A forest reaches the saw in one of two ways: it hits the statutory felling age, or it hits the felling diameter. This guide lays out the age table by species, explains the diameter route, and why the pine 30 / spruce 26 / birch 25 cm figures you find online were struck down in 2024 — and how to check whether a specific stand can be felled now.
Two ways a stand reaches the saw
The single most important question for a forest investment is also the simplest to state: can this stand be legally clear-cut, and if not, in how many years? Everything else — volume, price, taxes — only matters once the answer is "now" or "soon".
In Latvia a stand qualifies for final felling (galvenā cirte) on one of two independent conditions. Either the dominant species has reached the statutory felling age, or the average diameter of the dominant first-story trees has reached the felling diameter. Meeting one is enough; you do not need both. The age route is set in the Forest Law (Meža likums), the diameter route in Cabinet Regulation No. 935.
This matters because the two clocks run at different speeds. A well-stocked stand on good soil can hit the diameter long before the age — that is the whole point of the diameter rule. A slow stand on poor soil can pass the diameter threshold late and reach the age first. For screening a property you have to check both, not just the number printed on the inventory sheet.
The felling-age table
The felling age depends on the dominant species and on the site's productivity class (bonitāte) — better soils carry a higher age, because the trees keep growing valuable wood for longer. The table sits in Article 9 of the Forest Law and is the same across the country. The three columns below are bonitāte classes "I and higher", "II–III", and "IV and lower".
Two patterns are worth noting. Birch on poor soil drops to 51 years, because there is no point waiting for wood that will never improve. Pine and oak move the other way — on the poorest soils the age rises to 121, the longest in the table. For the most common commercial species — pine 101, spruce 81, birch 71 — these are the numbers a buyer should hold in their head.
- Oak — 101 / 121 / 121 years.
- Pine and larch — 101 / 101 / 121 years.
- Spruce, ash, lime, elm, wych elm and maple — 81 / 81 / 81 years.
- Birch — 71 / 71 / 51 years.
- Black alder — 71 / 71 / 71 years.
- Aspen — 41 / 41 / 41 years.
- Grey alder — no minimum felling age; it can be cut at any age.
The diameter route — and why the figures online are wrong
The diameter route lets you fell before the age, once the average diameter of the dominant species at breast height (1.3 m) reaches the value in Annex 7 of Regulation No. 935. It applies to the three commercially important species — pine, spruce and birch. Other species have no diameter threshold, so for them only the age route exists.
Here is the trap. Most tables circulating online — and even the consolidated text you will see displayed on likumi.lv — show a single set of reduced figures: pine 30 cm, spruce 26 cm, birch 25 cm, uniform across all soil classes. Those came from a 2022 amendment, and they were struck down. In case No. 2023-01-03, ruled on 8 April 2024, the Constitutional Court (Satversmes tiesa) found that the part of Annex 7 which lowered the felling diameter by dominant species and bonitāte was unconstitutional. The court's reasoning was procedural and substantive at once: the reduction did not fit the direction set in the national forest policy guidelines, and it had been adopted without the required strategic environmental assessment.
The practical consequence is the part people miss. The reduction was declared void from the moment it took effect, which means the diameters in force are the older, pre-29 June 2022 values — and those are higher and vary by bonitāte. So if you are planning a sale on the assumption that pine becomes cuttable at 30 cm, you may be wrong: in the better site classes the binding threshold is larger. Do not plan a felling, or price a purchase, off the 30 / 26 / 25 figures. Confirm the diameter that actually applies to your species and bonitāte in the current Annex 7, or ask the State Forest Service (VMD) directly before you commit.
Two extra brakes since 2025
Even when a stand clears the diameter, two further conditions can stop a felling — both easy to overlook on a quick screen.
Neither brake shows up in the headline age or diameter number. Both belong on a buyer's checklist precisely because they are invisible until you read the stand's recent history and its protection status.
- The three-year rule. Since 1 July 2025, felling by diameter is not allowed if the stand has had a thinning (kopšanas cirte) within the previous three years. A recently tended stand that looks ready on paper may be locked for up to three years.
- Protected areas. Inside specially protected nature territories the diameter route is closed entirely — you cannot use diameter to fell early there. And where a diameter clear-cut is allowed, the rules require keeping a larger number of retained living and dead-standing trees per hectare than an ordinary age-based clear-cut, which lowers the harvested volume.
