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The Twitter contest winners met up with JS “Latvijas valsts meži” (LVM) expert Diāna Marga in the nature park called “Driksnas sils”.

“We will be working today in “Driksnas sils”. We will head down the steep, winding esker in search of rare and endangered flora, check out the area where biotopes have already been tended to, making ourselves useful in tidying up the area so that the precious plant species have more sunlight, and they feel better,” Diāna Marga pointed out. 

Esker forests in Latvia

“Driksnas sils” is a high-priority conservation zone whose gems are its pine trees. Esker forests are rare in Latvia, only 0.02% of the nation's territory. Folklore calls them “billy goat's back” due to their steep incline. Eskers are found in all glaciated lowlands and highlands of Latvia, primarily in eastern Latvia and Vidzeme province. Diāna Marga points out that scientists have discovered that are are more eskers in Latvia than previously believed, with the longest at Andrupene – 58 km, while the world's most impressive one is found in Canada at a whopping 800 km. There, several eskers converged and developed into one together.

An esker's evolution

An esker is a long, winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel, examples of which occur in glaciated and formerly glaciated regions of Europe and North America. Eskers are frequently several kilometres long and are a peculiar uniform shape. Most eskers are argued to have formed within ice-walled tunnels by streams which flowed within and under glaciers. The have two slopes, with the southern one home to a number of rare, sun-loving species, like spreading Pasque-flower, sand pink (Dianthus arenarius) and the northern Dragon-head, and a variety of butterflies dwelling there, and the nothern slope - for flora craving the comfort of shade. But these days, forest trees primarily grow on eskers.

Steps taken in caring for biotopes

Every forestry each and every year holds clean-up campaigns; LVM in 2014 took care od 290 hectares. All is done to protect endangered biotopes, mating grounds for the wood grouse, for example, are one specific task that can be accomplished. “Our mission as experts is to venture into the woods, spot biotopes to be protected, register them in a special system, safeguard them, or, if necessary, plan measures that must be taken. In order to protect the high priority forest biotopes – Conifer Forest on Esker-type Terrain – structural and full-fledged functions in the “Driksnas sils” Nature Park, 7.5 hectares were tidied up,” the expert noted, underlining that a particular task was felling pesky fir trees that in many spots block the sunlight required by the pine tree. Trouble-shooting is key here, and the felled trees and branches are either removed or burned. Clearing makes way for the light, retaining or giving new life to species that are instrumental in the longevity of eskers. 

Twitter contest winners were certainly pro-active as they tackled the job in the woods. And good luck was with them, as on one esker they found two endangered species of spreading Pasque-flower – forest and meadow. Comparisons were made, and assistance from the expert sought. All together, the esker's slope was cleaned up, where sprouting just recently was the very rare northern Dragon-head (found only on eskers), and thanks to the purposeful efforts, the Dragon-head will blossom this year more vibrant than ever. 

“I am very pleased to have been able to take part in this event, and a special thank you to Diāna for the in-depth responses to our questions and the interesting course the day took. I got to know biotopes that I usually would never have noticed,” said Andra, one of the Twitter winners.