Commissioned by the Nature Conservation Agency (the Agency), arborists have restored approximately 3,600 trees across 22 sections of 13 protected avenues over the course of two years. The majority of the restored avenues are located in Zemgale (Bēne, Blankenfelde, Bukaiši, Lielplatone, Lielauce, Iecava, and Eleja avenues); in Vidzeme, the Raiskums and Lubāna-Meirāni avenues have been restored, while in Kurzeme, the Pope, Kalēti, Jaunmoku, and Vecmoku avenues were addressed. In total, the works required over 13,000 working hours and cost €400,000.

“Protected avenues are unique natural and landscape assets. To preserve them, the Agency’s habitat and species restoration project carried out extensive and targeted management works on more than 20% of all protected avenues in Latvia simultaneously. Unfortunately, the storms of recent years did not spare several of the avenues already restored during the project, such as Bukaiši, Vecmoku, and Lubāna-Meirāni, where experts subsequently carried out additional remedial work. However, this allowed us to conclude that in the restored sections, the trees were better able to survive the storms—they did not fall over, and the tree crowns, supported by strengthening systems, were held in place and did not break. By removing dangerous and dead branches in good time, the 'rain of branches' that can threaten people, property, and road safety during storms is avoided,” explains project manager Inga Hoņavko.

Before starting the maintenance work, arborists concluded that the condition of avenues in Latvia varies significantly. Some avenues or their sections have been maintained, or at least urgent work is being carried out to prevent dangerous situations in residential areas and near major roads. However, there are also sections of avenues where essential maintenance work has not been implemented until now, and in many places, their condition was very poor. Given that in most cases the trees in the avenues exceed 20 metres in height, are relatively old, and the avenues are located alongside state and local roads or in residential areas, the maintenance required a high level of professionalism from the contractors.

For the most part, dead, damaged, and dangerous branches have been sawn off from the avenue trees, and tree crowns above the road profile have been lifted to prevent damage by road transport and to highlight the tunnel-like effect characteristic of these avenues. The sections of avenues that had not been maintained in recent decades were, in many places, overgrown with saplings and shrubs of various species, which suppressed the avenue trees and degraded their landscape value. Unfortunately, due to neglect and the natural ageing of the trees, dangerous trees were also identified in the avenues. Experts planned various solutions for such situations: if a tree did not threaten human, traffic, or property safety, it was left standing. However, if a risk was identified, the trees were pruned to a safe height and special tree stabilisation systems were installed. Only in highly critical situations were the dangerous trees felled. Furthermore, in the largest gaps in the Lielplatone, Lielauce, and Blankenfelde avenues, a total of 50 new, large saplings—limes, oaks, and horse chestnuts, which are species characteristic of these avenues—were planted.

The avenue maintenance work is one of the activities of the European Union Cohesion Fund project “Restoration of habitats and species” (full title: “Implementation of management measures in specially protected nature areas and micro-reserves to improve the conservation status of habitats and species”; No. 5.4.3.0/20/I/001) implemented by the Agency. The inventory and management of the avenues are being carried out by the Agency together with project partners: the State Joint Stock Company Latvijas Valsts ceļi, local municipalities, and private landowners whose territories or properties contain these avenues.