For many years, Latvijas Finieris has been actively organizing informative Forest Days not only for its employees, but also regularly for a wider audience, inviting representatives of government, state institutions, non-governmental organizations, educational and scientific institutions, as well as forest companies. Carefully observing all the restrictions set due to the COVID-19 virus pandemic, such a Forest Days event also took place this year, on September 17, at the company’s nursery “Zābaki” in Krimulda region.

Despite the strong wind that reached the force of the storm in the middle of the day, the Forest Days of Latvijas Finieris were spent in a high mood and gathered more than a hundred guests in total. In honor of Latvijas Finieris and the forest sector in general, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development Juris Pūce, the Minister of Economics Jānis Vitenbergs and the Minister of Agriculture Kaspars Gerhards also took part in the event.

According to Uldis Biķis, Chairman of Latvijas Finieris Supervisory Board, the main goal of the Forest Days organized by the company is to be a platform for a reasoned discussion on the directions of sustainable, systematic development common to the Latvian economy, among which the bioeconomy is defined as one of the most important not only at the domestic level, but also at the level of the European Union policy. In order to stimulate such a discussion, the participants had the opportunity to listen to the director of the Latvian State Forest Research Institute “Silava”, leading researcher Dr.silv. Jurģis Jansons presentation, which included his academic long-term vision of the Latvian land and its rational use. Demonstrating that active forest management not only provides an economic basis, but also makes a significant contribution to addressing climate policy issues through CO₂ sequestration.

Uldis Biķis, on the other hand, spoke about the Birch program, which was launched in 1996 with the active participation of Latvijas Finieris and has since united many participants in the forest sector as a long-term cooperation platform. Currently, the Birch Program has grown at the national level. A number of nurseries have been established and operate and are able to meet the demand for birch plants and seedlings with an improved root system. Thanks to intensive selection work, the increase in the stock and quality of birch stands can be increased by 20-30%. Landowners have extensive access to information on how to properly create and maintain birch stands on both forest and unused agricultural land. As a result, the veneer logs currently used in the local plywood industry can be grown within a period of human life.

Uldis Biķis is convinced that the Birch Program is a clear example of how the Latvian forest sector has gradually developed one of the basic directions of the bioeconomy – sustainable use of forest resources – since the restoration of the country’s independence. In the next phase of the Birch Program, even more emphasis would be placed on intensive care of young plants and the development of wood chemical processing, thus becoming even more part of the European Green Deal.

Of course, tree planting was not missed during the Forest Days. Following the traditions, the guests had the opportunity to participate in the creation of the “Birch Timeline” by planting 700 birch plants on the slope of Zābakkalns. In this way, the second section was created in a long-term project, which will consist of a large circle divided into 12 equal parts. By gradually planting these parts every three years, it is planned to create a perfectly transparent demonstration area from the top of the hill by 2050 – the “Birch Timeline”. In the future, visitors to “Zābaki” will be able to see how fast birches grow, how the stand changes over the years and what forestry work must be performed at each stage of the stand development.

It should be noted that the property of Latvijas Finieris  “Zābaki” is a scenic place on the bank of the Gauja river, which combines the beautiful and symbolic with the useful and dynamic. The Gauja National Park active recreation trail winds through the farm, forest stands planted at different times can be seen in the territory, as well as information stands are placed. Latvijas Finieris tree nursery, established in 1999, is also active in the territory of “Zābaki”. According to Jānis Aļļis, the manager of the farm “Zābaki”, at that time the first 46 thousand birch seedlings were grown and sold. Since then, the amount of seedlings grown has increased to 1.5 million in 2019, and together with the seedlings grown in 20 years, 10,000 hectares of new forest have been created. “Zābaki” is well known to Latvian landowners as producer of high-quality birch (80% of production), spruce, black alder and oak plants for both reforestation and afforestation of non-agricultural land. For Latvian and Baltic forest scientists, the nursery is an active partner in the implementation of various long-term research projects.