Riga City Council Housing and Environment Department continues planting large trees in various neighbourhoods of the capital this autumn. This spring, the Department planted 89 large trees in public green spaces, with a further 67 planned for the second half of October. The trees will be delivered from a nursery in Germany. The species will include various limes, oaks, maples, horse chestnuts, rowans, Canadian poplars, and decorative apple trees
The Department planted 170 new large trees in the city’s streets last year, with 23 European limes, 85 red maples, 43 pin oaks, six common oaks, ten northern red oaks and three katsuras.
These large trees get special care for at least 10 years after planting. Watering and fertilisation are the main focus at the beginning, forming the crown of the trees every other year. The Department’s experts inspect the trees are inspected a few times a year to assess their development and growing conditions. If the trees grow more slowly than they should over these ten years, the experts look for the causes and try to help the trees. Over the last three years, the conditions for the trees have been improved by additionally feeding them sieved compost, bio-active substances, and slow-release fertiliser.
The felling of dead and otherwise damaged trees also continues in Riga. The Department’s experts conduct surveys of trees and collect reports from local residents, after which felling permits are issued, cutting the trees down over time if they are not deemed dangerous. For dangerous trees or branches, information about them immediately goes to the contractor, so that they can do the work quickly.
If local residents find a potentially dangerous tree among urban greenery or near education institutions, they should report it to the Housing and Environment Department, by calling 67474700 during office hours, or by e-mailing the department, at dmv@riga.lv. In the evenings, at night, and on weekends, dangerous or fallen trees must be reported to the State Fire and Rescue Service, by calling 112. The service will either remove the hazard or pass the information on to the municipal government.
Tree crown maintenance also takes in the city’s green spaces every year, and involves a whole range of tasks: raising or lowering the crowns, paring branches near road signs, buildings, house roofs, street lights, removing dead, overgrown, diseased branches and branches poorly connected to the trunk, thinning crowns, and other work.
Riga’s residents usually enjoy the results of the work done by arborists who regularly improve the appearance of trees. An example of it is the row of pollarded lime trees on Alberta Street, where pruning the crowns made it possible to view Modernist architecture there; there are also the once too thickly planted oaks at Buļļu Street, a beautiful lime hedge at the intersection of Melnsila and Āgenskalna Streets, and the hedges at Mīlgrāvja and Aizsaules Streets.
The Environmental Division of the Housing and Environment Department manages the greenery in the city’s streets and near municipal education institutions, while the municipal company ‘Rīgas meži’ is in charge of Riga’s parks. The Department of Transport plants new trees as part of street renovations, with several dozen trees already planted in the streets of the Centre district this year.
Information prepared by: Mārtiņš Vilemsons, Project Coordinator at External Communication Division of Riga City Council Communication Department, e-mail: martins.vilemsons@riga.lv