Are any people here involved in the reversal of this trend?
I plan on returning home soon and the drive for more native broadleaf forest cover is something I would love to get involved with.
by shadowgroover
Are any people here involved in the reversal of this trend?
I plan on returning home soon and the drive for more native broadleaf forest cover is something I would love to get involved with.
by shadowgroover
45 comments
Damn immigrant trees taking over our native lands
How long does a conifer species have to be growing in Ireland before it’s considered “native”?
Christ, there are bigger problems.
The concept of native tree is ever evolving. There was trees there before those native trees.
If anything, the new trees are arguably more native than the ones you’re talking about. They’re redefining a new era of trees in the country.
It’s all those garbage trees that landowners get grants to plant. Densely packed scrawny things that just die after about 5 years. total joke.
Are we angry with non native trees now too?
Honestly sitka spruce farms should not be counted as forest coverage, it’s entirely misleading to the figures and is a bad faith interpretation of the goals for reforestation.
Yea, I don’t give a shite.
It’s construction timber. We need construction timber.
Why are they planted? Building materials? Fire wood?
Any plans on how you are going to drive this?
There is a new afforestation grant scheme this year which incentivises native hardwood above spruce. Hopefully it will improve the percentage.
There is a serious problem in the Forest Service, idk is it understaffed or just a typical shitty government department where motivation goes to die, but there is and has been for a very long time been an issue with granting planting licences. It might take years from someone applying for a licence and actually getting it. Something like 50% of licences then don’t get planted because presumably the person has changed their minds or their circumstances have changed.
Currently there is no incentive to replant spruce clear felled forests with native trees. Imo this is how you get more hard wood forests but the government only care about overall forest cover targets and very little about quality.
Now don’t get me wrong I understand the need for spruce for meeting our own timber needs and it can undoubtedly play a role in carbon sequestration so I don’t think every forest should be native. The right tree in the right place and no trees in someplace.
Thing is, people complain there are no native forests or trees etc, but then when Coillte tear down areas of non-native species to put in native species, you get complaints…
Considering you’re damned if you do and damned if you dont (in all aspects of life) why bother at all?
Why do people faily to realise that these are farms and not really forests. Regardless of the type of tree, whats more shocking is how much is agriculture.
They’ve recently overhauled the national forestry strategy so that the grants strongly favour native woodland – https://www.ifa.ie/forestry-programme-2023-2027/. So I’m confident that we’ll see much more broadleaf woodland planted in the future.
Last year only 38% of new forestry was Sitka Spruce – https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/area-of-sitka-spruce-being-planted-continues-to-decrease/.
Credit goes to Pippa Hackett of the Green Party. Fair play to her for overseeing the entire process, without alienating the forestry managers that have been fixated on spruce for so long
I’m shocked by how little actual forest we have compared to other European countries.
I’m actually surprised it isn’t a higher %
Kip, their taking our broadleaf now. Brits out.
Sitka spruce are also terrible for biodiversity. They acidify the soil which makes it hard for other plants to compete and they don’t produce any fruits, nuts or detritus that supports an ecosystem.
They should all be torn down and replaced with better trees (with the exception of mountainous/rocky areas that they’re suited for)
Worth remembering …. A forest is a commercial venture and a woodland is natural. So this is basically stating the balance of species in commercial forests and not including the natural woodlands.
Fucking non native conifers coming in here and taking away jobs from native trees.
It is a national disgrace. Part of the problem is the crowd in charge of reforestation are the same crowd in charge of managing our commercial forests. They need to be separated.
Eucalyptus is next on the menu. Watch this space.
You can’t build a forest overnight 😉
Seriously though, there is huge investment in reversing this trend, it just take time. There’s also other factors to consider such as ash dieback which helps decimate numbers. I believe Tomnafinnoge is having oak disease troubles lately too.
Here’s our National Forest Inventory with an announcement of €1.3b invested.
https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/81865-broadleaf-forests-expand-to-cover-nearly-one-third-of-estate-irelands-fourth-national-forest-inventory-published/
We’re on the right track so it’s not really an “absolute joke”. It’s an inherited problem that we’re working towards fixing.
