Liepāja Municipality Wants to Cut Down National Pride – Turns Out Willow Had Secretly Grown Into a Heritage Tree

Once again, something is happening in Liepāja that Riga can only dream of – our trees grow at such a pace that even the municipality can't keep up. On Ezera Street, a willow has secretly achieved heritage tree status while people were busy with other things.

"I thought it was just our regular yard tree," says the homeowner. "But it turns out it's already 4.99 meters in circumference! I don't even have that much around myself." The municipality's Real Estate Department was ready to liquidate the tree, but fortunately someone noticed that this wasn't just any willow, but almost a national treasure.

Now the situation is like a comedy – to cut down the tree, you need an arborist's assessment and a permit from the Nature Conservation Agency. "In Riga, such trees grow for years, but nobody there pays attention," comments a local. "But our Liepāja air and proximity to the Baltic Sea – trees here grow like on yeast!"

Building Board representative Dace Freidenfelde explains that everything happened according to procedure, only nobody had expected the tree to turn out so significant. Now the willow can proudly stand on, knowing it has achieved state recognition – which in Liepāja, honestly speaking, is no miracle.