10 largest oaks in Latvia

Humans are weird creatures – some eliminate large and ancient trees, others do everything to protect such natural monuments. Latvia is not an exception in this: from time to time we hear gruesome news about an ancient tree that was felled to build a house or to “eliminate dangers” to reckless motorists who can not stay on the road.

But, in general, Latvians love their ancient trees.

Nationwide search for large trees

The quest for the largest trees of Latvia continues for more than 100 years and attempts to protect the largest of them last for a similar period.

The criteria for registering such trees were elaborated throughout the decades. The latest redaction of the government decree on noble trees (in Latvian – “dižkoki”) lists criteria for the circumference at the height of 1.3 m height and the minimums height for 54 species of trees, even if only 25 of these species are local ones (1.).

Although every tree that exceeds these minimum requirements, is automatically protected by law, it is important to find them all and register. This is a joint work of a nation where everyone can send in the data of his finds. Currently, there are registered more than 11 500 such noble trees in Latvia and their number continues to grow.

The data about these trees is not that simple to access, but the trees can be seen on this public map of Latvian natural monuments (this IT system is named “Oak” – ‘ozols’!). A large on-line list (thus far – incomplete) of the largest trees of Latvia is maintained privately by Julita and Atis Kluši (2.) – it is filled with data and images!

Oaks – kings of Latvian trees

There is one native species of oaks in Latvia – common, pendunculate or English oak (Quercus robur).

These trees are much venerated in the local culture. Even if the oakwood is highly valuable, many forest workers have a habit to leave any oaks growing even in clearcuts – to keep good karma and “because, you know, this is an oak”.

In this respect, an important feature of Latvian cultural landscape is “viensētas” – standalone farmsteads. In general, Latvians in the countryside prefer to live in such “viensētas” that are located some distance – hundreds of meters or even many kilometers – away from neighboring houses. Each such farmstead over the time gets a small group of trees around it to shield the house from wind, summer heat and just, to live like a small landowner with his own small landscape park! There are more than 70 thousand of such historical standalone farmsteads in Latvia and most of them have their own small “parks”. Almost every tree is welcome in such parks but oak trees have a special value.

Oak trees form a majority of the registered 11 500 (plus) noble trees of Latvia. Minimum circumference of a noble oak tree should be 4 meters and minimum height – 32 meters. There are more than 1000 oak trees with a circumference over 5 meters.

About the list

Below are listed 10 oak trees of Latvia with the largest circumference. Each of these trees is a breathtaking natural monument and here “the largest” even does not mean “the most impressive”. For example, author was most impressed by one of the “smallest” ones in this list – Staisu Oak.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to tell the age of these oaks – core part of these trees is lost and one can not count the tree rings anymore. Most likely, their age is between 400 and 600 years.

There is some chance that this list may change in the coming years, although not that high. Oak trees of such enormous size are (almost) not discovered anymore. Some of the trees on this list seem to be close to the end of their life, but still may survive for decades. And, there is also a chance that one tree can outgrow others – such cases have been observed. For example, Sejas Oak “stands on place” but Dambji Oak increases in size quickly.

References

1. Īpaši aizsargājamo dabas teritoriju vispārējie aizsardzības un izmantošanas noteikumi, Likumi.lv. Accessed on May 29, 2023.
2. Diži koki – dižkoki, īpatnējie un kultūrvēsturiskie koki, Dziedava.lv. Accessed on May 29, 2023.