Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of the detection of ash dieback in Ireland. Judging from recent online meetings and findings of the joint Oireachtas committee, ash dieback, caused by the fungal pathogen Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, is an issue that simply will not go away.
Ash dieback surfaces repeatedly, especially among owners who have their plantations ruined by this deadly disease.
This is due not only to the psychological and financial impact the disease is having on owners with infected woodlands, but also due to the Department of Agriculture’s heavily criticised response.
For a few years following its introduction, the Department grant-aided the removal of young imported ash.
All of these had 20-year premium periods so their ownersr owners had sufficient time to make up some of their losses.
When this eradication measure was abandoned by the Department, nothing was put in its place until a reconstitution scheme was introduced in 2018.
This was followed in June last year by the much criticised Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS).
Despite the Oireachtas recommendation to revise the RUS, the Department has persisted with the scheme. Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue’s recent written answer to a Dáil question by Colm Burke TD stated: “To date, my Department has received 265 applications for a total of 1,069ha. Of those, 24 applications have been approved, for 81ha.”
John Roche, managing director of Arbor, said: “Dieback has been with us for nine years and the Department has been reviewing this crisis since April 2018.
“In over three years, it has only approved 8% of the application area, which has to be seen as an abject failure.”
What has further incensed the IFA, ash growers and forestry companies has been the minister’s statement on limiting the scheme to plantations under 25 years.
“Older plantations near maturity have not been included for payment under RUS as it has been determined that they would have significant merchantable volumes of timber and therefore the landowner will be in a position to realise their timber revenue,” he replied to Deputy Burke.
“How can a timber crop that has reached approximately one-third of its expected rotation, and is diseased, be considered to have realised its timber revenue?” asked John Roche.
The recommended rotation length for ash is between 60 and 80 years as outlined by Padraic M Joyce in Growing Broadleaves. Julian Evans in Silviculture of Broadleaved Woodlands largely concurs, estimating an average rotation length of 70 years, varying from 55 years on fertile soils and 90 years on poor soils.
Flexibility
The Irish Timber Growers Association (ITGA) made a number of recommendations to the Department prior to the introduction of the RUS.
“Some of these have been introduced, but the schemes do not address growers’ loss of future income while the full range of silvicultural options should be made available for all infected plantations,” Donal Whelan, technical director of ITGA, said.
“The ITGA believes that the reconstitution option should be available for all sites regardless of top height and the level of infection,” he said.
IFA forestry group chair Vincent Nally said: “The treatment of the forest owners affected by the disease has been scandalous. The RUS must be scrapped because it is unworkable.”
So far, the Department has ignored these and other recommendations including the Oireachtas committee, which stated “that additional financial resources are put in place such as a grant to cover some financial loss, as well as clearing affected plantations and that owners who replant their sites be able to draw a premium for 15 years”.
The committee consulted widely on the disease but based much of its findings on a submission by the IFA and members of the Limerick-Tipperary Woodland Owners (LTWO) Ltd.
Farmer and other forest owners with ash plantations “are blameless in the introduction of the disease”, the LTWO members told the committee.
“We consider it worth pointing out that it is a stated objective of the Forest Service to safeguard the landowner’s investment by protecting the forest estate from pests, diseases and other threats.”
The LTWO called on the Department to redesign RUS as “it is totally inadequate and unacceptable”.
Its report to the Oireachtas committee maintained that a number of applications were made to the RUS because ash premium payments would be suspended if owners “do not comply” with the scheme.
Nobody knows at this stage how many ash growers will be required to replace their plantations but the numbers are high as large-scale ash afforestation began in the early 1990s.
Young plantations
Ash growers with young plantations when ash dieback was detected availed of the ash eradication reconstitution scheme. This allowed the removal of all ash plants for the planting period from 2009 to 2012 approximately.
These were allowed to replace their ash with conifers and as these had 20 years of annual premia, their loss was minimised.
Now, the Department insists that “planning permission from the local authority is required where broadleaf high forest is replaced by conifer species”.
Farmers and other landowners who planted during the main ash afforestation programmes from 1990 to 2008 are in serious trouble.
Only those who established plantations since 1995 are eligible for RUS.
Since 1990, approximately 11,5000ha of ash plantations were established by some 2,300 owners.
Approximately 2,000 of these qualify for RUS (under 25 years of age), while the remainder – encouraged by a Forest Service ash planting promotion campaign in the late 1980s have been abandoned as the IFA and LTWO maintain.
Solution
It is no coincidence that annual broadleaf planting has declined from over 3,000ha in the years prior to ash dieback to 846ha last year, the lowest programme for over a quarter of a century. Farmers are unlikely to return to long-rotation broadleaf establishment unless the RUS is revised. It is now obvious that the Department needs to:
Revise RUS grant for all diseased ash plantations regardless of age.Introduce a phased premium period for forest owners at or below 50% of the minimum rotation age for ash – 30 years – based on productivity and profitability of the infected crop.Introduce a State-private forest insurance scheme.The Department has to address this issue head on to restore confidence in broadleaf forestry as farmers and other landowners are not going to plant broadleaves in the numbers required – the long-term risk is too great.
A State-private insurance scheme needs to be part of the solution to compensate for future losses as a result of disease and other natural causes.
Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of the detection of ash dieback in Ireland. Judging from recent online meetings and findings of the joint Oireachtas committee, ash dieback, caused by the fungal pathogen Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, is an issue that simply will not go away.
Ash dieback surfaces repeatedly, especially among owners who have their plantations ruined by this deadly disease.
This is due not only to the psychological and financial impact the disease is having on owners with infected woodlands, but also due to the Department of Agriculture’s heavily criticised response.
For a few years following its introduction, the Department grant-aided the removal of young imported ash.
All of these had 20-year premium periods so their ownersr owners had sufficient time to make up some of their losses.
When this eradication measure was abandoned by the Department, nothing was put in its place until a reconstitution scheme was introduced in 2018.
This was followed in June last year by the much criticised Reconstitution and Underplanting Scheme (RUS).
Despite the Oireachtas recommendation to revise the RUS, the Department has persisted with the scheme. Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue’s recent written answer to a Dáil question by Colm Burke TD stated: “To date, my Department has received 265 applications for a total of 1,069ha. Of those, 24 applications have been approved, for 81ha.”
John Roche, managing director of Arbor, said: “Dieback has been with us for nine years and the Department has been reviewing this crisis since April 2018.
“In over three years, it has only approved 8% of the application area, which has to be seen as an abject failure.”
What has further incensed the IFA, ash growers and forestry companies has been the minister’s statement on limiting the scheme to plantations under 25 years.
“Older plantations near maturity have not been included for payment under RUS as it has been determined that they would have significant merchantable volumes of timber and therefore the landowner will be in a position to realise their timber revenue,” he replied to Deputy Burke.
“How can a timber crop that has reached approximately one-third of its expected rotation, and is diseased, be considered to have realised its timber revenue?” asked John Roche.
The recommended rotation length for ash is between 60 and 80 years as outlined by Padraic M Joyce in Growing Broadleaves. Julian Evans in Silviculture of Broadleaved Woodlands largely concurs, estimating an average rotation length of 70 years, varying from 55 years on fertile soils and 90 years on poor soils.
Flexibility
The Irish Timber Growers Association (ITGA) made a number of recommendations to the Department prior to the introduction of the RUS.
“Some of these have been introduced, but the schemes do not address growers’ loss of future income while the full range of silvicultural options should be made available for all infected plantations,” Donal Whelan, technical director of ITGA, said.
“The ITGA believes that the reconstitution option should be available for all sites regardless of top height and the level of infection,” he said.
IFA forestry group chair Vincent Nally said: “The treatment of the forest owners affected by the disease has been scandalous. The RUS must be scrapped because it is unworkable.”
So far, the Department has ignored these and other recommendations including the Oireachtas committee, which stated “that additional financial resources are put in place such as a grant to cover some financial loss, as well as clearing affected plantations and that owners who replant their sites be able to draw a premium for 15 years”.
The committee consulted widely on the disease but based much of its findings on a submission by the IFA and members of the Limerick-Tipperary Woodland Owners (LTWO) Ltd.
Farmer and other forest owners with ash plantations “are blameless in the introduction of the disease”, the LTWO members told the committee.
“We consider it worth pointing out that it is a stated objective of the Forest Service to safeguard the landowner’s investment by protecting the forest estate from pests, diseases and other threats.”
The LTWO called on the Department to redesign RUS as “it is totally inadequate and unacceptable”.
Its report to the Oireachtas committee maintained that a number of applications were made to the RUS because ash premium payments would be suspended if owners “do not comply” with the scheme.
Nobody knows at this stage how many ash growers will be required to replace their plantations but the numbers are high as large-scale ash afforestation began in the early 1990s.
Young plantations
Ash growers with young plantations when ash dieback was detected availed of the ash eradication reconstitution scheme. This allowed the removal of all ash plants for the planting period from 2009 to 2012 approximately.
These were allowed to replace their ash with conifers and as these had 20 years of annual premia, their loss was minimised.
Now, the Department insists that “planning permission from the local authority is required where broadleaf high forest is replaced by conifer species”.
Farmers and other landowners who planted during the main ash afforestation programmes from 1990 to 2008 are in serious trouble.
Only those who established plantations since 1995 are eligible for RUS.
Since 1990, approximately 11,5000ha of ash plantations were established by some 2,300 owners.
Approximately 2,000 of these qualify for RUS (under 25 years of age), while the remainder – encouraged by a Forest Service ash planting promotion campaign in the late 1980s have been abandoned as the IFA and LTWO maintain.
Solution
It is no coincidence that annual broadleaf planting has declined from over 3,000ha in the years prior to ash dieback to 846ha last year, the lowest programme for over a quarter of a century. Farmers are unlikely to return to long-rotation broadleaf establishment unless the RUS is revised. It is now obvious that the Department needs to:
Revise RUS grant for all diseased ash plantations regardless of age.Introduce a phased premium period for forest owners at or below 50% of the minimum rotation age for ash – 30 years – based on productivity and profitability of the infected crop.Introduce a State-private forest insurance scheme.The Department has to address this issue head on to restore confidence in broadleaf forestry as farmers and other landowners are not going to plant broadleaves in the numbers required – the long-term risk is too great.
A State-private insurance scheme needs to be part of the solution to compensate for future losses as a result of disease and other natural causes.
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