The association “Latvijas Mežu sertifikācijas padome” (Forest Certification Council of Latvia, LMSP), as one of the organisers of the “European Tree of the Year” competition in Latvia, received a nomination for the European Tree of the Year from residents of Skrīveri, who sent the competition an emotional (in our view, harrowing) account and also a longer letter about the row of oaks in Skrīveri.
In Skrīveri they are again preparing to murder trees. It happened on Ozolu iela. At the moment it looks as though Daugavas iela will be next. This is what happens when decisions fall to people who have no roots in Skrīveri, as trees do; for whom a crack and a couple of grains of sand in the concrete paving are enough... The oaks have lived through two world wars, they grow on in defiance of people and of time. For nearly a century and a half this has been a beautiful spot in Skrīveri, one of the first places where pale green oak leaves come out in spring and where you can gaze through them into the blue sky. That always gives hope.
Yes, several of the oaks fall a little short of the status of a veteran tree, which would give them state protection. But who knows — if the oaks can be saved, Skrīveri will have several veteran trees. And what is more, almost side by side…
At present, in what one might call a degree of secrecy, there are plans to fell these magnificent trees… Why? To build a footpath… A path for pedestrians who… do not exist. Someone has had a lovely idea — a footpath along which you could walk as far as Klidziņa. Only — why must trees die for it?
Did you know that 76 trees are due to be cut down, not just the great oaks by my grandfather's house? Sad as it is, below my house there are only two more homes in which people younger than me still live…
I myself already have more than half a century on my shoulders. Skrīveri is dying out… just like the countryside elsewhere in Latvia. If we cannot get people to live here, let us at least let the trees live. Compared with us humans, oaks are all but eternal. Ask yourself who will use the concrete path? Tourists too frail to walk from the centre of Skrīveri to Klidziņa? They are usually brought in by coach. The secrecy surrounding this project is astonishing. Why are the documents given to people unaffected by the felling, but not to those who have the trees? So that they will not know the saws are about to start up? So that they cannot defend what matters to them
At a time when discussions have been and still are being stirred up in society about “right” or “wrong” management of Latvia's forests, we believe that felling a row of trees of venerable age “just because, since it is in the plan”, perhaps in the name of good intentions (which the nominator's account hardly suggests), is unacceptable. The authors of the account have highlighted a very important fact that is seldom discussed — namely, that some trees need only a very short time to reach veteran tree status.
Having received the above information, we asked our colleagues at “Latvijas valsts meži” for support, and they responded to the appeal and provided a professional “Opinion on the condition of the trees and recommended management measures”. See the Opinion
A letter was also drawn up on behalf of the Forest Certification Council of Latvia to Laura Anteina, Director General of the Nature Conservation Agency, calling on the agency to help resolve the matter and preserve the future row of Skrīveri veteran trees for coming generations.
LMSP categorically disagrees with and condemns the arbitrary practices seen in many places, where old avenues and old, valuable trees that could be professionally tended are cut down for various reasons, and where there is incompetent interference in the green areas of populated places. In spring, meanwhile, “assorted operators” can be seen in many places who, without sense or understanding, do not tend but brutally wreck the trees and shrubs growing in planted areas, and so on.
In this situation it is very important to stress that the so-called nature defenders' organisations and activists who are so vocal in other cases take no interest whatsoever in the rather peculiar trend described above. On the one hand that is understandable: if all one's energy goes into attacking the forestry sector over the lawful harvesting of commercial forests, there is neither time nor thought left for anything else. We have long been convinced that the activities of the loudest and most visible environmental NGO operators against the sector take no account either of the science-based findings we follow or of sustainability requirements. It is precisely in situations such as the one in Skrīveri that the hypocrisy, bias and belligerently dishonest stance of these “friends of nature” shows itself so starkly.
LMSP will continue to follow developments in Skrīveri. We call on our colleagues in the sector to support us!
Photograph by Indulis Burka used