When Western Forestry Co-op CEO Marina Conway put up a slide showing what the tax-free premium was and now will be for planting native woodland at a Woodland Creation Open Day this week in Sligo, there was a very audible gasp around the room. Under the old forestry premium scheme, for a farmer planting 10ha of native woodland, there was €99,750 available over 15 years, tax free. From 1 January 2023 this will be €220,600 in total over 20 years.

To convert this to old money, over the course of 20 years the farmer will get €4,500/ac in premiums alone, get a grant to establish and fence it, claim any existing BPS entitlements, and then have a crop of timber to sell. For a farm business with little cash reserves, this becomes attractive.

Some forestry land costs only €4,500/ac to purchase outright. Under the new scheme, the premiums will deliver good repayment capacity for those farmers interested in buying land for forestry or to afforest some existing owned land. Long-term, farmers will still need good advice in terms of the return on investment.

All that said, farmers have to set aside at least 30% of their land for native broadleaves and unplanted biodiverse areas. This reduces the productive area of forest land to 70%. While the premiums cover 100% of the new forest for 20 years, many farmers believe an ecosystem payment for non-productive but biodiverse-rich land should be considered after the premium period lapses.

All farmers in

The other significant scheme Conway highlighted, the Native Tree Area Scheme, applies to all farmers, not just those private landowners considering more large-scale planting. Over the last number of years, I’ve been on many cattle and dairy farms where farmers would like to plant one or two hectares of land that hasn’t been very productive up to now. This native tree scheme now allows farmers do this, without a licence, and over 10 years to claim €22,000/ha tax free, on top of the BPS payment.

Financing tree planting is one thing but the longevity of the decision to plant trees jars with a lot of Irish farmers as they consider future inheritance and think back to when they inherited land. In many cases, their ancestors had spent years and years clearing stones and trees to try to make more productive land to allow them grow forage or grain for livestock.

The new programme deserves support and will need to be researched case by case, farm by farm, the same way as organic farming needs to be road-tested farm by farm.

We also need to learn from the mistakes of the past in terms of planting locations and the types of trees for different land types. The message in Sligo this week was planting on peat land or bog has not been a runner for decades, and matching tree type to land type is critical to the success of the crop. Good brown earth soils can carry oak while dauby soil is more suited to alder, birch and willow.

Forestry has to be treated similarly to agriculture so that farmers can make the transfer to this long-term land use without having to wait years for a licence. Likewise, it is a pity the Government hasn’t made a decision on what way carbon credits or debits will be managed from a new plantation.

Let’s be clear, forestry, like farming, carries its risks – losses at establishment, disease, fire and wind damage to list a few. Ash dieback in forestry terms is as big, if not a bigger, disaster as TB can be for livestock farmers.

There is no doubt the money is on the table for those who purely look at the returns for the next 20 years. In one way, the Department had no choice but to produce an ambitious new forestry programme. A key deciding factor will likely be the commitment to pay for this public good beyond the premium end date or generate an income from carbon sequestration. The development of a verifiable carbon market for farming is critical. Farmers now plant a miniscule 360ha of trees annually compared with close to 10,000ha two decades ago. By any metric, the new €1.3bn programme is a major State initiative.