New forestry plantings could top 2,500ha next year, and may even hit close to 3,000ha, Teige Ryan of None-So-Hardy Nurseries in Wicklow has predicted.

The level of orders for 2025 plantings to None-So-Hardy - which is a major supplier of young trees to commercial forestry companies - suggested that the area of commercial afforestation will increase sharply for the coming year, Ryan said.

Close to 1,650ha were planted in 2023, and it is forecast that around 1,800ha will be planted this year.

Ryan welcomed the increased activity in the sector but he pointed out that the current lift in afforestation was based on the backlog of licences that had built up in the Department of Agriculture.

Afforestation levels will drop off again in 2026 unless enquiries and planting applications pick up next year, Ryan predicted.

This view was shared by Padraig Egan of SWS Forestry Services. “There is very little in the pipeline,” Egan said. “I have never seen forestry as dead as it is at the moment,” he added.?