An e-tree for Christmas
Text and photos: Kaido Einama, Reisijutud.com
Translation: Liis
Dense spruce stand in a forest section line in the process of getting overgrown. Here maybe we can find one ...
RMK, the Estonian State Forest Management Centre, offers all the opportunity to go out to fetch one’s own Christmas spruce from the forest. You can pay on the spot, and you don’t need to queue up at a paydesk in the forest to do it: just make a mobile call to a phone number.
But first some preliminaries have to be worked out on maps. We chose a familiar area for our spruce search, where we know what is privately owned forest land and what is government forest. It is of course always possible to check in the forest register database to be quite sure:
On the forest register map near Keila the green-marked areas are government owned land.
And so to a forest near Keila – on the verge of a small bog, with ditches and clearings getting overgrown with shrubs. There the smaller spruces should be growing. In government forests spruces can be cut at ditch banks, on forest section lines and in clearings under power lines, where they have no hope of growing to maturity, RMK’s web site tells us.
We had walked some ten minutes along small forest paths when we found a boar feeding ground. There had been some burrowing, but not much activity during the last few days. But soon Looduskalender’s Wild boar camera will open on this web site, with the most popular feeding ground on view.
The next forest path that we checked led to a deer feeding ground. There too all was quiet. Animals don’t like to move much in the cold. In the empty trough only some salt lumps lay around.
Further on from the feeding ground the path became more shrubby and finally we found a rather nice dense little spruce on an overgrowing forest ride. Three year old Hanna was our meter measuring stick and it was clear that the length suited too.
But first the tree had to be paid for. For a one-meter spruce the asking price was 50 Estonian krooni, so we called 900 0050 and after a recorded message explaining at length (in Estonian and Russian) about the service we were using, an SMS arrived and confirmed: the spruce was properly bought. Now we could bring out our saw.
It wasn’t really a complete e-transaction throughout, and that wasn’t needed either; spruces can be ordered from an e-shop, to be delivered at home, but now we could make the spruce-fetching trip as in the old days and honestly pay for the tree by mobile. One more novelty in our e-country.
News History
- Birder's diary - 05.02
07.02.2012. - White-tailed eagle camera caught a flashing star
07.02.2012. - Otters know how to enjoy winter
06.02.2012. - Bird feeder guest – grey-headed woodpecker
06.02.2012. - Bird feeder guest - great spotted woodpecker
06.02.2012. - Students’ tit camera
04.02.2012. - Bird feeder guest - redpoll
04.02.2012. - Birder’s diary - 2.02
03.02.2012. - Nature Year Photo 2012
03.02.2012. - ABC of winter garden birds for smart phones
03.02.2012. - Birder’s diary – summary of January
02.02.2012. - Trees of the year - the apple trees
02.02.2012. - Birder's diary - 31.01
02.02.2012. - Burbot - the only winter spawner in fresh waters
02.02.2012. - Boar at feeding ground
01.02.2012. - Ice flower time
01.02.2012. - First results of Winter Garden Bird Watch
31.01.2012. - Birder's diary - 29.01
31.01.2012. - Winter bird feeder camera guests – jay
29.01.2012. - Birder’s diary - 28.01
29.01.2012. - Ice cover on river in the morning
29.01.2012. - Birder’s diary - 27.01
29.01.2012. - Ravens flirting
28.01.2012. - Birder’s diary - 26.01
27.01.2012. - Winter bird feeder camera guest – bullfinch
27.01.2012. - Garden Bird Watch this weekend
26.01.2012. - Birder's diary - 25.01
26.01.2012. - Capercaillie - a bird of pine trees
25.01.2012. - Ice forming on rivers
25.01.2012. - Backyard Potterer’s journal: January
25.01.2012. - Where have the boars gone?
24.01.2012. - Home page of Bird of the Year open
24.01.2012. - Birder's diary - 100 species passed!
24.01.2012. - Birder's diary - 22.01
23.01.2012. - Brisk action at eagle feeding ground
23.01.2012. - Roe deer herds still seen in places
22.01.2012. - Loads of eagles ...
21.01.2012. - Visitor
21.01.2012. - "Märka mind“ – “See me"
21.01.2012. - Elk tracks in snow
20.01.2012. - Birder's diary - 18.01
20.01.2012. - Birder's diary - 17.01
19.01.2012. - Drinker moth’s caterpillars like snow
17.01.2012. - Birder's diary - 16.01
17.01.2012. - Birds of the Year: the plovers
16.01.2012. - Birder's diary - 15.01
16.01.2012. - White-tailed eagles here
16.01.2012. - The year in nature 2011: Rich and poor
15.01.2012. - Birder's diary - 14.01
15.01.2012. - Birder's diary - 13.01
15.01.2012.










