Farm organisations and locals are becoming increasingly concerned about the level of forestry being planted in Co Leitrim.
Although Government statistics state that only 17% of Leitrim has been planted, locals believe that much more land is at stake, with local councillor Enda Stenson stating that the figure is "actually much closer to 50% and getting bigger".
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Former Leitrim Rose of Tralee Edwina Guckian, spoke to the Irish Farmers Journal about the impact forestry had on her local area.
"Where I live is where I was born. I’ve lived there 30 years and I’ve seen the landscape really change in those 30 years.
"Not just the landscape but the animals and the wildlife in our area has certainly decreased and our horizon looks completely different to what it did five years ago," she said.
Price of land
There are increasing concerns among locals that forestry companies are driving up the cost of land, and out-pricing farmers looking to expand and increase the earning potential of their farms.
Edwina Guckian on the far right with the INHFA in Co Leitrim.
Guckian said: "Right now there’s seven forests around me that are within a mile and just recently a lady passed away on our road and her land has been put up for sale, which there’s every right and entitlement for it to be up for sale, and whoever buys it buys it.
"But a few weeks ago [foresters] put up an application to plant [about] 70 acres, and we’re very much against it. We’ve had enough of forestry around our area."
They can’t compete with the price that the forestry are after putting in.
"There’s a lot of farmers talking about how they’d like to buy the land but they can’t compete with the price that the forestry are after putting in.
"Ten years down the road my brother might turn around and try to get money to buy that land and expand the farm or build his house and have his family there, but it’s just not going to be possible if everybody keeps planting around us. We’re being suffocated."
Here’s a road at home I walked today. Leitrim is being smothered with commercial forestries. 50% of our farmland is planted. There will be a public meeting Friday 19th January 8pm in The Bush Hotel Carrick on Shannon. @eartotheground @farmersjournal @LovelyLeitrimIE #Leitrim pic.twitter.com/oozMa658nu
— Edwina Guckian (@EdwinaGuckian) January 12, 2018
Younger generation
"The biggest problem is that people don’t know what’s happening. The farmers know what’s happening because they’re constantly being offered and encouraged to plant their land. My father gets flyers in the door all the time with different things saying here’s the incentives to plant, but the people who aren’t farmers don’t know what’s happening," Guckian said.
It’s planning permission for a 60ft green wall that’s going to be there permanently
"I want to make people aware that that sign you’re passing by is not planning permission for a house it’s planning permission for a 60ft green wall that’s going to be there permanently.
"I think we really need to make the young generation aware because they’re going to turn around in 20 years when the whole place is planted and say: 'Why didn’t our parents or the older generation do something about this?'"
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