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Kemeri National Park Travelers’ Day invites you to get acquainted with the rebirth of the Green Bog

Kemeri National Park (ĶNP) Travelers’ Day on October 3 this time includes a very special offer – an opportunity to go hiking to a relatively little-known and hard-to-reach area – the Green Bog, where large-scale restoration works of the high bog were completed at the end of 2019.

Aiga Priede, Nature Education Specialist of the Nature Education Center “Meža māja” of the Nature Protection Board, pointed out that the excursion to this place is organized for the general public for the first time, and it will be an opportunity to learn more about the works, their role in restoring the bog. bog regeneration processes.

Travelers’ Day is one of the most visited events in Kemeri National Park, which is traditionally held in spring. However, this year, due to the changes introduced by Covid-19, it was postponed to the autumn, changing the timing and format of the events. As a result, there was an opportunity to offer Travelers’ Day visitors something unprecedented – an excursion to the Green Swamp, which is much more environmentally friendly to visit in autumn than it would be in spring.

The green bog is one of the largest bogs in the ĶNP, which in the period from 1950 to 1960 was actively used for peat extraction. Faced with a sulfur water deposit and allowing peat extraction to endanger the mineral water formation processes important for the Ķemeri resort, the work in the bog was stopped and the site was abandoned. However, the drainage systems established in the bog continued their work in draining the area, further moving the Green bog away from the processes that should take place in it under natural conditions. As the water drained, the amount of moss forming the bog – sphagnum – began to decrease, the natural processes of bog growth and formation were significantly disturbed, the area began to be overgrown with trees and many rare plant and animal species disappeared from it.

From 2011 to 2019, within the framework of the LIFE + project “Restoration of the Hydrological Regime of Ķemeri National Park” implemented by the Nature Protection Board, large-scale restoration works were carried out in the Green Bog, interrupting the operation of amelioration systems established for peat extraction, A.Priede said.

At present, the hydrological conditions of the bog have been restored, and the Green bog has been partially deforested. But in order to completely restore the environment characteristic of high bogs, deforestation works will be continued this year and next. In parallel with deforestation works, opportunities will be considered to use this place more to create sustainable and exploratory tourism offers, enabling those interested to learn more about the high bog and its influencing factors – although preconditions for this process is very slow and will take decades.

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