Coillte cleared a load out of a forest I walk in. Was hoping they would replant with native species but shitty spruce went back in.
I’ve heard they don’t even produce great timber in our climate as they grow too fast and the timber isn’t as dense as the colder climates they are native to.
Tempted to pull a few up and throw down a few acorns down but obviously won’t as would be breaking the law.
Should we be planting some non native trees in mixed species forests too? Don’t shoot me but the Irish climate has changed and will continue to change with the increase in global warming events. Some of our native species will struggle to survive so shouldn’t we be looking at what trees can thrive in warmer summers? I know Kew Gardens are researching this at the moment for the UK.
“Absolute joke “???
Some people will get outraged by anything!
And conifers do fuck all for wildlife. Its essentially barren underneath on the ground.
Has the government done absolutely anything to undo the British rape of Ireland since we won our “freedom” from the British?
Or has James Connolly once again, predicted how much of a shite gov we would have post independence
Totally agree.
I don’t consider them forests either, they are crops.
I took a train once from The Algarve to Lisbon and was blown away by how much of the Portuguese countryside is woodland. Portugal’s forestry coverage rate (38.1%) is more than 3x Ireland’s (11.6%). Our lack of natural woodland or wilderness is genuinely sad.
If the intention is to chop it down and sell one day, it isn’t a forest, it’s a wood farm.
Honestly the idea that not all land has to generate money is so alien to us…
MILITARY AGED CONIFERS
Those bloody foreign pollinators are taking our fields.
These foreign trees, coming over here, stealing our Carbon Dioxide, water and sun light.
We should look after our own instead of all these spongers.
OP has never been in the forest or built something with timber.
Starts bitching about our only economically viable locally produced sustainable timber.
Mad at the people who cut the trees down 400 years ago.
I <3 Sitka spruce.
I’m confused about the term non-native. How far do trees have to exist to be considered native? Genuine question.
I had a meeting with a Teagasc forestry adviser this week after having a forester out to the backfield last week. I am hopefully going to successfully apply to the Native Tree Area scheme and get some native bois in there.
Until looking into this I had no idea that you need a license to plant trees in Ireland when planting >0,1ha and 20m wide. I had planted trees in the field before which ended up becoming deer food but the idea of a license never so much as occurred to me. Kinda seems like that is counter productive to increasing tree coverage. If private landowners are willing to do so at their own dime, why not let them have at it?
That’s is shocking because you can’t grow on that land after them from what I hear. We need do something about this.
Yeah. It’s heartbreaking. My childish dream has always been to plant a sizeable woodland/ small forest.
I’ve now now got 2 businesses almost ready to sell. When I do, that is what almost all the money will go towards.
70% of the way there.
🌳🌳🌳
fun fact: about 30 ish years ago I think they tried to sell and cut down a large area of the Killarney national park that is some of the best preserved and oldest old grown forests in Europe!
And before you head to a forest foe a nice day out walk make sure it’s not one of these. Nice views away from it but boring as hell to be in walking around, looking at it. You want one of those proper tree forests for your day out.
My eldest is studying environmental science and biodiversity… the sheer amount of invasive species here is shocking. Our own town doesn’t even *have* a biodiversity plan in place.
It is mad walking or driving around certain ‘beautiful’ counties, in fact, most of them, and it’s the exact same trees everywhere. It’s bewildering that places like Wicklow forests aren’t obliged to keep the native trees. You do Glendalough, the most famous walk close to Dublin, and parts of it are always just deforested which is depressing or are all spruce. I actually noticed when I was down around Waterford recently a lot was broadleaf and it was striking in how unusual and beautiful it was. I really hope this can change too ❤️
What’s the joke here? We need timber as a renewable material. Native forests won’t do that for circa 80-250 years. If you want cheaper houses, an alternative to plastics, biofuel, mitigate farming carbon emissions, mitigate incoming EU carbon sanctions, a reduction in climate change temp increases, habitat for red squirrels, pine Martens, raptors, deer – then conifers can assist you. Every once in a while absolute novices throw out their outrage and quote Dalton, they literally have no clue.
Meaning that 4.6% of the country has native trees on it. Not great.
Didn’t we pass something to stop this kind of thing recently?