Latvia's State Forests recreation chief names five nature spots to visit before summer ends

State joint-stock company Latvijas valsts meži (LVM) maintains over 300 free recreational sites across Latvia, a network overseen by recreation and environment director Ieva Sīpola. Before joining LVM, she spent more than 15 years working in cultural heritage, including at Riga's Congress Hall, the Splendid Palace cinema, and the Spilve airport building. She entered LVM through Jaunmoku Palace, which she managed for a period before taking charge of the company's entire network of recreational sites.

Sīpola says her connection to forests goes back to childhood — she was active in the Girl Guides and Scouts until age 16, spending summers camping in forests and winters learning navigation skills.

A wide-reaching network

LVM's holdings include 45 nature trails along with numerous other attractions such as wartime bunkers, notable old trees, and memorial sites. Around 100 employees are involved in maintaining these locations, which can be found via the LVM website or the LVM GEO app. Sīpola notes that growing public interest in healthy lifestyles is driving more demand for such spaces, and says more attention is now being paid to making trails accessible to people with mobility impairments. She also points to a decline in littering in recent years, crediting both the bottle deposit system and the long-running "Don't Litter in the Forest!" awareness campaign featuring the mascot Cūkmens.

Five recommendations for summer

Sīpola recommends visiting the Ūdru Hill observation tower in Kurzeme, which offers views over Lake Usma and the surrounding area; the nature trails around Baldone, which include cultural-historical and military heritage sites; one of the bog trails, such as the Vasenieki or Niedrāju-Pilka trail; the Vijciems cone-drying facility, where an old pinecone kiln still operates; and the Skrīveri Dendrological Park, established back in 1891.

For planning trips, routes jointly developed by LVM and rail operator ViVi can also be useful, offering recreational sites across Latvia reachable by train.