Coillte has harvested 20% of the plantations that were levelled by storms Éowyn and Darragh.

But it will take until late 2026 or early 2027 to have all the plantations damaged by last winter’s storms cleared, the company has estimated.

Coillte plantations accounted for 14,500ha of the 26,000ha of forestry that was severely damaged in the storms.

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“We estimate that we have 3,000ha of storm-damaged forests clear-felled, and we’re on track to have all storm-damaged material harvested by the end of 2026 or early 2027,” a spokesperson for Coillte said.

“This is a work in progress, and it took some time to ramp up to full production.”

Progress on the clear-felling of privately owned plantations is more difficult to quantify.

Those involved in the sector say that harvesting of privately owned plantations is going well but no estimates of the area cleared are available.

However, companies active in the private sector said contractors have been busy harvesting windblown plantations since the spring. While some private forestry owners claimed that getting contractors to commit to taking out plantations has been extremely difficult, there are also question marks around the ability of the sawmills to handle the volume of timber being cleared at the moment.

“Have the sawmills the capacity to take the volume of timber currently being harvested?” one industry source asked.

Stacked timber

This view was shared by a farmer representative who maintained that timber was being left stacked at roadsides because the storage areas used by sawmills are all full.

Meanwhile, Coillte confirmed that it is progressing with the replanting of the windblown sites that it has so far cleared.

“Any sites that were clear-felled during the planting season have been replanted. However, planting cannot happen during the summer months and will recommence in December with a view to having all clear-felled sites replanted within two years of clear-fell,” a spokesperson said.

Afforestation levels

In other forestry news, the level of afforestation of new ground in 2025 has topped 2,000ha and is on track to exceed 2,500ha for the first time since 2020.

According to the Department of Agriculture’s forestry dashboard the total area planted up to Friday, 12 September, was 2,104ha.

Another 500-600ha is expected to be planted by the end of the year, taking the total area of new forestry plantings for the year to around 2,600-2,700ha.

However, the area covered by successful afforestation licences issued up to the end of August this year is well back on 2024 levels.

Last year afforestation licences were issued for 3,103ha by the end of August. The figure for the same period this year was just 2,334ha.