A note from zemeunvalsts.lv. We have received a letter signed by active residents of Ogre municipality concerning logging in the municipality. Sadly, we must once again conclude that in more than one Latvian municipality or town, activism speaks loudest in situations where the locals “don't want something”. One almost starts to think that the “refined tone” of Latvian activism — which, understandably, stresses prosperity, wellbeing, recreation, quality and care (and so on) — amounts to “we don't want this, that or anything else here!” The fact that the same happens beyond our country's borders changes nothing: the very same people walk along streets, bridges or places that need to be developed and improved, while at the same time resisting just as actively almost anything that would make it possible to earn or obtain something for that development and improvement. What is more, both civic and political activism has grown far too lazy — that is, if there were no activities to object to so righteously and so nobly, there would be far fewer activists, because it is easier to protest against those who do something than to think of something yourself.

The letter, of course, emphasises that the “wicked state-owned company” also needs to turn a profit. Well, there's a surprise!

Residents of the city of Ogre are appealing to Ogre Municipality Council and Riga City Council, the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Forest Service and the Nature Conservation Agency, asking them to immediately prohibit the logging operations in the forests around Ogre that are currently being carried out on an active scale by the Riga city company “Rīgas meži”. The forests around Ogre are (were, until the felling) biologically diverse with abundant bird nesting — felling them at this time is unethical, catastrophic for the birds nesting there and inconsistent with good forest management practice, since in many parts of Latvia a ban on tree felling during the bird nesting season applies until 31 July.

Formally, because of toothless legislation, this felling ban does not apply to these forests around Ogre. Some local authorities in Latvia have themselves imposed stricter restrictions on felling during the bird nesting season — we call on Ogre to follow that practice too, especially now that a new territorial plan is being drawn up for Ogre municipality.

Our observations as residents indicate that over the past five years the Riga municipal company “Rīgas meži” has begun creating clear-fells in spruce and pine forests at a very intensive rate in the forests around Ogre, which the Ogre residents living nearby choose as a place for recreation. Such an approach to forest management can be seen neither in Riga nor in the nearby forests around the capital, where sanitary felling is chosen instead of clear-felling. It should be noted that we are talking about many dozens of hectares of spruce and pine forest felled in a single place, while the newly planted trees grow very slowly and biodiversity in these places is depleted; they are not suitable for bird nesting. Spruces and pines will only look like proper trees after 60-70 years. So the forests we are used to will, in the place of these clear-fells, be seen only by our children in their old age and by our grandchildren.

In their letter, the residents point out that Ogre residents chose Ogre as their place to live precisely because of the abundant surrounding forests, which provide clean air and a wide range of recreation opportunities for families with children, including sport. Over the past few years we have seen a deliberate felling of the forests by the city of Ogre, turning them one after another into clear-fells. Data compiled by residents indicate at least 20 large clear-fells (each covering the area of several stadiums) in a comparatively small area on the city's edge, carried out over the past five years, although the count and the determination of their true extent is continuing. It should be noted that before the new council convened, forest regeneration by clear-felling on Ogre's doorstep happened rarely and over small areas, which can genuinely be explained by a desire to tend the forests. Looking at the annual reports of “Rīgas meži” since its establishment in 2028, one can conclude that logging has become a priority only in recent years, with the aim of generating income.

“Rīgas meži” has now announced a further 11 clear-fells to be carried out by 2026 in the forests around Ogre between the Ogre-Tīnūži road (the Ogre Blue Hills), the Ogre forestry technical college and as far as Tūrkalnes Street and the Koknese highway. Moreover, they cynically began felling actively as early as May, during the bird nesting season, sparing neither the birds nor their young. On the one hand, “Rīgas meži” organises nest-box campaigns for Riga residents in spring, and later coldly destroys the birds by clear-felling at the very time when their young are being born.

Likewise, in our view and from our observations, the claims that clear-fells are created in order to limit the spread of bark beetle do not stand up to scrutiny, because the experience of clear-fells in recent years shows that, to remove a few dozen spruces damaged by bark beetle, 5 or more hectares of pines and healthy trees are felled (the bark beetle left this area long ago and will not be back).

It should be noted that an exception is the “Ogres Zilie kalni” nature park and the bark-beetle-damaged spruces within it, where sanitary felling is carried out, but this area has the status of a specially protected nature territory and is a tourist attraction. We wish to stress that in this area and around Ogre generally, the bark beetle damage could have been contained in good time by felling the damaged trees, but for years, for reasons that are hard to understand, “Rīgas meži”, which manages this area, did not do so, thereby allowing far greater damage to occur.

“Rīgas meži” belongs to Riga City Council. It is hard to understand how it can be that one city — in this case Riga — is handed public forests outside its own territory as a gift, and, behind the slogan of caring for the forest, uses them for complete felling with the aim of increasing the local authority's revenue, while depriving another local authority and its residents of the chance to decide about the forests within their own territory and about preserving valuable recreation sites. The company's public reports from recent years show that logging accounts for 80-85% of the company's revenue. “Rīgas meži” has also just issued a press release stating that the company's turnover in the first three months was 7.57 million euros, of which the profit was around 2 million euros. In the same press release the company notes that 80% of total revenue comes from the sale of roundwood and sawn timber.

Ogre residents believe that legislation at national and local level must be changed, and that it must give residents the opportunity to take part in decision-making about the public forests in whose immediate vicinity they live. Accordingly, there should be public consultations at which decisions are taken on the long-term tending of the forests, without a deterioration in residents' quality of life.

Press release prepared by: Active residents of Ogre