A conversation with Ieva Kraukle, director of the Ogre and Ikšķile municipality agency "Development of the "Zilie kalni" tourism, sports and leisure complex" agency*
The history of the "Zilie kalni" Agency began in 2010, or even earlier. (Based on the current statutes, the Agency has been operating since 2010.) I started working here myself in 2014, and it should be noted that the current shape of the Agency was formed shortly before my arrival. In short, the Agency was created by the Ogre and Ikšķile municipal councils to manage the Blue Hills. Before that, the Agency also had duties related to various tourism information activities.
Managing the Blue Hills – overseeing, felling, tidying up...
There are three main duties for which we are responsible: tidying up (collecting litter, mowing grass, etc.), organising events, and educating the public on various environmental issues (if necessary and there is interest, we also organise excursions). Tree care and felling are the responsibility of the forest owner – the forests belong to "Rīgas meži". The total area managed is 438 hectares, of which 24 hectares belong to Ogre municipality, while the rest of the territory is in Ikšķile municipality.
At the time I attended my job interview (in 2014), I was convinced that this job was meant for me. I am a primary school teacher, I have an environmental education, I worked for a sufficient time at "Rīgas meži", and a little bit in a hotel as well. Mentioning the hotel, at the time of that job interview, the Agency had plans to develop a leisure complex and hotel, where I would have been able to use my experience. At "Rīgas meži", on the other hand, I worked as a landscape architect and was responsible for creating landscaping and participated in event organisation.
Currently, we have five permanent staff members at the Agency: a project manager, an administrative assistant, an accountant, and a "person in the forest" who works on-site. During the season, we hire four people who collect litter in the forest.
A good and very topical subject: forests and litter. I have to say, "unfortunately topical"...
Yes, indeed! For example, this year, in the week around Midsummer, we hauled away almost 10 tonnes of litter. And that was not even from all 438 hectares. We are in charge of a significant leisure spot – the Dubkalni reservoir, where we collected the majority of that litter in the surrounding area.
Dubkalni is a former quarry where water pumping for excavation work ceased in 2003. Many specially protected plants were once found in the forest near the quarry, and the excavation work was halted. It is very important to mention here that of the 430 hectares we manage, 321 hectares are part of a nature park established in 2004. The main value of the park is its esker hills, upon which pine forests grow. Back in the day, there were quite a lot of these hills in Latvia, and a great many were used for mineral extraction.
When I lead excursions, I show young people what the profile of a partially excavated hill looks like – the whole hill consists of gravel. Many years ago, as the glacier melted, it formed into its current appearance: kilometres-long, narrow, and steep gravel hills. If one can put it this way – in the Dubkalni quarry, we can see history, geology, and the environment, and we can educate children while they enjoy some leisure time.
Undoubtedly, the opportunities for using the nature park would be much smaller if the reservoir were not there. It is a very "attractive magnet". We have set it up relatively simply (an area of 9 hectares) and there are five leisure spots. However, over the last few years, we have regularly noticed a problem – a few kilometres away from Dubkalni, there is another quarry where active extraction of resources (gravel, sand) is still taking place and water is being pumped out of it, which in some way (linked) causes or stimulates a drop in the water level at the Dubkalni reservoir. Everything is connected underground.
In this regard, we have moved some infrastructure objects closer to the water, such as the jetty, so that no accident occurs by chance. If the water level has dropped, the jetty will no longer be at the same depth as before.
I must say, we have managed to escape various mishaps so far. There are other cases, sometimes I see a fire engine and divers at the reservoir, who, when spoken to, explain that training is taking place.
Divers are fond of our reservoir. At the time when the leisure spot at Dubkalni had not yet been set up and the number of visitors was small, divers trained there quite a lot: the water in the quarry is very clear. Once, we cast aside our shyness and asked them for help: tyres had sunk into the water body. They weren't dumped intentionally, but dated back to the times when a popular driving track existed on the frozen quarry in winter, which the drivers had marked out with various tyres. Naturally, as spring approached and the ice melted, it occurred to no one to remove the tyres, and they sank. Trees had also fallen into the water. By bringing in divers, we organised a clean-up, clearing the reservoir as much as possible.
The forest in our area is managed by "Rīgas meži", the park is left to "its own devices". There are trails, there are trees, we remove wind-fallen trees from the trails, they remain lying there because, in a nature park, for ensuring nature diversity, dead wood is necessary.
Speaking of management and order: the police of both municipalities operate here, and there are no problems between them. We know where the municipal border lies, and raids take place. In the Ogre municipality part, where there are more forest trails, police officers patrol on bicycles. In terms of order, we face well-known problems, for example, noisy groups, illegal parking of cars, etc. Every now and then, some piece of infrastructure gets broken. I will say that we are very persistent with repairs, and in the end, the vandals get "bored". I suspect that the more diligently we collect litter, the less it will be dumped in the wrong places! So to speak – through example and persistence! We have five fire pits, and three of them have stationary grills. Sometimes, visitors build a campfire not exactly in the designated spot. In summer, we clear away illegal fire spots once every two weeks. This again is persistent work, because: "seeing that a campfire was here recently", people usually think "I can do that too"!
