Coillte needs to spruce things up

I READ with great interest Alannah Hopkins’ article in your 'County' supplement of Oct 1 on Coillte's plans to begin tree-felling at Shippool Wood in Innishannon. I have no problem with this.

My problem with Coillte is on two fronts. First they want to fell all trees, young and old, in one part of the forest. That is wrong.

Selective logging of older trees will allow younger trees of 20 to 30 years old to flourish, bulk up and produce a great deal of biomass, while a young sampling should be planted to replace the mature tree which has just been felled.

Secondly, planting forests of sitka spruce and other non-native conifers is one of the biggest ecological disasters to have hit Ireland since the foundation of the State.

Walk through a forest of these ‘Christmas trees’ and you will not be greeted by any birds or wildlife, only eerie silence. Coillte know that an ecologically sound forest which supports a diversity of flora and fauna must be planted with a variety of tree types. So why plant these conifers in first place?

Coillte want to cash in on sitka spruce, which matures faster than our native trees.

Come on, Coillte, think of the future!

Seamus O'Donoghue,

40, Haven Hill,

Summercove,

Kinsale,

Co Cork.