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To Ensure Fire Protection, a Forest Road has been Rebuilt in the Territory of a Nature Reserve

At the end of last year, the 1 411 km long forest road “Aizkraukles purva ceļš” was put into operation in the Jaunjelgava forest district. The main purpose of the reconstruction of the facility was the provision of forest fire protection.

This forest road crosses the “Aizkraukles purvs un meži” nature reserve and ends at a reservoir of approximately two hectares in size created in the 1970s, when it was dug for fire protection purposes at the Aizkraukles peat mining site. After the reconstruction of the forest road, it will be possible to take water from this reservoir in the future in the event of a fire.

“When carrying out construction works in the territory of a nature reserve, a number of restrictions must be taken into account. For example, road track requirements: in a protected area, the road track must not exceed 12 metres in width, and the width of the road gravel cover – 3.5 metres. Construction works could not be carried out between March and July. There were also other restrictions for construction works in the protected zone of the swamp,” says Andis Dzērve, Senior Forest Infrastructure Specialist at LVM Zemgale Region.

In places with lower soil bearing capacity, geotextile was laid under the sand cover, which will ensure the bearing capacity of the “Aizkraukles purva ceļš” forest road even in wet weather and will extend the service life of the road.

In total, 291.5 km of forest roads or their sections in Latvia's State forests are located in specially protected natural areas.