With summer weather now setting in, AS “Latvijas valsts meži” (LVM) has wrapped up this year's spring reforestation season. Through planting and sowing, state forests were regenerated over 13,800 hectares during the spring reforestation season, with around 29 million forest tree seedlings planted and 110 kilograms of pine seed sown.

Thanks to favourable weather, the tree-planting work went smoothly, and contractors completed it on time and to a high standard.

This year, reforestation began at the end of March with planting in LVM's Zemgale region, while machine sowing of pine seed began in the Austrumvidzeme region in early April. As is traditional, the largest area was regenerated using hand-planting tools – 12,700 hectares of forest were regenerated this way. The remaining area was regenerated mechanically: 319 hectares by sowing and 790 hectares by machine planting. If weather conditions are favourable in June and the soil retains sufficient moisture, machine planting is planned to continue throughout the month.

In total, LVM planted around 29 million selectively bred forest tree seedlings this spring. Pine was planted most, with 16 million seedlings, followed by spruce with 9 million and birch with 3 million. Black alder, oak and other tree species were also planted. The largest reforestation work was carried out in the South Kurzeme region, where 2,700 hectares were planted.

Ritvars Zēmelis, head of forestry production planning at LVM, describes this year's spring reforestation season:

“This winter the snow cover had already melted by mid-March, which allowed tree planting to start as early as the second half of March. Thanks to our contractors, we were able to quickly replan and organise the work to suit the weather conditions, achieving high work volumes and closing out this spring's reforestation season with excellent results.”

As usual, weather conditions have a significant effect on the pace of reforestation. The spring 2025 season was rich in rainfall, whereas this year dry, sunny weather has dominated. As a result, this year's challenge has been drought in the forest, which in places made planting more difficult and affected how successfully the newly planted saplings took root. A year earlier, by contrast, solutions had to be found for managing flooded areas.

This year, a total of 20,000 hectares of forest is planned to be regenerated through planting, sowing and natural regeneration. In the autumn season, planting is planned over a further 1,200 hectares, with around 2.5 million forest tree seedlings to be planted.