New scheme offers landowners over €20,000 to plant 1ha of woodland

From time to time, politicians make careless commitments from the stump, inducing a momentary loss of blood pressure on the part of senior civil servants who know they will be responsible for delivering on the promise.

In February 1999, Minister of State Séamus Brennan made such a commitment when he promised a tree for every family in Ireland to commemorate the millennium.

Cue pandemonium in Coillte. Where were the trees going to go? Could enough acorns be sought? How would each family find its tree?

Seasoned foresters rolled their eyes as a complex grid system was developed to allow trees be located. Anyone with a bit of forestry knowledge knows that just a fraction of the trees planted make it to maturity. They are either thinned, or naturally out-competed by faster growing trees.

Families were not going to be able to find their tree. Children were going to be disappointed. While the Millennium Forests became a good project in its own right, the “tree for every family” element ended up an unbridled mess. The elaborate grid system was abandoned in 2007.

Joe Duffy was outraged. Ray D’Arcy incensed.

It was with that in mind that civil servants were likely glad that Eamon Ryan was but a lowly opposition TD when, in October 2019, he put forward the idea that every farmer in the country would be supported to create a hectare of native woodland and receive a “special premium” for doing so.

He said: “We propose to provide budgetary support to enable every registered farm holding to plant a hectare of natural woodland on their land within the next five years, on sites within the farm which minimise the effect on farm operations and maximise the biodiversity and ecosystem service benefits.”

In March 2022 the Greens rolled into Government, kingmakers in an unprecedented coming together of the civil war parties.

Change

“The Green Party do exactly what they say they’re going to do” said Michael Healy-Rae in the Dáil recently. He’s often prescient in such affairs, and so he was on this occasion. The Native Tree Area Scheme (NTA) is the policy manifestation of Eamon Ryan’s one hectare-on-every-farm commitment. It opened for applications a fortnight ago.

The scheme represents a step change in Irish woodland creation. It is lucrative, hassle-free and flexible.

Critically, there is no need to get an afforestation licence. This doesn’t mean no rules apply.

A registered forester must still submit the applications, and there are disqualifying criteria. Peatlands, Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), Special Protection Areas (SPAs) and large parts of the uplands are not eligible.

As promised, the scheme delivers a special premium up to one hectare. Double the payment of the existing Native Woodland Scheme is paid in half the time. This amounts to a total of €22,206/ha over 10 years. Farms with a watercourse may add one additional hectare.

In total, this represents a potential tax-free income of almost €45,000 for two hectares over 10 years.

Additional to the annual premium there is an establishment payment associated with the NTA. This is paid in two instalments, the first of €5,582 is payable on completion of planting.

The second instalment of €1,686 is paid four years after planting has been completed. Landowners can also avail of a fencing grant of between €5.50/m and €7.50/m depending on specification.

Trees can be planted around the farm in clusters no smaller than 0.1 of a hectare but must be at least 20m in width.

Additional drainage cannot be created, and the land cannot be fertilised. Trees are planted at a lower density than normal native woodlands schemes (1,100 stems per hectare compared to 3,300 stems). This equates to a spacing of 3m X 3m between trees.

If tree shelters are required, the minimum tree spacing is 4m X 4m – amounting to 625 trees per hectare.

BISS payments will continue to be paid on the NTA areas.

However, the organic payment (which can be layered with agroforestry) cannot.

Both farmers and non-farming landowners can avail of NTA grants and premiums, but there is a stipulation that the land must be farmed. What that means right now is not entirely clear.

As this scheme has only just been opened, there is significant uncertainty within the forestry industry on exactly how it can be delivered.

Inverse economies of scale have always meant small sites (<1ha) are challenging in terms of paperwork burden, machinery and planting crew logistics.

That said, the NTA is more straightforward than other schemes, and the establishment grant is generous.

Certainly, it feels like there could be scope for allowing farmers undertake some works themselves for a share of the establishment fee.

Most farmers should be able to plant 1,100 trees in two days, one day if they rope a few family members in.

What trees can you plant?

All trees must be native to the island of Ireland. There are two scenarios which should suit most farms, one for dry mineral soils which is dominated by pedunculate oak, birch and Scots pine, and the other for wet mineral soils which utilise alder, birch, and sessile oak.

The following tree species are also acceptable to be included in the Native Tree Area Scheme.