Minister prioritises planting and wood mobilisation

When Andrew Doyle was appointed Minister of State with responsibility for forestry on 19 May last year, virtually everyone in the forestry and forest products industry welcomed his appointment, not least because of his experience and knowledge of the sector.

He is the first minister with the portfolio to have a practical and theoretical knowledge of forestry based on his experience as forest and farm owner, as well as his parliamentary experience, especially as chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture.

In this role, he encouraged forestry stakeholders to submit their views, which were incorporated in the committee’s Report on Land Use: Maximising its Potential.

So, when he was appointed Minister of State, he was conscious that expectations were high as a result of his forestry track record. In a recent interview with the Irish Farmers Journal, he outlined his own expectations.

Afforestation

He is well aware that in areas such as afforestation the forestry programme faces serious challenges, as planting figures are down on last year.

“The afforestation performance last year at 6,500ha was close to our target, but despite the drop in planting this year, I remain ambitious regarding the forestry programme, in particular afforestation and wood mobilisation,” he said.

“Afforestation is the biggest single issue facing the forestry programme and this is being discussed in the mid-term review,” he said.

He acknowledged the barriers in achieving a strong afforestation programme. “There are a number of reasons, including land availability which is a big one,” he maintained.

“We have competitive issues, especially on better-quality land where taxation codes are favourable towards long-term leasing of land for farming without the commitment for replanting. We are working off a diminishing platform, but there is still plenty of scope.”

In reply to questions about forestry competing with agriculture and barriers to afforestation such as the 20% rule which virtually banned forestry on unenclosed marginal land, he maintained this was one of a number of contributory factors.

He said the assessment of land suitability by vegetation analysis would free up some unenclosed land for planting. In this regard, assessment of land, based on the Forest Service land types for afforestation was proving successful.

However, he said much more work needed to be done and maintained that “discussions with the Commission on the 20% rule should provide a positive outcome, as this has proved a cumbersome tool to create environmental restrictions”. He said he was hoping to announce a positive conclusion to these talks.

Collaboration

He outlined a number of other issues that were important in achieving a viable afforestation programme, including Areas for Biodiversity Enhancement (ABE), the hen harrier threat response plan, grant and premium rates, and species diversity including broadleaf planting.

He said the collaboration between all stakeholders on the ABE issue illustrated how positive outcomes are achievable (see panel).

Regarding areas precluded from planting due to hen harrier protected areas, he was positive about discussions that were continuing between the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

“The hen harrier is an important rare upland bird of prey and is protected under EU law. Forests cover substantial areas of the hen harrier SPAs and young forests are important habitats for hen harriers.

“This is a very important point that we have emphasised in the discussions and I think it is important in the interest of hen harrier conservation that the final plan will take this into account.”

He said that the mid-term review was examining areas of the forestry programme which would increase incentives to plant. It was too early to provide specific examples, but he said: “We are looking at proposals seeking an increase in the grant and premium category (GPC) rates and reconstitution grants, as well as proposals seeking an increase for items such as fencing.”

Regarding the planting of native and more diverse species, he outlined the challenges, especially in recent years as the future of ash has been threatened by Chalara dieback caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus and infection of larch caused by Phytophthora ramorum.

“Disease infection of ash and larch has meant that we have had to reset the clock to achieve our broadleaf and diverse conifer planting targets,” he claimed.

He acknowledged that finding a replacement for ash in particular was proving challenging, but he remained committed to a diverse species forestry programme including native species.

Wood mobilisation

Minister Doyle outlined a number of areas which were vital in maximising wood mobilisation, including forest road construction and training harvesting machine operators.

When asked how wood mobilisation could be optimised when the forest roads programme had fallen from 105km in 2010 to 62km last year, he claimed that recent developments would benefit wood mobilisation.

“The forest road programme had reached 70km by October compared with a total of 52km achieved last year, which shows that we are moving in the right direction,” he said.

“We need to get road applications and approvals expedited to maximise the value of thinning. This will require a combination of factors, including grant approvals, roading density and the need to take into account the cost of construction and the value of thinning, so that nobody is out of pocket.”

However, he maintained that one of the main barriers has been the consent system or who is the final arbiter in granting of planning approval for forest roads.

“We need a single entity to deal with forest road planning approval and this will be achieved through an amendment in the current Planning & Development (Amendment) Bill,” he said.

“This will ensure that forest roads exiting to all public roads – except national primary routes – will require the sole consent of the Minister with responsibility at DAFM.”

Resting responsibility for granting roading planning approval in the Department which has responsibility for forestry is a major achievement he believes.

Promotion

He is a strong advocate of positive forestry promotion and outlined some of the promotional initiatives. “I’ve seen at first hand the importance of the Teagasc programme including their Talking Hardwood events.

He said that it was important to continuously promote the benefits of forestry. He was disappointed with the recent EPA poster which portrayed forestry in a negative light.

“Lack of communications and a knowledge of the clear benefits of forestry – conifers and broadleaves – may have been a factor in this,” he said.

“For example, when the EPA produces a poster that goes into schools, they should check the accuracy of their information”, which he says shouldn’t be difficult “as they reside in the same building as the Forest Service”.

The poster is being changed to read: “Properly sited and managed woodlands and forests can protect our waters.”

Training

The private forestry sector is relatively young in Ireland, so knowledge dispersal is vital in areas such as “forest management, harvesting and transport,” he maintained.

He is particularly keen on the establishment of more knowledge transfer groups (KTG), which will help to increase the level of forest management activity among participating forest owners and to increase awareness of the value of their forests and forest products.

He pointed to initiatives such as the new felling guidance tool and forest certification. “Also, training for machine operators in Ballyhaise using a harvesting simulator and initiatives such as the provision of support for the adoption of central tyre inflation technology by timber hauliers, are proving successful.”

Good progress on Areas for Biodiversity Enhancement (ABEs)

Minister Doyle said the sector acknowledged the environmental importance of ABEs which occupy up to 15% of the total area of new planting sites. He said his officials had responded to the recent IFA’s criticism that farmers were required to “set aside land in excess of the 15% that is currently grant aided under the Afforestation Scheme”.

He outlined progress made between his officials and stakeholders including a system that would not require farmers to set aside land for environmental enhancement for which they receive no premium payment.

“The message from the Department to farmers who maintain they won’t get paid for unplanted land in excess of 15% biodiversity is that the new arrangement will mean that farmers will be paid for the full gross area,” he said. But why not compensate farmers who exceed the 15% biodiverse areas as requested by the IFA and the Irish Forestry and Forest Products Association (IFFPA).

“Let’s allow the new system to work first and I believe it will work in well over 90% of the cases, so farmers will not be required to exceed the 15% ABE threshold,” he said.

“For example, we were shown a specific case of where the ABE was as high as 24%, but with interpretation of the rules as currently applied this was brought down to just over 17%. With some amendments to the rule regarding setbacks, that was brought down further to 8% and the site still adhered to all the environmental guidelines.”

When he was asked about consistency in interpreting the new changes to the 15% ABEs he said that Forest Service inspectors, foresters and landowners now have clear guidelines and in addition, training courses have been organised. Since the interview, four short half-day courses have been held in Counties Leitrim and Cork. The IFA, Mark McAuley of IFFPA and a number of foresters contacted have been positive about this development. “The changes to how ABE is calculated are a very positive development and will ensure that the vast majority of applications are within the 15% ABE payable under the scheme,” said IFA farm forestry chairman, Pat Collins.

Minister aware of calls for development agency

Minister Doyle is aware of the call for an independent forestry development agency (FDA), which has been repeatedly made by a number of people in nurseries, forestry companies, sawmills and other stakeholders.

Former assistant secretary general in the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources Michael Guilfoyle is a supporter of an FDA.

He pointed out that forestry has no independent State development agency, unlike ports and shipping (IMDO), food (Bord Bia), sea fisheries (BIM), inland fisheries (IFI), marine research (Marine Institute), renewable energy (SEI) and earth science (GSI).

“Landowners, forestry companies, sawmills and others in the sector all need to be reading off the same page in addressing the various issues facing the sector, especially afforestation, wood mobilisation and timber processing,” Minister Doyle said.

“No matter what agency we have, these are issues that need to be addressed and I’m not sure where this new agency would differ from COFORD (National Council for Forest Research and Development) which could be revitalised as a forestry agency.”

COFORD operated as a research council until it was subsumed in the DAFM in 2009.

Based on his experience in establishing FDI and providing advice to a number of other State agencies, Michael Guilfoyle believes that a new forestry agency would need a much wider and more independent brief than COFORD.

Minister Doyle said that he “would sit down with the stakeholders and see if the model proposed is needed”.

He said he would need much more information before giving a commitment to progress an FDA type structure. “However, I will give a commitment to examine this proposal,” he said.

Society publishes The Sacred trees of Ireland

In 1963, the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society published a paper by Dr AT Lucas, which over time proved to be a rich source of reference for scholars and researchers wishing to explore the spiritual importance of trees in Irish culture.

However, the Society of Irish Foresters believed it deserved a wider readership and has published the paper along with related material in the booklet The Sacred Trees of Ireland.

Lucas paints a picture of the role of the tree during the transition from the pre-Christian to the Christian era which suggests a more natural continuum than confrontational encounter especially in ecclesiastical centres such as Armagh where he maintains the wood “derived its name, not from its accidental contiguity to a church sanctuary, but from a fidnemedh or sacred grove which existed there from pre-Christian times”.

It would seem that for a time at least there was a transition period that accommodated both traditions. The tree’s mystical and non-wood status may have been an influencing factor.

We don’t have any evidence of massive conflict experienced in other regions such as the conversion of Constantine in 312 to the closure of the Athens’s philosophical schools in 529, which resulted in the destruction of books, temples and statues.

The earliest Christian intruders to Ireland met a society more inclined towards the organic rather than artefact, where the tree was a key presence in the development of language, law, the naming of places and location of places of veneration.

Lucas modestly hoped that The Sacred Trees of Ireland would “throw a little steady light on a tradition both old and deep”. He has achieved this and much more, and the society is to be commended for publishing this important work.

The Sacred Trees of Ireland by AT Lucas (56 pages) is published by the Society of Irish Foresters. Copies are available for €10 (including postage and packaging) from the Society of Irish Foresters, Glenealy, Co Wicklow. Email: info@soif.ie.