Biodiversity in spotlight at Irish Forestry Awards
Forestry Minister John Browne presented a €2,000 cheque, a perpetual trophy and an RDS silver medal to Michael McElroy, Coillte district manager in Macroom, on winning the forest-woodlands category of the Irish Forestry Awards.
The merit award for the category went to Patrick J Keane, Killaloe, Co Clare.
The award-winning Glengarriff forest, which dates from 1807, was planted in the 1950s with conifer species. A clear fell of the site took place in the 2000 and 2001 seasons.
In the farm forestry category, Noel and Martha Copley from Kilmanagh, Co Kilkenny, were the overall winners with the merit award being presented to Justin Good, Belturbet, Co Cavan.
To mark the centenary of state support for forestry, a special lifetime achievement award was presented to Fergal Mulloy, a professional forester from Dun Laoghaire.
He received a specially commissioned RDS trophy as recognition of his significant contribution to the development of forestry in Ireland in the past 47 years.
Organised by the RDS and sponsored by the Forest Service, Department of Agriculture and Food, the forestry awards is in its 17th year.
Mr Browne, noting the RDS has been involved in championing and promoting forestry since 1740, said the afforestation programme is driven by farm forestry, with farmers responsible for 90% of new planting.
A lot of work has been done in the past 100 years to develop Irish forestry from a situation where it accounted for just 1% of land cover to the now 10% of land cover. However, it is still well below the European average of 35%.
Mr Browne earlier told a Timber Sector Training initiative breakfast seminar in Dublin that with oil at around $40 a barrel, there is even more reason to look closely at the possibilities offered by alternatives such as biomass and fast growing tree crops.
