It all started in the nineties, when two young foresters decided to try their luck in business. Today, to start something like that would require very serious capital, but back then, Edgars Keičs and Juris Punka each had 500 lats. Edgars recalls: “We bought our first felling area at an auction in the forestry district. We had plenty of strength, so we did the felling ourselves. We pulled the logs out with chokers, then loaded them onto a cart and hauled them out. Later on, we started hiring workers.”

We founded the company in 2001 and used the first letters of mine and my partner’s surnames for the name. Juris Punka and I have known each other since our study days at the Faculty of Forestry. We were course mates.”

Last year, SIA “PK Mežs” harvested 40 000 m3 of timber across 140 hectares. In their own forests, the company regenerates about two-thirds of felling areas by planting. If a property is located somewhat far from Bauska and there are no plans to treat the saplings with repellents against rodents, the area is left for the forest to seed itself. (...)