Forestry producer groups are now playing a major role in creating greater awareness about forest management from afforestation to timber harvesting.

The Limerick and Tipperary Woodland Owners Ltd (LTWO) is now regarded as one of the more progressive producer groups in the country.

Representing over 120 small-scale forest owners, the group recently hosted a visit of six Finnish foresters who spent four days in the region.

The foresters are employees of the Forest Management Association (FMA), based in Länsi-Uusimaa, west of Helsinki. FMA is one of approximately 100 private forest owners associations in Finland.

In the Länsi-Uusimaa area alone, there are 3,200 forest owners with 72,000ha of forests producing over 300,000m3 of timber annually.

“Growing conditions and of course forest history and importance to the economy are very different in Finland, so the visitors came to see how a producer group operates in Ireland and to comment on performance to date,” he said.

He outlined their schedule, beginning with a visit to Coillte’s Emo Park, Co Laois, where they were welcomed by Kevin Hutchinson, Ger Buckley, Richard Jack and LTWO members Jeremiah Long, Pierse McCann and vice-chairman Con Little.

They visited Laura and Peter Fletcher’s oak woodland near Clonmel where a presentation was given by Laura and Ted Horgan, followed by a visit to a nearby Coillte Sitka spruce continuous cover stand, where the objectives were outlined by Dr Seamus Kennedy, Forest Service and Kevin Power, Coillte.