Established in 1985, None-So-Hardy (Forestry) Ltd has increased annual capacity to 25m plants over the years to become the largest private nursery in Ireland and a major wealth-generating enterprise in Wicklow and Wexford.

The company’s 215ha of nurseries, in Donishall and Ballymurn, Co Wexford, produce a diverse range of plants including 11 native, naturalised and exotic species for the Irish planting programme, as well as 10 species for specialist schemes such as hedging and landscaping. The nursery headquarters, including its cold-store facility, is based in Shillelagh, Co Wicklow.

Jobs

The nursery is a major employer in the southeast, providing 80 direct jobs and over 20 in indirect employment such as haulage, plant service and contracting, along with other spin-off benefits for local and national businesses. Now, the long-term future of None-So-Hardy and its workers is threatened mainly due a major downturn in the afforestation programme.

Annual plant production is geared to service most of private afforestation, which should be close to 8,000ha based on the Forest Service 2014-2020 programme.

The downturn in afforestation is an area of most concern for the nursery as well as the forestry sector. Planting fell to 5,536ha last year compared with 6,500ha in 2016 and 8,314ha as recently as 2010. John McCarthy, who established None-So-Hardy with his wife Gill, says that the nursery cannot survive at 60% capacity which is what it is facing as the afforestation programme could fall below 5,000ha this year.

“We believe we can safeguard the nursery and the jobs but we need urgent support from Minister of State for Forestry Andrew Doyle and his staff to ensure the long-term viability not only of the nursery, but the forestry sector,” he said. “We are making a number of proposals this week to the minister to address short-term issues which are currently inhibiting the planting programme.”

He said that a fully focused effort is urgently needed to address the increasing drop-off in conversion of Form 1s (application for planting approval) submitted to actual area planted, which he said is now underperforming below 50%.

“The Department’s planting targets are suffering hugely on the back of excessive referrals, delays and missed opportunity,” he maintained. “Currently, out of 10,000ha of Form 1s submitted, only 5,800ha are getting approval within the crucial period of 60 days of which 4,000ha will actually be planted. Setting a target of at least 80% or 8,000ha of all Form 1s to be turned around within 60 days, would straight away bring the net area planted to 5,520ha. The remaining applications not grant approved within the 60 days should also have a limit of 90 days before a decision is made.”

He said this approach would bring annual afforestation close to 7,000ha and provide the economies of scale for the nursery to at least maintain production and employment levels. “Not only will this maximise the net planting coming into the system, but it will also lift the morale of foresters, forestry companies and forestry contractors who see far too many applicants drop out due to administrative delays.”

Native species

In addition to producing commercial species, None so Hardy is a major producer of native species for the Native Woodland Scheme. “With the targets for planting native species now being addressed, the 20% rule prohibiting planting on unenclosed land is no longer relevant,” said Lar Behan who is jointly responsible for sales and marketing at None-So-Hardy.

He acknowledged that in this regard there has been some positive news. “Recent measures introduced in the midterm review have already seen a significant increase in the percentages of broadleaves now being planted, and we are already well on the way to achieving the overall 30% target,” he said.

“Broadleaves dispatched from our nursery from 1 March to 18 May are now 33% of all plants delivered, or 31% area when site stocking levels – oak and beech – are considered. Based on enquiries and pipeline work, all forestry companies see this trend continuing with immediate increases particularly in grant and premium categories (GPCs) 8, 9 and 10.”

He recently made a presentation at the Native Woodland Conference, organised by Woodlands of Ireland, and said there was support for planting productive unenclosed sites with native species including Scots pine.

The Scottish experience of recreating the ancient highland Caledonian Forests with native species, as outlined at the conference by Alan Watson Featherstone, impressed him. He maintained that this could be replicated in Ireland with major biodiversity, landscaping and economic long-term benefits. “None-So-Hardy produces all the main species required to recreate the Caledonian Forest including birch, oak, Scots pine and mountain ash, so we should begin the process of recreating Ireland’s native woodlands,’’ he said.

He said that suitable unenclosed sites are assessed on vegetation classification which he agrees with. However, when past afforestation successes in Ireland and Caldedonia are assessed, there is room for minor changes to vegetation classification, he maintained.

“I believe the scoring threshold should be marginally reduced from 6.0 to 5.5 for GPC3 sites, which would still bring in productive marginal land, greatly increasing the potential land bank, available for both commercial and native forestry.”