Forestry is going the way of beet industry

AS we come to the end of another tree-planting season, it is now estimated the forestry programme will be less than 5,000 hectares this year.

The programme has decreased at an alarming rate, by almost 30% since Minister of State Mary Wallace took over in 2006. Prior to that we were planting in excess of 10,000 hectares per annum.

In this period the chief officers in the Forest Service have failed completely to defend and promote forestry by giving every kind of concession in all the environmental designations they have negotiated.