On the evening of 4 December, the "Ziemeļblāzma" Palace of Culture, co-authored and financed by the timber industrialist Augusts Dombrovskis, hosted the "Golden Cone 2019" forestry industry annual awards ceremony.

The Forest Days Committee announced the winners well in advance for the categories of "Lifetime Contribution", "Innovative Entrepreneurship", "Sustainable Management", and "Contribution to Public Education". The "Golden Cone" award is the forestry industry's highest annual recognition for significant achievements and contributions to the sector.

Winners in the "Sustainable Management" category: Staņislavs Salmanis ("Aizvēji" property in Limbaži municipality), Ilga Sedliņa ("Bērzkalni" property in Kuldīga municipality), and Aivars Vanags ("Druvas" property in Viļaka municipality).

Winners in the "Innovative Entrepreneurship" category: SIA "Shaman Inventions" (Cēsis) and SIA "Venta-1" (Ventspils municipality).

The Latvian Employers' Confederation special award was presented to Roberts Strīpnieks, Chairman of the Board of JSC "Latvijas valsts meži".

The winners in the "Contribution to Public Education" category are Jersika Primary School teacher Anna Greidāne, leading researcher at the Latvian State Forest Research Institute "Silava" Dagnija Lazdiņa, and member of the board of the Latvian Forest Owners and Managers Confederation Māris Liopa.

The "Golden Cone" award in the "Lifetime Contribution" category was presented for a significant lifelong contribution to the development of the industry to:

Jānis Iesalnieks (from Kuldīga municipality) – a forester who spent his entire professional career working in the forest industry and made a major contribution to the development of the sector,

Egons Garklāvs (from Amata municipality) – who brought international recognition to Latvian timber and gave it a completely new value by creating one of the most modern and innovative log house manufacturing facilities,

Ignats Grugulis (from Babīte) – a forest engineer whose professional life was dedicated to the modernisation of the forest industry and the development of production,

Andrejs Dreimanis (from Jelgava) – Professor Emeritus at the Department of Silviculture, Faculty of Forest, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies. (Shortly before 4 December, Prof. Dreimanis passed away, and the award was accepted by his son.)

"The Golden Cone embodies simplicity, openness, and the beauty of the Latvian forest: simple in spirit, refined in form, open as the sun, warm as a home blessing, and as hardy as a Latvian. There is no more accurate term for a person's love for the forest, just as there is no better award to reward a person's work for the benefit of the Latvian forest."