Forest "Mechanizers"

Summer is the season for gathering berries and mushrooms. Everyone wants to pick berries to have something to remember in winter.

However, upon entering the forest, one might encounter an unpleasant sight: blueberry bushes are almost leafless, and the remaining berries are crushed, even though just recently black berries were ripening on these bushes. The culprits are the so-called "combine harvesters," but not those who toil in the fields harvesting crops. These are people who, for profit, use metal scrapers (the so-called "combines") to gather blueberries, lingonberries, and cranberries. These tools collect both ripe and green berries, along with leaves.

As is known, blueberry berries do not ripen all at once, but gradually. Therefore, by picking berries by hand in one spot, one can gather berries picked at different times.

But after the "commercial pickers" have passed, there is nothing left to gather in the areas they have covered.

Liability for gathering berries with such tools is provided for by parts 1 and 2 of Article 15.26 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Belarus, which entails a fine of up to 20 base units, as well as compensation for damage caused to the environment and the cost of the gathered berries.