This year's blueberry harvest in the district's forests has been abundant! Those who were not lazy and did not shy away from the difficulties associated with picking these delicious berries, which are in high demand both domestically and abroad, have been able to significantly improve their financial situation and family budget. The purchase price for pickers reached 25 thousand per kilogram! And the procurement agents were far from "going broke" this year, making substantial financial gains.
However, another aspect of this year's "berry" season was striking – the widespread use of so-called "rakes" – homemade metal claws that significantly speed up the bulk collection of blueberries, but tear off leaves and severely damage the shoots of these wild plants. As a result, these plants stop bearing fruit for up to five years, and many of them perish irreversibly. It was painful to see entire hectares of blueberry bushes, on which, after such "harvesting" in previous years, only a few scattered berries were found this year.
Having frequently visited the forest areas over the last two months, I noticed that while previously such "pickers" were somewhat cautious about openly using their illegal "devices," this year they were using them with impunity, without any fear of punishment. I don't know what this is related to, but this phenomenon has occurred. Thus, unfortunately, blueberry fields have begun to be destroyed in the most barbaric way, and it may happen that next year there will not be such an excellent berry harvest in the forests!
According to legislation, the use of "rakes" for berry picking entails administrative liability for citizens in the form of a fine of up to 20 base units, for individual entrepreneurs – 100 base units, and for legal entities – 500 base units. In previous years, there were numerous cases of detaining such offenders and imposing fines on them. This year, during raids involving employees of our inspectorate, many instances of environmental legislation violations were recorded. However, we have not yet managed to catch anyone "red-handed" with "rakes," although we are well aware of this existing problem of the ruthless destruction of berry patches, and we will continue to take practical measures to address it.
M. AZIORNY