In December, JSC Latvijas valsts meži (LVM) will begin work in the Natura 2000 area of Engure Lake Nature Park to improve the condition of the Wooded coastal dunes, a habitat of European Union significance characteristic of the Latvian coast. The work will take place across two sites covering an area of 33 hectares.
The existence of wooded coastal dunes requires natural disturbances – wind action, fire, or regular disturbance of the ground cover – which maintain open patches of sand exposed to the sun. If these disturbances are lacking, the dunes gradually become overgrown, the conditions necessary for various plant and animal species disappear, structural diversity decreases, and the dunes become uniform and choked with vegetation. Parts of the area currently feature only even-aged pine stands, and there is very little deadwood—such as fallen logs, snags, or stumps—which are biologically valuable structures characteristic of natural forest habitats. The shady conditions and the enrichment of the soil with nutrients due to the lack of natural disturbance promote excessive moss growth, which suppresses the sun-loving lichens and dune plants characteristic of this habitat. Over time, in the absence of necessary fire, spruce trees begin to encroach.
“To preserve the value of this habitat in the nature park, we will replace or simulate the necessary favourable disturbances with biotechnological measures, such as thinning trees and thickets, creating deadwood, burning logging residues, and scarifying the ground cover, which will mimic the effects of wind and fire. The work carried out will ensure this special habitat is preserved in good quality for future generations,” explains Ieva Rove, LVM board member and habitat specialist.
Replacing natural disturbances with specific forestry methods is a new and innovative approach in Latvian conditions for improving the state of, and managing, disturbance-dependent forest habitats. In both project areas, a number of irregularly shaped openings will be created, where the overgrowth will be cleared and the nutrient-rich ground cover will be mechanically removed down to the bare sand. Logging residues, together with the removed ground cover, will be piled up and left within the nature park for one year to dry. Once dried, the piles will be burned, thereby also consuming the excess nutrients within the habitat. This will achieve greater diversity of biological structures and create suitable conditions for the increased spread of Cladina genus lichens, which are characteristic of wooded coastal dunes.
Engure Lake Nature Park—a Natura 2000 site of European Union significance—is one of four pilot areas established under the LIFE-IP LatViaNature project, where LVM will carry out biotechnological measures to improve the condition of various forest habitats of EU significance. Simultaneously, it will test nature-friendly forestry methods for the future management of these habitats, which is essential for their long-term survival.
All work in the area has been coordinated with the responsible authorities and will be carried out under the guidance and supervision of certified nature experts.
In total, by the end of 2025, under the LIFE-IP LatViaNature project, LVM will carry out forest habitat restoration work and test nature-friendly forestry methods over a total area of more than 100 hectares across four pilot areas for disturbance-dependent forests: the Ziemeļgauja Protected Landscape Area, the Grebļukalns Nature Reserve, the Zvirgzde Inland Dunes, and Engure Lake Nature Park.