“Do you have wolves? Do they eat beavers who build dams on rivers? Are the cycles of river basin management plans comparable with those in Denmark?” These and other questions were raised during the visit of a Danish delegation to Latvia. Representatives from Danish LIFE programme thematic projects, several municipalities, environmental institutions and other organisations visited Latvia on 1-3 June this year to learn not only from LIFE GoodWater IP, but also from LIFE IP LatViaNature, LIFE For Species and urbanLIFEcircles projects, which are directly related to conservation, research and restoration of nature values.

The information session of the experience exchange event, which took place on 2 June in Sigulda, was opened by a presentation on water resources management in Latvia by Kristīna Veidemane, Chair of the Board of the Baltic Environmental Forum Latvia (BEF Latvia) and expert at LIFE GoodWater IP expert. She also provided an insight into the LIFE GoodWater IP project. Dāvis Ozoliņš, researcher at the Institute of Biology of the University of Latvia, reported on the conservation status and extinction risks of macroinvertebrates in Latvian streams and rivers. His presentation reflected on work done for the LIFE for Species project. Dr. Agnija Skuja, senior researcher at the Institute of Biology of the University of Latvia, presented invertebrate fauna as one of the indicators of the quality of freshwater habitats. Dr. biol. Laura Grīnberga’s research focuses on macrophytes and therefore she outlined the role of aquatic plants in assessing the quality of freshwater habitats. The presentation session was concluded by Inga Pikšena, coordinator at the LIFE IP LatViaNature project, who reported on the Habitat Action Plans developed during the project.

The second part of the day was dedicated to a tour of the 3 LIFE GoodWater IP demonstration sites. The first one was a constructed wetland created on a straighted stretch of the river Aģe. The Aģe Constructed Wetland is possibly the largest constructed wetland in the Baltics. It was built on the river as the largest of the various elements of the Rural Sustainable Drainage Systems (RSuDs). Its shallow water zones facilitate nitrogen and phosphorus compound uptake in aquatic plant biomass, but the deep water zones allow for sedimentation (deposition of sand and finer fractions as well as detritus) processes to take place. The aim of this artificial wetland is to improve the physico-chemical quality of the water, providing better ecological conditions for fish and other river inhabitants downstream where the natural course of the River Aģe resumes.

Next, the delegation was taken to see the work carried out near the Tora river – a tributary of the Aģe River. There, Ilmārs Bodnieks, Environmental Project Manager of JSC “Latvia’s State Forests”, and Toms Štāls, researcher at LVMI “Silava”, presented a sedimentation basin with a spillway dam created on a forest drainage ditch. Mr. Štāls also talked about the diversification of the forest stand on the banks of the Tora River which was done by cutting down spruce trees growing on the banks of the river and replacing them with stands of deciduous trees. Monitoring is also important in implementing any changes, and therefore forest cameras were also discussed. Some of them serve for phenology monitorings and others record forest animals. Tree litter is also collected and analysed in the area, and groundwater levels are monitored, too.

After a delicious break, enjoying homemade ice-cream at “Ceplīši”, the last point – another tributary of the Aģe, the Mazupīte river – was visited. While the constructed wetland on Aģe “fights” with nutrients and soil particles brought by runoff from agricultural lands, and the solutions in Tora basin demonstrate the effectiveness of sustainable drainage system elements in woodlands, the restoration of the Mazupīte has also focused on the well-being of migratory fish. The Mazupīte has been restored for more than 3 km (about 30% of the total river length), 3 sedimentation basins have been created (to be cleaned this year) and 2 cattle watering/river crossing points have been created. These solutions help to reduce the deposition of sand and finer fractions as well as detritus on the river substrate – gravel and pebbles – which are very important for fish spawning. A rock pile has been removed and artificial riffles and spawning areas have been created. The river was restored in 2023, and already last year our researchers spotted brown or brook trout babies in the restored stretches, and lamprey spawning in the created spawning areas, too.

We would like to thank LIFE Support Unit (Latvia), Baltic Environmental Forum and colleagues from the University of Latvia for coordinating the exchange trip!