‘Some areas are still like bomb sites’ – Leitrim’s vast forest plantations are a cause and a victim of climate change
You’d have thought someone had dropped a bomb on Leitrim after Storm Éowyn tore through the county, said conservationist Neil Foulkes.
Mr Foulkes has concerns about the impact vast monoculture forests have on biodiversity, and Leitrim’s timber plantations also cause emissions – and damage – when sown in peatland.
He said locals were furious at being left without electricity, water, landlines and internet when storms Darragh and Éowyn hit last winter.
“People are really angry,” he said, adding that the anger “was palpable” at public meetings when the authorities many hold accountable “didn’t even show up”.
A fifth of Leitrim is covered in forest, 60pc of which is sitka spruce that’s prone to windthrow – being uprooted by high winds – when planted on shallow soil.
There was widespread windthrow during Storm Éowyn
“There are still some areas that are like bomb sites,” added the Ballinamore man.
“Most would have been without electricity for up to two weeks. Some … four, five weeks or more at the end of the line.
“People were without water because, without electricity, the water pumping systems were down. Phone lines were out, internet was out – and in the middle of winter.
“It was so unnecessary. Anybody with a hint of common sense would know that if you plant a tree that can grow 25 meters tall 10 metres back from a power line, if that tree blows over, the power line’s at risk.”
Despite the glaring issues with Leitrim’s forests, Mr Foulkes remarked, the council has little control over them.
“The council is actually objecting to the restocking of a lot of sites,” he said. “More on landscape grounds than on carbon grounds, but still.
Not one single tree that’s gone in has been covered by an environmental impact assessment
“The department ignores them anyway.”
Mr Foulkes would like to see the Department of Agriculture do more with forestry “in terms of the Climate Action Plan”.
“Not one single tree that's gone in has been covered by an environmental impact assessment, which I think is crazy,” he said.
According to Ireland’s 2022 National Forest Inventory, 27pc of Leitrim’s 32,039 hectares of forest are planted on peat.
The Irish Independent asked the Department of Agriculture why it is allowing replanting on peat despite the known impacts. A spokesperson said “forestry owners who harvest trees are subject to a replanting obligation”.
In a bid to increase the resilience of forests and adapt to climate, the department has introduced incentives for native planting, a climate-resilient forest pilot for those planning to clearfell and replant, and a 50pc broadleaf planting target for new forests.
The spokesperson said that, nationally, the department received 1,074 valid afforestation applications – applications to establish a forest where none previously existed – for the period between 2023 and 2027. None were bigger than the 50 hectares required to trigger an environmental impact assessment.
UCD assistant professor of environmental policy Dr Cara Augustenborg says Ireland’s forestry sector is in crisis and the incentives available are not enough to encourage change.
“Past policies favoured fast-growing non-native conifers, often on peat bogs, with disastrous ecological and social consequences,” she said.
“Government is still dealing with these legacy problems, potentially diverting energy from new, improved forestry models.”