π Tender Overview
The Minister of The Environment approved amendments to the Special Measures for Protection and The Elimination of the Consequences of Natural Disasters in Forests, which establish a clearer, faster and more effective procedure for the application of the necessary measures for the sanitary protection of the forest, the removal of damaged trees in the event of a natural disaster in the event of a natural disaster in the forest or the attack of forests by pests.
It also determined what specific actions the State Forest Service, the State Forest Enterprise, the State Service for Protected Areas and the Department of Environmental Protection must take in such cases.
These changes were initiated taking into account the predictions of the increase of the bark beetle typographer of the most harmful pest that damages Lithuania's forests. In 2023, the most abundant population of the bark beetle typographer was recorded during the three-decade observation period. In the forests of all forms of ownership last year, the volume of spruces dried by the pest amounted to more than 1 million tons. cubic meters of wood. In the forests in the territories of Panev?ΕΎys, RokiΕ‘kis, Ε al?ininkai, Trakai and Vilnius district municipalities, in August-September, natural disasters were declared as a result. Similar trends are forecast this year.
It has been clarified and detailed what special protection measures and measures to deal with the consequences of natural disasters in forests will be applied in the event of the mass spread of bark beetle typographers of tree trunks dangerous pests, which include the immediate felling of fallen trees, the removal of damaged wood, the protection and removal of raw wood, the suspension of current and main non-scaly logging in spruce trees and other measures. There are other deadlines and protective measures for the felling of trees affected by these pests, as well as for the removal of green wood than those governed by the Forest Sanitary Protection Regulations.
The State Forest Service (VMT) no later than within 3 working days from the date of the declaration of a natural disaster in the forest will have to prepare and announce the necessary sanitary measures for the protection of the forest, collect information on the application of special measures for protection and elimination of the consequences of natural disasters in forests.
The VMT will be obliged to issue permits to cut down the forest, to register and coordinate notifications of the intention to harvest the forest by sanitary logging by sanitary logging by removing the consequences of natural disasters in the forests as a matter of urgency no later than within 5 working days from the receipt of the application for a permit, in accordance with the provisions of the Description of the Procedure for issuing permits for logging, but without applying the prohibition on logging established by the Logging Rules to carry out logging at the specified time.
The State Forest Enterprise (VMU) has been designated as responsible for the destruction of foci in places of mass spread of forest pests gnawing trees and leaves with registered aerial spraying with plant protection products when there are no other effective measures to eliminate foci.
Barkgrass typographers scour spruce trees 40 years of age and older, and first attack the fragments of small-area fir trees remaining near the foci of the barkgrass typographer and at the edges of the bare-cutters, therefore, in order to more effectively manage the foci of mass spread of the barkgrass typographer, it will be necessary to remove the potential sites of the formation of foci of mass reproduction of bark beetle typographers.
With the mass spread of the bark beetle typographer, state forest managers and private forest owners will have to immediately mark the spotted spruces with developing bark beetle typographers, cut down spruces with developing bark-gnawing typographers sanitary logging: in the early phases of beetle development β up to the formation of pupae, pupae or young beetles β no later than the arrival of a new generation of beetles.
It has been established that if, as a result of the clearing of the plateau sanitary logging stock exchange, an uncut part of the fir trees of forest groups III and IV outside the protected areas established and registered in the State Cadastre of Protected Areas and natura 2000 sites of the European ecological network or their immediate vicinity remains, an uncut part of the fir tree of 0,4 ha and less, which is not adjacent to intact fir forests aged 40 years and over, is left uncut, it will be allowed to design plateau sanitary logging over the entire spruce area.
State forest managers and private forest owners are obliged to remove wood with dangerous pests of tree trunks no closer than 2 km from the outskirts of the stand, where these coniferous species are more than 20%, or to peel off the bark from it to the formation of pupae. After hatching pupae or young beetles β no later than 3 working days after felling, remove the bark, crush it or protect it in such a way that there are no live tree trunks of dangerous pests, new generation adult pupae under the bark of trees.
From now on, when the protected areas authority massively spreads the bark beetle typographer, they will be obliged to notify the VMT of spruces or groups of spruces spotted in the forests of all forms of ownership with developing bark beetle typographers within 5 days of their detection.
Specific measures have been put in place, the application of which, in the event of the mass spread of dangerous pests of tree trunks and the barkgrass typographer, will be ensured by the operators of the electricity transmission system and the electricity distribution system when crossing fir trees in the protection zones of overhead power lines and beyond.
