Nearly 400-year-old forest felled near Rucava

A forest stand containing a pine at least 377 years old has been felled near Rucava, in an area managed by the Forest Research Station, LSM reported. The site had been recorded as an EU-protected habitat and was home to several specially protected species, the Latvian Fund for Nature said.

The fund has asked responsible institutions and ministries to explain what happened and address the state’s responsibility for the loss of natural values. Its chairman, Jānis Ķuze, said the felling raised serious questions about compliance with species and habitat protection rules, decision-making and the use of scientific information in forest management.

Ornithologist Māris Strazds discovered the fresh clear-cut while checking a known black stork nesting territory. The tree that held the nest was one of several very old pines in the stand.

Strazds took a cross-section of the trunk to the University of Latvia’s Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, where researchers counted the growth rings and determined the pine was at least 377 years old. It began growing around 1649. Several other felled trees were about 370 years old.

Experts say the stand may have been one of Latvia’s oldest surviving pine forests. More data would have been needed to establish its full age and structure, but a complete study is no longer possible after the felling.

Information held by the Nature Conservation Agency showed that the plot had been registered as the EU-protected habitat “Old or natural boreal forests.” The Forest Research Station is a public agency overseen by the Latvian State Forest Research Institute Silava and the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies.