Over 11,700ha of trees levelled by storm

Close to 11,750ha of forestry was flattened by storm Éowyn in the six worst-hit counties, a leading forestry technology firm has estimated.

The calculation is based on an analysis of satellite imagery for counties Galway, Roscommon, Sligo, Leitrim, Longford and Cavan, Garret Mullooly of Treemetrics told a forestry owners’ meeting in Carrick-on-Shannon on Tuesday evening.

“We reckon there is around 11,750ha blown over [in the six counties assessed] and if you give that an average volume of 350 cubic metres per hectare, then you’re talking over 4.1m cubic metres of timber,” Mullooly said.

That is almost double the volume of timber knocked by storm Darwin in 2014.

Preliminary survey

Enda Keane of Treemetrics stressed that the current figures were based on a preliminary survey and further analysis of the impact of the storm in counties Clare, Mayo, Donegal, Monaghan and Westmeath will be required before a national estimate of the damage can be established.

The Carrick-on-Shannon meeting, which was organised by the Irish Forest Owners (IFO) and attracted more than 200 farmers, was told that the level of damage done by Éowyn was “unprecedented”.

IFO chair Derek McCabe accused Minister of State Michael Healy-Rae of failing to “recognise the scale of disaster unfolding” and he called on the Government to declare a “national disaster”.

McCabe demanded that the Department of Agriculture immediately “dispense with the need for felling licences” so that farmers could start clearing their forests.

“Minister Healy-Rae and the Department are insisting on felling licences when we’re in a crisis,” he said.

A show of hands indicated that more than half the forestry owners at the meeting did not have felling licences.

However, Roscommon-Galway TD Michael Fitzmaurice warned there was a “full pushback” by the Department on calls for a relaxation of the felling licence requirement and the industry would “need to ramp up the pressure” to secure changes.

For more, see this week's Irish Farmers Journal.