bridge using only wood;
• Determining the height of trees;
• Walking through the forest and seeing the antlers of deer or elks;
• A task in which we had to cut 500 g of wood and fry sausages;
• The opportunity to work practically, not just listen;
• The fact that there were many beautiful young stands;
• Learning how to catch bark beetles.

LVM Forest Expeditions have been running for more than 6 years together with the State Education Content Centre and the Interdisciplinary Education Innovation Centre of the University of Latvia, the Latvian State Forest Research Institute “Silava” and JSC “Latvijas Finieris”. In September, intensive forest expeditions take place near Latvia's largest cities, while during the whole school year, 6th graders have the opportunity to visit two permanent landfills in the LVM Nature Park in Tērvete and in the LVM Kalsnava Arboretum, by coordinating their visit to the information centres of the mentioned facilities in advance.