‘Common good’ must prevail over pure profit in State-owned forestry
Mammals To Left: The Lack Plants Plantations Leaves Are Life For Right Great Animals, Wildlife Of Wild Spruce Up Not Habitats Sitka Diversity Invertebrate From Little And For Room
Forestry is a contentious land use in Ireland. There are plenty who appreciate the access that upland spruce forests provide for mountain walks or hiking trails. Others are enthusiastic about the productivity, and timber is certainly something we would be doing well to produce a great deal more of in Ireland.
But there is a growing cohort of rural dwellers fed up with the expansion of forestry in places such as Leitrim and west Cavan, where farmland is increasingly planted up with spruce — and locals feel overpowered by big, outside investors.
As a young ecologist, I studied spruce plantations for my college dissertation. Spending months in upland forests, laying down quadrats, measuring light levels, and listing species, I soon learnt first-hand that Sitka spruce plantations are not great habitats for wildlife.
I have since learned just how detrimental plantation forestry can be to nature, removing entirely the habitat for ground nesting birds such as curlew, golden plover, lapwing, meadow pipit, red grouse and more. The lack of diversity leaves little room for wild plants and animals, from invertebrate life right up to mammals.
A multitude of water quality issues can also arise through the life-cycle of a plantation. Nutrient-loaded sediment washing down from clear-fell sites can be particularly detrimental to fish spawning habitats and other aquatic wildlife far downstream of the forest itself.
The Irish public are very clear that we want more forests, but of the REAL, natural, kind, not deadzone monocultures. It's also essential for nature and the climate.
— Eoghan Daltun 🌍 (@IrishRainforest) January 15, 2023
But the government, @coilltenews, and investors are all determined to force more sitka on us. Why?
$$$$$$$$$$$$$ pic.twitter.com/1lpBAGe603
In fact, both public and private forest management is so damaging to the natural environment that these conifer plantations have earned the dubious accolade of being among the leading drivers of biodiversity loss in Ireland over the past 40 years.
Environmental concerns led environmental activists in the late 1990s to query the payment of EU and State subsidies for afforestation to State-owned forestry company, Coillte. Once spotlighted, it became evident that the State-owned company was indeed not entitled to avail of these grants which were designed to encourage farmers and other private landowners to plant up land with forestry. Since then, most new forestry is planted on farmland by farmers and on private land purchased by investment funds on behalf of private investors.
We all agree on the need for more forestry but this is not the way to go about it.
— Holly Cairns TD (@HollyCairnsTD) January 21, 2023
€25 million of public money is being used to help a private company make quick profits with few tangible benefits to the Irish people. pic.twitter.com/m9I8f7fZwW
This may help to explain some of the context of recent controversy around a deal entered into by Coillte and British asset investment company ‘Gresham House’. It has been reported that these two entities have now established a new Irish-registered company called Irish Strategic Forestry Fund which will raise money from private investors and pension funds to buy up existing forestry from farmers and also buy ‘peripheral land’ for afforestation. It has been reported that Coillte has the contract to manage these forests. The advantages to Coillte of such an arrangement are obvious, considering it cannot of itself avail of EU and State subsidies for planting on land that it owns.
But this deal has opened a can of worms for forest policy in Ireland. It has acted like a spark to the kindling that is the widespread dislike for the monoculture blocks of trees that characterise forestry across Ireland. It has ignited the already smouldering resentment of rural opposition groups.
It brings sharp focus back to the role of Coillte, the State forestry company, which environmental groups have repeatedly labelled as being at best misguided and ‘not being fit for purpose’.
Meanwhile, North American Sitka spruce continues to occupy 51% of the forest area of Ireland. Lodgepole pine takes up another 9.6%. Mature plantations consist of uniform rows of these uniform trees. Is it any wonder that these forests are not popular?
The much maligned Sitka Spruce, a stunning tree in it's own environment, but grown like battery chickens in Ireland - living fast, dying young and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake https://t.co/4wV4icGjSV
— Pádraic Fogarty (@whittledaway) January 17, 2023
The forest licencing regime is fraught with issues around ongoing lack of appropriate environmental assessment and objections and appeals from several fronts. There is a great deal of frustration in the forest industry about licencing and regulation.
Review groups and advisory boards established by the Government in recent years have been working hard to agree solutions to the many challenges facing forestry and outline both a future vision for the sector and practical ‘next steps’.
Whilst all this is ongoing, Ireland still has one of the lowest proportions of forest cover in Europe. Current forest cover is 11%, but the Government target is to have 18% of land area forested by 2046.
This requires the planting of 8,500 ha per annum over the coming years. More forest could be a good thing — it is now widely accepted that sustainably managed forests can contribute significantly to climate mitigation, with biodiversity restoration and conservation benefits too. But efforts to increase forest cover have instead continued to rely on planting blocks of non-native conifers on land that is seen as being of limited value for agriculture.
Water quality concerns and impacts on wildlife are ongoing. Planting on private land is encouraged and facilitated by an enthusiastic forest industry and generous government grants.
As far as I can see, forestry will remain contentious and subject to wide opposition from a range of sectors and interests until these multiple environmental and land use issues are properly addressed. It is unlikely we will succeed in meeting the planting targets with the current model, in which just a few conifer species dominate each new forest block and both people and wildlife are excluded.
Viable alternatives to meet our domestic demand for timber do exist, including growing diverse species mixes in ‘Continuous Cover Forestry’ which delivers environmental, social and economic objectives. Approaches such as these have been slow to gain traction here.
Last week, the Citizens Assembly on Biodiversity Loss deliberated the latest developments with Coillte and its new deal with private investment fund managers. The assembly members agreed to recommend that “State-owned woodlands should be recognised and managed as a strategic long-term national asset for the benefit of the common good”.
They also agreed upon a related recommendation that the State's forestry legislation should be reviewed to “ensure biodiversity and positive ecosystem services are core objectives for Coillte”.
For Irish forestry, whether the impacts are positive or negative depends on what species mixes are planted and how the stands are managed. Decisions made now will have a huge impact on people, land and nature, far into the future. We are in a climate and biodiversity emergency, so there’s no room for the continued dependence on profit over all else.