16,000 trees to be felled to stop disease

Coillte has begun a massive tree-felling operation in a bid to prevent the spread of a fungal disease through a scenic forest park.

Lumberjacks are working in Gougane Barra park, near Ballingeary in West Cork, to cut down the first of an estimated 16,000 diseased trees, mostly Japanese larch, which have been affected by the so-called Sudden Oak Death, caused by an organism called phytophthora ramorum.

Coillte is using large, mechanical tree-cutters, and a special high-wire cable system in more environmentally sensitive sites to remove between 25% and 30% of the park’s trees across some 20 hectares.