The World Wildlife Fund in cooperation with Carnikava County municipality and the Association “Baltic Shores”, within the LIFE CoHaBit project, organized a habitat restoration clean-up in Carnikava, in the Nature Park “Piejura”.
On 15th September of this year, a habitat restoration clean-up was held in Carnikava, during which various methods of habitat restoration were applied. In total, more than 50 representatives of the company Coca-Cola HBC Latvia participated in the clean-up. The participants were divided into three working groups, where each group had its own task.
The first group carried out shifting dune reinforcement works, during which the participants made reed fences along the edges of the footbridge at the exit to the beach. Considering the amount of work, one reed fence was created during the clean-up and preparatory work was carried out – piles were built, cords were made and bundles of reeds were created – so that the work could continue after the clean-up as well. The formation of reed fences is a common anti-erosion method elsewhere on the European coast, but in Latvia this kind of fences was not used anywhere else, so the experience gained in the clean-up is very important and valuable in the context of reinforcement of the dunes along the Latvian coast.
The second group carried out branching works, or made branch “patches” for the open sand areas in the dunes. During the event, deflation pits (medium-sized sandy areas) were filled because they are subject to intense anthropogenic load. The branching method is used because it stops the sand from leaving the relevant territory and, eventually, the branching will be blown with the sand and a new vegetation will form in these places.
The third group restored the grey dune by weeding the small pine trees. Grey dunes are overgrown and their areas in Latvia and Europe are rapidly decreasing, so they are included in the list of protected habitats.
