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This Year's Forest Planting Season Has Come to an End

At the end of this year's reforestation season, the State forests managed by JSC “Latvia's State Forests” (LVM) have been restored in an area of more than 17.8 thousand hectares, including natural regeneration in an area of 4.6 thousand hectares. In 2023, the size of mechanized planted areas has increased significantly, reaching 997 hectares. 627 hectares were treated in clearings, using the mechanized method of forest seeding, which is almost twice as much as in 2022.

“This year's spring was more difficult for planting as compared to last year. The great drought this spring affected the successful growth of already planted trees. These plantations will require additional tending and attention from foresters. All in all, during the spring works, we planted a similar amount as last year – 12.5 thousand hectares,” says Mārtiņš Gūtmanis, Executive Director of LVM Forestry.

In 2024, it is planned to restore forests in an area of 18.7 thousand hectares, including the restoration of 13.4 thousand hectares by planting and sowing. Mechanized forest seeding is expected to be carried out on 688 hectares, and mechanized planting on 1216 ha.

“Although the technology of mechanized forest planting using excavators still proves its competitiveness in relation to the traditional method of reforestation, its possibilities for increasing productivity are quite limited. That is why we are looking for solutions that would allow mechanized forest planting to be used on an even larger scale,” says Mārtiņš Gūtmanis.

One of the possibilities is the PlantmaX multi-operation forest planting machine, which was initially presented in Sweden, but now is also used in North and South America. To verify the suitability of this technology for Latvian conditions, testing of the machine in the forests managed by LVM is planned for the spring planting season of 2024.

Since the establishment of the company, 293 thousand hectares of forests have been restored in the State forests of Latvia. LVM's economic activities are carried out by maintaining and recovering forests, taking care of nature conservation, recreation opportunities and increasing timber volumes, as well as investing in expanding the forestland and developing forest infrastructure – renovation of drainage systems and forest road construction. During the 24 years, forest roads with a total length of 8.3 thousand kilometres were built and forest drainage systems with a total length of 283 thousand hectares were restored.