Currently, forests in Latvia are being intensively cut down in places - this is how the fight against the eight-toothed spruce bark beetle is being conducted, public media report.
Experts note that forests affected by this pest need to be cut down before spring, when the beetles begin to emerge.
For several years now, the fight against this problem has led to the cutting down of thousands of hectares of forest. Currently, near Madona, logging operations are underway on an area of 25 hectares to eliminate the consequences of the bark beetle invasion, as the trees are significantly damaged.
The fir trees affected by the bark beetle pose a threat to the safety of people and nearby railway and roadways, says Aldis Laganovskis, a representative of the company "Latvijas Valsts meži." The branches of the infested trees can break, and the trees themselves are no longer as stable against the wind and may break because they lose flexibility. Therefore, it was decided to cut down all the dead trees in this area, leaving only the viable ones.
A total of about 2000 cubic meters of timber is planned to be removed from this section of the forest. Experts also note that spring is the best time to address the consequences of the pest's activity.
"We are reducing the impact on the soil - we try to ensure that heavy machinery does not leave ruts behind. Another reason is that we want to remove infected and weakened trees before the beetles start to emerge and threaten neighboring areas," says Laganovskis.
The latest monitoring data on forest conditions show that the bark beetle population in Latvia has not significantly decreased, and the situation still requires constant attention.
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