Sitka plantations are a recipe for destruction

IN HIS letter (June 16), John Jackson says ‘afforestation’ in Ireland needs a massive boost and the “barriers (to) afforestation which have been erected on very dubious scientific grounds” need to be examined.

We in IESS (Irish Environmental and Social Stakeholders) and the WLL (Woodland League), and Forest Friends (Cáirde na Coille) wonder what barriers exactly Mr Jackson is referring to?

Would it perhaps be the fact that virtually all the ‘afforestation’ in Ireland is a single variety, alien species, Sitka Spruce, which can only survive with massive saturation of pesticides. These pesticides are carcinogenic, mutagenic and estrogenic and end up in all of our groundwater?