Do people from both municipalities visit Dubkalni and the nature park, or do they also come from further away?
There are many local visitors, but many people also come to us from Riga, Salaspils, and other places. During Covid-19, we felt it especially, as many people wanted to walk in the nature park and on the nature trails. Since we are listed as a leisure complex in various information sources, misunderstandings often arise because people call us (usually me) and ask for our opening hours. The forest and park territory, of course, does not have any – the forest is accessible all the time!
A viewing tower has been built in the park, which people are happy to climb. By the way, the tower is in a "deceptive" location – relatively close to the reservoir (less than a kilometre); before climbing up, more than one person thinks: it will be a nice view of the water surface, they climb up – and see no water at all. A peculiarity of the Blue Hills relief.
Where did the place names come from? Dubkalni, Ogre Blue Hills, if one considers that most of the park is located outside Ogre?
Dubkalni – there is no real clarity regarding the name. One unlikely version is that in Soviet times there were hills covered with oaks, which I would like to dispute, as it is not clear where they could have grown and been. Another, more plausible version – from older times, the word "dube" means something similar to a heaped-up pile; considering that there are many hillocks in this area – hillock after hillock – the name could be even older. Why Ogre Blue Hills? At the time when the nature park began to be formed, Ogre was undoubtedly a fairly large populated area; there are also the so-called Ogre Mazie Kangari. A more pronounced relief is visible closer to Ogre, and in pre-war times, when Ogre was a resort, the hilly area was more associated with the town of Ogre.
Regarding cooperation between the municipalities. During the administrative-territorial reform, it is felt that Ogre and Ikšķile are looking each in their own direction. As can be seen in the Agency, the cooperation is productive...
The Ogre and Ikšķile municipalities cooperate well on the "Blue Hills project" (the Agency). In the times before the founding of the Agency, no one wanted to be responsible for the Blue Hills territory. Ogre owned a small area right next to the town, for the Ikšķile rural territory it was an outskirts area. Although the reform has made the situation a little more acute, in the management and development of the Blue Hills, decisions on cooperation have always been rational. Reaching agreements on economic issues is not difficult. The Agency's supervisory board includes three people each from the Ikšķile and Ogre municipalities. Since the chairpersons of both municipal councils have also been serving on the board for several years, any decisions guarantee us a clear result and further progress.
What would you like or need to accomplish in the near future?
Our plans include setting up several more active recreation areas (at the moment there are volleyball and football playing spots), which we should continue.
The Blue Hills are crossed by roads with relatively intense traffic, but... they are gravel roads, which are very dusty in dry weather. Riding a bicycle on these roads is comfortable and good, but not always pleasant. It would be necessary to asphalt them, but... Naturally, this plan is financially demanding. Unfortunately, as a municipal agency, we cannot attract European funding, which is a certain paradox, because if we were a non-governmental association – then we could! The Agency status is the reason why European money passes us by.
One of the last jobs to be done, and one that has already started, is lighting for the ski track. When we implement it fully, it will be possible to ski all 12 km from Ogre to Ikšķile on a lit track. The track has been operating since 2015, a great deal of work has been invested in it, but... If there is a normal winter and snow: how much time can a person devote to skiing on a weekday? On weekends or evenings – then yes, but specifically on weekdays? By implementing this project, quite a few people are already using the track in the evenings as well, because the lighting is switched on until 22:00.
Local fauna: do you tell people about it and show it to them?
For a while, many beavers lived in the Blue Hills. The Nature Protection Board allowed them to be trapped because the "volumes" of their gnawing were significant. Thinking about and remembering this, I realised that no one would ever allow us to clear the reservoir banks of trees just like that – for the sake of tidying up the surroundings, but... The trees growing on the banks were gnawed down by beavers (helping us)! By the way, the beavers also did another quite good job, as they "gnawed out" deciduous trees in the pine forest that did not belong there, but the large rodents seemed to be absolutely starving, because even the pines were damaged.
Not so long ago, a local philosopher worried people with the thought that a bear had been visiting near us. However, it seems to me that the philosopher in practice (not in thought) confused bear droppings with horse manure, as there is a horse-riding trail near us... We did not encounter a bear, although people were worried by the news.
Swans and ducks live in the reservoir. We encounter common mergansers, which nest in a hollow known to us and the owners in nearby Ikšķile, but they fly to Dubkalni to feed. We invite people to head into nature and enjoy the beautiful landscapes with us too!
*hereinafter referred to as the "Agency"