By stocking the Padedze River reservoir with 50 thousand Brown Trout fry at the end of June, the stocking with Brown Trout fry within the project “The Return of a Million Trout” initiated by Skonto būve came to a close. In total this year the river reservoirs have been stocked with 250 thousand Brown Trout fry. The next stocking with Brown Trout fry is planned for the spring of next year.

To restore the population of Brown Trout within the project “The Return of a Million Trout” initiated by Skonto Būve, within four years the rivers of Latvia will be stocked with million Brown Trout fry – each year with 250 thousand.

The release sites of the fry have been chosen according to the scientific research data of Latvian rivers in order to restore the population of Brown Trout in rivers appropriate for Brown Trout, but where there are no or very few trout and where their further development is endangered.

A permit has been received from the Food Safety, Animal Health and Environmental Scientific Institute BIOR to stock 7 river reservoirs of Latvia with Brown Trout fry – reservoirs of the Ogre, the Jugla, the Lielupe, the Venta, the Engure, the Gauja and the Padedze Rivers.

The stocking of the rivers with Brown Trout fry were implemented by the association We – for the fish, and bred by three Latvian hatcheries – BIOR hatchery Tome, SIA Faps and farm Sillakas.

To restore the population of Brown Trout within the project “The Return of a Million Trout” initiated by “Skonto Būve” the rivers of Latvia will be stocked with new life – one million Brown Trout fry.

On 9 June under the supervision of ichthyologists Māris Olte and Armands Roze the Ogre River was stocked with the first 50 000 Brown Trout fry by the initiator of the project, “Skonto Būve” Chairman of the Board Guntis Rāvis and the Minister of Environment Raimonds Vējonis. By the end of June another 200 000 will be stocked in other rivers of Latvia.

Guntis Rāvis, “Skonto Būve” Chairman of the Board: “Even at the beginning of the last century, Brown Trout were widespread throughout Latvia, but now a Brown Trout is a rare catch for fishermen and now it lives only in about 200 rivers. Despite that, the Brown Trout is not included in the list of specially protected fish, also up to now there have been no state support programs to replenish their population. Therefore we decided to propose a private initiative and within four years to stock the rivers of Latvia with one million Brown Trout fry, 250 000 each year.”

The release sites of the fry have been chosen according to scientific research data of the Latvian rivers in order to restore the population of Brown Trout in rivers, that are appropriate for Brown Trout, but where there are none or very few trout and where their further development is endangered.

A permit has been received from the Food Safety, Animal Health and Environmental Scientific Institute “BIOR” to stock 7 river reservoirs of Latvia with Brown Trout fry and 37 release sites have been chosen. Within the four years the trout release sites will remain the same in order to provide natural reproduction after the implementation of the project in specific rivers taking into account the life cycle of Brown Trout.

According to the order by “Skonto Būve” Brown Trout fry were bred by three Latvian hatcheries – “BIOR” hatchery “Tome”, SIA”Faps” and farm “Sillakas”. The stocking of the rivers with fry is implemented by the association “We – for the fish”.

“Skonto Būve” has been acknowledged as the company with the best reputation in the field of building and real estate, according to the chart of the reputation of Latvian companies established by newspaper “Diena” and the public relations agency “Nords Porter Novelli”.

The reputation of a company is assessed by a survey, which establishes the opinion of the residents as well as the entrepreneurs, evaluating the Latvian companies according to various criteria. Environmental responsibility of the company is a criterion, in which this year “Skonto Būve” has received the highest evaluation from both – residents, as well as entrepreneurs.

This year in the overall chart of the reputation of Latvian companies “Skonto Būve” holds position No. 84. In comparison with last year “Skonto Būve” has climbed 22 places in the overall reputation chart, which is one of the most rapid climbs of any Latvian company.

At the closing ceremony of the functional design ideas competition “Dizaina Tramplīns” organised at gallery “Daugava”, Chairman of the Board of Skonto Būve Ltd. and Board Member of Skonto Plan Ltd., Guntis Rāvis congratulated the authors of the best works, awarding diplomas and valuable cash prizes.

The jury awarded the first prize to designers Jānis Bičkovskis and Arvīds Endziņš, who received a cash prize of 3000 lats for the cutters they both jointly developed for the convenient opening of various packaging. The consolation prizes of 1000 lats were awarded to Intars Ozols for an original wall lamp and Jānis Indriksons for outdoor benches, but consolation prizes of 500 lats – to Rihards Funts for a multi-functional shelf and Laima Laizāne for an original interior object for holding magazines and books. 

As Guntis Rāvis said in the awards ceremony, two of the competition works – cutters for the convenient opening of various packaging and the original wall lamp designed by Intars Ozols are planned to be implemented in production at the emerging Skonto Plan Ltd. plant of non-standard metal production. 

“The competition proved that there are many successful designers right here in Latvia, who can provide competitive ideas, but participation of the manufacturers is insufficient, in order to implement these ideas. The professional evaluation of the jury helped the designers to understand themselves, which products are those that can be actually manufactured,” said the initiator of the competition Guntis Rāvis. Not only professional designers and artists could submit their applications for the competition “Dizaina Tramplīns”. Applications for functional design products of stainless steel, aluminium and metal were accepted from any author of creative ideas. 

The finalists presented their works before the jury, comprised of various field experts – Director of the Promotional Foundation for the Visual Arts and gallery “Daugava” Anda Treija, Member of the Board of the Latvian Designers Union Anita Grase, Board Members of the company Skonto Plan Ltd Guntis Rāvis and Ainars Birkmanis, Manager of the RTU Engineering Technical Design Programme Jānis Vība, metal artist and designer Ainars Sils, interior designer Armands Vecvanags, expert of social business and innovation Fionn Dobbin and the Creative Director of advertising agency “!Mooz” Ēriks Stendzenieks. 

The following aspects were set as the judging criteria: the originality of the idea, the design of the product, the technical performance, the practical application, the production specifics, costs and technological possibilities, as well as the possible future demand of the product. 

The competition “Dizaina tramplīns” was organised at the initiative of the Promotional Foundation for the Visual Arts and company Skonto Plan Ltd, in order to provide the designers in Latvia a possibility to receive financial support for the implementation of their ideas in real life and to apply the best of them in production.

Patron of the LielāTalka,State President Valdis Zatlers, expressed his gratitude to the organisers and supporters of the LielāTalka, as well as to all the participants for their activeness and enthusiasm in cleaning up Latvia for the fourth year already.

During the meeting State President awarded Skonto Būve, the general sponsor of the Lielā Talka a Certificate of Appreciation, expressing gratitude for the involvement in the project.

State President Valdis Zatlers: “Thank you for your investment in the organisation of the Lielā Talka of 2011 and the active participation in the development of the campaign idea, in the continuation of the tradition, as well as in the implementation of a national level event! Participation in the cleanup of our country promotes positive emotions and joy, as well as improves the feeling of unity and satisfaction for the completed work. The Lielā Talka of this year proves that an increasing number of the residents of Latvia are ready to take active part in caring about a clean environment, providing their investment in the recovery of our land and demonstrating love toward our country not just in words, but by actions.”

A record number of participants took part in the Lielā Talka this year – 190 thousand. For the fourth time in Latvia, the movement and environment cleanup campaign, the Lielā Talka, was organised in Latvia, which invites every resident to participate in cleaning up waste in their country as well as in the redevelopment of it. The goal of the Lielā Talka is, by 2018, the 100^th anniversary of Latvia, to make Latvia the cleanest and tidiest place on the world map.