How to check a specific stand
The inputs are all in the State Forest Register inventory. You need four things: the dominant species, the bonitāte, the age, and the average diameter.
The dominant species comes from the stand formula — in a formula like 4P3B2E1M the leading figure marks the dominant: P (pine) here. The bonitāte and age are recorded fields; the average diameter is recorded too. With those four you can place the stand against both tables. In a dispute the diameter is settled in the field, not on paper: an inspector measures nine first-story trees of the dominant species at breast height to the nearest centimetre and takes the average.
The paperwork follows. An age-based clear-cut needs a sketch (skice) and the boundary marked in the field (stigošana), submitted to VMD for a felling permit (ciršanas apliecinājums). A diameter-based clear-cut needs the same plus the diameter measurements proving the trees actually meet the threshold — the burden of proof is on the owner. And after the clear-cut the regeneration obligation kicks in: the law requires you to re-establish the stand within the statutory period.
This is exactly where MezaData saves the first hour. For every compartment we surface the dominant species and its age (`s10` / `a10`) and the materialized mean diameter (`d10_val`) straight from the register. That lets you pre-screen in seconds: is the age already past the statutory threshold for that species, or is the diameter close to the (correct, higher) Annex 7 value? It does not replace the official record or a field measurement — but it tells you in a minute whether a property is legally cuttable now or sitting years away, before you spend anything on it.
What it means for buying and selling
For a buyer the lesson is to separate two things that are easy to conflate: economic maturity and legal permission. A stand can be biologically ready and still years from the statutory age; another can be legally cuttable yet not worth cutting for a decade. The price you should pay depends on when the cash actually unlocks, and that is a legal date, not a feeling about the trees. A stand five years short of its felling age is a different asset from one that can be harvested this winter — even if the standing volume is identical.
For a seller the same logic runs in reverse. If your stand has just crossed the age, or genuinely meets the in-force diameter for its bonitāte, that is the moment its market value is highest and the buyer pool is widest — there is no permit risk to discount. If it is short on both clocks, you are effectively selling a future option, and the discount for the wait is fair. Either way, knowing exactly which threshold applies — and not the wrong 30 / 26 / 25 shorthand — is what keeps the negotiation honest.
FAQ
If my stand reaches the felling diameter, can I ignore the age entirely?
Yes — the two conditions are independent, and meeting the diameter is sufficient for final felling of pine, spruce or birch. But confirm the diameter that actually applies to your bonitāte: after the 2024 court ruling the binding figure is the older, higher pre-2022 value, not the 30 / 26 / 25 cm shown in most online tables. And check the two 2025 brakes — no thinning in the last three years, and no protected-area status.
I already hold a felling permit issued on the lower 2022 diameters. Is it still valid?
Treat it as uncertain and check with VMD. Because the diameter reduction was voided from the date it took effect, permits granted on stands that met only the lower threshold — and have not yet been cut — can be reviewed against the values now in force. If the stand does not meet the binding diameter and has not reached the felling age, such a permit is at risk. Do not start a felling on that basis without confirming it stands.
Which species can be felled by diameter rather than age?
Only pine, spruce and birch have a felling-diameter threshold in Annex 7. For every other species — oak, ash, lime, maple, black alder, aspen and the rest — the age route is the only way to a final felling. Grey alder is the exception in the other direction: it has no minimum age at all.
Sources
- likumi.lv — Forest Law (Meža likums), Article 9 — the statutory final-felling age table by dominant species and bonitāte (pine/larch 101/101/121, spruce 81, oak 101/121/121, birch 71/71/51, black alder 71, aspen 41).
- likumi.lv — Cabinet Regulation No. 935 "Noteikumi par koku ciršanu mežā" — the diameter route and Annex 7, the note that the reduced diameters are void in the part struck down and the pre-29.06.2022 version applies, and the rule (in force from 01.07.2025) barring diameter felling within three years of a thinning.
- likumi.lv — Constitutional Court judgment, case No. 2023-01-03 (08.04.2024) — Annex 7's reduction of the felling diameter by dominant species and bonitāte declared incompatible with Article 115 of the Constitution; reasoning that it did not fit the national forest policy guidelines and lacked a strategic environmental assessment.