This year, the biggest forest fire in Valka region broke out due to careless actions

This year, the largest forest fire was extinguished in the area of ​​protected landscapes “Ziemeļgauja” in Valka district. The flames have destroyed a mature forest in an area of ​​more than 14 hectares. The fire broke out in the forest during the last public holiday – just a few days after the forest fire-safe period was declared throughout the country. The State Forestry Service (VMD) estimates that the cause of the accident is most likely the reckless behavior of people, as various mechanized vehicles are increasingly driving through the forests in this area.

The damage done to the forest by the fire in the protected landscape area “Ziemeļgauja” near the Cepurīte lake will be fully judged in the autumn, when the vegetation period of the plants will come to an end and it will be clear which species have recovered after the rain. But now here you can see scorched earth and black tree trunks. “Pine is already such a lively tree that tolerates the danger of fire, probably most trees here will not have anything. But there are protected areas here, there are both roosting areas and buffer zones for hunting roosts. There is a forest of dunes, pines, rich in various plant species. now it’s the case that everything here has burned down,” says JSC “Latvijas valsts meži” East Vidzeme region firefighting specialist Mārtiņš Kudiņš.

More than 14.4 hectares of forest has burned in this area. The state forest service spent seven hours extinguishing the fire here, while “Latvijas valsts meži” monitored the area for several days to prevent new fire outbreaks.

Last Sunday, VMD used four special vehicles for extinguishing forest fires to localize the fire, 21 people were involved in the work. VMD representative Arnis Krastiņš: “There was one car up there, there was another car and there was a third car over there. The big 10-cubic barrel standing here on the road was fed to the machines along the lines, then the ten-ton barrel brought the water.”

The representative of the State Forestry Service believes that the fire was most likely caused by human actions.

Krastiņš: “Recently, a lot of people have been driving through the forest with solo mopeds, quad bikes, buggies. Just drive, as we were told by those we stopped here, that they have an official route marked here. How can there be an official route marked that during the period of fire danger in the forest you should not go off the road at all.”

There is also a sign near the burnt forest that strictly prohibits various motorized vehicles off the roads in the forest area. However, in this forest massif we found several places where motorcycles have seriously damaged the forest floor. Kudiņš: “The vegetation has been driven into the sand, and there is a significant risk that some erosion and washouts will also occur. Motorcycle exhausts get hot. It is enough to touch it here, it moves on, it moves on.”

The representative of “Latvijas valsts mežu” Kudiņš tells ReTV that it is almost impossible to catch motorcyclists who move through forests off-road, because their equipment is very powerful and fast. “Estonian riders are also recorded here. Here are the tracks, they know them, they are available in some applications. Of course, they are not coordinated with JSC “Latvijas valsts meži” in our region.”

The Association of Latvian Motorcycle Clubs has already searched for solutions to this problem together with “Latvian National Forests” and other institutions. In its secrets, Arnis Blodons ReTV states that under no circumstances is it acceptable to drive motorized vehicles off the roads in nature protected areas. “We invite those motorcyclists who think that they can do anything in the forest, knock down, ride on the undergrowth, destroy it all – no, it’s not like that. This is not how a responsible citizen of Latvia behaves, this is not how a Latvian behaves, this is not how a resident who respects the country and legislation behaves. And even legislation is not the most important thing, what is important is the attitude towards the environment in which we all live together. In this case, if it happened in a nature park, there were motorcyclists involved, it is not good behavior, there is no good understanding, it is not worthy of the name of a good motorcyclist.”

It should be mentioned that staying in the forest is not prohibited even during the fire-safe period, but the most important thing during this time is to take care of the safety of the surrounding environment and not to perform any actions that could cause a fire accident.