This year, Latvia is experiencing a genuine outbreak of the most significant forest pest – the bark beetle – and damage to spruce stands on this scale has not been observed since the 1990s. The bark beetle settles in spruce stands, eating the tree bark until the trees die. While the damage caused by the beetles is not yet as catastrophic as it is currently in Germany, pretending that everything is fine here is more than just wrong.
It is particularly distressing that the bark beetles are spreading in the Gauja National Park (GNP), destroying significant areas. The bark beetle most often settles in weakened, overmature spruce trees that have reached or exceeded their harvest age, and there are many such trees in the GNP. I know that in one forest ranger's district, which covers approximately 3,000 hectares, 150–200 hectares of spruce stands have been completely destroyed. If the spread of the bark beetle is not curbed, the scale of the damage will become even greater next year.
The most effective method for fighting the bark beetle is to fell the trees in which it has settled. Moreover, this must be done very promptly – within two weeks of the beetle's entry holes appearing, resin begins to ooze from the trunks, and brown bark dust becomes visible at the root collar and in the cracks of the bark scales. These trees can no longer be saved and are dying just like people with terminal cancer. If they are not felled and removed while the insect is still inside the tree, the trees dry out, the bark beetle emerges, and hibernates in the ground to attack other trees the following year.
However, there are problems with logging. The "Individual Protection and Use Regulations of the Gauja National Park" stipulate that commercial use of the forest and tree felling are only possible after a forest management plan has been developed and approved by the Nature Conservation Agency and the State Forest Service. Furthermore, in nature reserve zones, clear-cutting is prohibited entirely (it is permitted to harvest no more than 25% of the stand's growing stock, and the next harvesting can take place no sooner than 10 years later), and felling trees in a final harvest is only possible 20 years later than in commercial forests.
An individual forest management plan for each holding consists of forest inventory data as well as information from an inventory of natural values. This, in turn, means that the forest owner must find a specialist capable of preparing such a plan. However, at present, with the major habitat census in full swing across Latvia, all experts are occupied, and it is difficult to interest them in preparing plans. Many state outright that they do not work with private individuals. So, a forest owner who is ready to have a plan prepared and pay for it still has to stand in line and wait. It should be added that this expert opinion on natural values costs the forest owner a considerable sum. Costs range from 15 to 30 euros per hectare of forest if the forest area is over 10 hectares. In small forest properties, producing an expert report and an individual forest management plan costs between 150 and 200 euros.
But the bark beetle does not wait! Next spring, it will fly to new feeding grounds and will not care whether their owners have a forest management plan or not. At the very least, those owners who do not have a plan will be able to do nothing, because they will not be permitted to fell the damaged trees and limit the bark beetle's spread, even if the forest inventory is still valid for the owner.
Even in cases where an owner has a forest management plan and it lists European-protected habitats, or they are later identified during the nature census, felling is and will remain prohibited. Only the insect is unfamiliar with the concept of a habitat; it will not stay only in the stand where tree felling is banned, but will move on – to new trees. By acting promptly and eliminating bark beetle nests, one could avoid the mass proliferation of this forest pest that has occurred in Germany, where people are now frequently speaking of an ecological disaster.
Pest damage will not end on its own; that is not how nature works! I fear that if we continue to ignore the problem as we have been, we will soon see dead spruce trees covering hectares of land not only in the GNP but in other protected natural areas as well. Will these be the natural and scenic values for which these nature parks were created and which people from cities and abroad will come to see?
To fight the bark beetle, there is no need to "reinvent the wheel"; first and foremost, bureaucratic procedures must be simplified. Forest owners should be allowed to quickly obtain permits for the felling of diseased, pest-infested, and dead trees, provided there is a valid forest inventory!
zemeunvalsts commentary
Kārlis Padegs has a wonderful painting titled "Madonna with a Machine Gun". The title might confuse those who haven't seen the work itself, but... At the beginning of the year, hunters' representatives pointed out in an interview that, at one time, the struggle regarding African swine fever was not against the plague itself, but "between the anti-plague soldiers". I would not want to witness the days when, while visiting the GNP, we might view a beautiful photo exhibition titled "This is what the park once was!", and instead of walking in the forest, we might have to listen to a popular science lecture on "Natural changes in the Gauja National Park landscape introduced by the bark beetle". It is understandable, but unacceptable, that 70 spruce trees must be chewed up before someone notices, another 70 while they think about it, and more while they just contemplate the need for action. It is time for the professionals to act! As shown in the article, professionals know what to do; the other question is whether they will be intentionally and deliberately obstructed. Because somewhere in the world, perhaps the bark beetle needs protecting, and we, of course, can help! ???? What is a mere nature park?!?
* article first published on the "Delfi" portal on 29 September 2019