As Declan O’Brien’s article outlines, there is no national database for windblow harvest in private forests or forecasts available for the removal of all storm damaged timber.

Representatives of forestry companies and organisations contacted by the Irish Farmers Journal said they simply do not have this information at hand.

These include Forest Industries Ireland (FII), Irish Timber Growers Association (ITGA) Social, Economic, Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland (SEEFA) and Western Forestry Co-op.

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FII and SEEFA were surprised that a Department of Agriculture spokesperson suggested that they “may have estimates of the salvage work done on private woodlands”.

They believe that this should be the role of the Department or a Forestry development agency, which has been proposed by FII, ITGA, SEEFA and other stakeholders.

They believe that the lack of national data on harvesting volumes – in windblow and standing sales – highlights the need for such an agency.

While the lack of a national database on windblow progress is a negative, there are positives as organisations interviewed are promoting various initiatives.

Positive impact

For example, the ITGA makes price information available and its sales agreement template and sales dispatch systems have made a positive impact. These initiatives will continue said ITGA’s technical director Donal Whelan, but “a national dashboard is needed to quantify roundwood volumes removed, sold, exported, or remaining”.

ITGA, SEEFA companies and Western Forestry Co-op continue to hold field days and information meetings, which are receiving good feedback and information at localised level. They broadly agree that windblow volumes won’t be removed until well into next year.

“Personally I would estimate we are approximately 50-60% of the way through our work schedule at the moment,” said Victor Barber, harvesting manager, Western Forestry Co-op.

“Timber exports continue from Sligo, Galway, Limerick, Cork, Wicklow, Dundalk, Drogheda with expectations that logs will be leaving from Killybegs and Derry port very shortly,” said Paddy Bruton, SEEFA chair.

“This is the real value that Minister Healy-Rae brought to private forest owners, in that resolving the licensing issue enabled the private sector to find new export markets to compliment the indigenous sawmill markets, who have performed excellently to absorb as much material as they have,” he added.

In the coming weeks, the Irish Farmers Journal will feature further updates on progress in removing windblow and follow-up reforestation and reconstitution, as well as views on an FDA structure to support the forestry and forest products sector.