Woods face chop along with scheme

Donal Hickey says cutbacks are a threat to forest land

PEOPLE who enjoyed walks in the woods during Christmas may have noted efforts to conserve the woodlands. However, a project that would have helped renew some of our threatened woodlands has been given the chop as part of budgetary cutbacks.

Given the scale of our woodlands and the sheer majesty of the trees they contain, it would be easy to get the impression that they are indestructible. Not so; they need to be protected and restored all the time.

The suspension of the Native Woodland Scheme could prove extremely costly. The scheme had been generating interest around the country and the decision to drop it will lead to the loss of jobs, specialised expertise, and economic activity in rural areas, says Dr Declan Little, project manager, Woodlands of Ireland.

“The economic and environmental cost of the suspension of element one of the Native Woodland Scheme is widely expected to far exceed the savings from cutting grants to protect and restore the surviving remnants of Ireland’s precious native woodlands,” he said.

Losses that will result from the suspension include millions of tiny, native Irish oak trees grown here in nurseries. They were raised from acorns painstakingly collected from rare, native woodlands and were intended for planting as part of the dropped scheme.

Their fate is uncertain, as are the fates of jobs for forest contractors, seed collectors and ecologists; fuel products for sustainable energy; the specialist skills developed over the past decade; and environmental benefits.

The annual cost of the scheme, which included a grants package for landowners and was designed to enhance our most valuable woodlands, was around €2m. Only 100,000 hectares of these woodlands are now left and they are under threat from invasive, non-native species, such as rhododendron, as well as over-grazing, lack of fencing and management.

These woodlands are essential for our declining biodiversity, and the ecosystems within them take hundreds of years to evolve, Dr Little said.

Failure to conserve them could result in significant EU fines in the future, as Ireland is required to maintain these woodlands to a favourable status under the EU Habitats Directive.

Only nine per cent of the land area of Ireland is under woodland, the lowest in Europe, apart from Iceland, with just one per cent being native woodland. The EU average for woodland cover is 31%, so we have a long way to go. It is hoped to have 16% of the land of Ireland under woodland by 2035.

In prehistoric times, trees blanketed much of the Irish landscape. Vegetation scientists record that Irish woodlands reached their maximum extent 7,000 years ago. The most common trees were oak, elm, ash, Scots pine and alder. Between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, the first farmers began to clear woodlands to create farm land. Trees, and other woodland plants, were protected by ancient law. The most important trees were the seven so-called “nobles of the wood” — oak, hazel, holly, yew, ash, Scots pine and crab-apple. Under the Brehon Law, any person who damaged one of these trees had to pay a fine of two milch cows and a three year-old heifer.

From the 16th century onwards, tree clearances accelerated as the ruling English government needed timber for building and industry. By the 1900s, only 0.5% (35,000 hectares) of our land area was covered by woodland. Since State planting began, the area of woodland has increased to 600,000 hectares, though nearly all of that is non-native, conifer species.

Trees renew the air that we breathe by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. Trees also take a great deal of water in through their roots every day and release it as oxygen through tiny holes in their leaves. This helps to keep land well drained.

Clearance of woodland for farming purposes has been by far the most damaging change. Overgrazing by animals, such as deer and sheep, is also a problem in many parts of the country. In the national parks of Kerry and Donegal, the biggest problem is rhododendron, introduced in the 19th century.

This non-native shrub has taken over large areas of natural woodland, in effect smothering young oak and yew trees, and there are ongoing programmes to remove the rhododendron in national parks to allow for natural regeneration to occur in the woodland.

The Native Woodland Scheme evolved over the past decade as a result of partnership between State agencies, land-owners, NGOs and individuals with specialist scientific, ecological and forestry skills.

Native woodlands along rivers and lakes are very rare and they form buffers to help reduce the entry of pollutants and effluent into rivers and streams, and also protect against the worst effects of flooding when rivers burst their banks.