2017

Special Feeling and a Christmas Tree for Everyone

It seems that Christmas trees are now to be spotted everywhere - in poems, in songs, in drawings and even in jokes. Also this year, people in Latvia have an opportunity to go to forests managed by LVM and get a Christmas tree; besides, such an opportunity is not given elsewhere in Europe.

More and more people prefer Christmas trees in pots, which are replanted in spring and then carefully tended in the backyard garden. Every year, the tree can be decorated with new hand-made decorations to make it the most beloved and beautiful Christmas tree in the world.

The Embassy of Latvia's State Forests offers for purchase any of the spruce varieties grown in LVM nurseries. Currently, Picea glauca or the white spruce, Abies fraseri or the Fraser fir, Picea abies or the Norway spruce, Picea pungen or the blue spruce, Picea omorika or the Bosnian spruce as well as many other spruce varieties may be purchased at the Embassy. A list of Christmas tree varieties is available here.

If you want a cut Christmas tree, do what you did, when you were a child - wading through snowdrifts head to one of the forests managed by LVM. You can take one of the green jewels from a state forest home with you, but in order not to harm the forest remember what types of spruce and where may be cut.

Make sure that you are in a state forest. When you have found the right spot either using the mobile application "LVM Meža karte" (LVM Forest Map) or by visiting the www.mammadabakarte.lv homepage, choose a tree that grows along a road or by a ditch, on firebreaks, under power lines or beneath large trees in mature forests, but certainly not in young stands or young mixed forests, since there trees have been specially planted and tended to grow a future forest.

It is forbidden to cut trees in public nature parks and in specially protected nature territories marked with an oak-tree image on a green background. Also, be careful not to accidentally get into forests of other owners. Remember that Christmas trees may only be cut in the forests managed by LVM!

LVM forest borders can be recognised by the yellow marks on the edge of the forest. Also plates with inscription AS "Latvijas valsts meži" (JSC "Latvia's State Forests") on the intersections of firebreaks confirm that you are in a state forest.

For more information about where and how to look for a Christmas tree and how to store it properly, read the LVM booklet "Katram savu egli" (A Christmas Tree for Everyone).