The recent spate of wildfires in Ireland illustrate the vulnerability of some Irish forests to fire damage. In total, 37 fires have destroyed wildlife and forest habitats in eight counties, with serious forest damage particularly in Co Leitrim.

The obvious answer to this threat is to prevent fires from starting in the first place, but a small minority of farmers and members of the public continue to start fires every year, especially from 7 March to 31 August, even though it is illegal do so. Despite repeated pleas by government and other agencies, this reckless behaviour is likely to continue, so the best way to minimise the fire threat is to have a fire plan in place for each forest unit.

An essential component of a viable fire plan is an early warning system.

Many fires are started in remote areas where population density is low, so detection can go unnoticed. Cian Gallagher, who founded Aerial Agri Tech in 2016, believes that earth observation technology can play a major role in early fire detection, as well as monitoring and recording damage. After completing his forestry degree in UCD in 2008, his interest in geographical information systems (GIS) led him to doing an MA on GIS and remote systems in UCC in 2013. He established Aerial Agri Tech with the objective of integrating earth observation technology into the Irish agriculture and forestry sectors.

“Earth observation technology gathers data about the earth’s surface without being in physical contact with it,” he explains. “This can be done by using sensors onboard satellites, aircrafts and drones, which allows our clients to regularly monitor their crops, providing an insight into vegetation status without having to set foot on the land.”

He outlined how effective and accurate earth observation technology can be, by citing the recent fire in Ballinamore Forest in Co Leitrim.

“I think the Leitrim fire is a good example of how efficient earth observation technology can be,” he said. “On Monday 20 April, a fire was started in the Coillte forest. By analysing satellite data captured on the same day, Aerial Agri Tech was able to detect the exact ignition point of the fire. As the imagery is time stamped, we were also able to provide an approximate time the fire was started. Our findings were sent to Coillte, who were able to go directly to the area of combustion where they found a pile of rubbish, the source of the fire. The imagery was subsequently sent to the gardai, to help with their investigation.”

Mick Power, Coillte National Estates risks manager complemented Aerial Agri Tech on the information, which he said “ proved to be accurate and extremely valuable to us”.

Aerial Agri Tech took satellite imagery again the following Saturday. “This allowed us to calculate the full extent of the damage and to monitor any possible return of the fire, as it had burned into peat,” Cian said. “To our surprise, we discovered the fire was still smouldering six days later, although under control by Coillte, which demonstrates how destructive these fires can be.”

When asked about Aerial Agri Tech having a monitoring role in Irish forestry, not only for fire protection but in areas such as windblow, disease and other threats, Cian said: “Over the last five years, we have been developing an extensive database of Irish forestry using earth observation technology.” He includes “fire, disease and wind damage as areas where the technology could help the sector”.

Wind damage is a subject he explored in his 2017 masters on the occurrence of windthrow in forest stands in the aftermath of Storm Darwin.

“By regularly monitoring change, we can identify areas damaged by fire and wind or harvested, which allows us to keep our datasets up to date,” Cian maintained. “Data compiled and adapted over time can be used to model risk for specific regions and identify tree species and age classes that are most vulnerable to damage.

This summer, we will continue to review fire events throughout the country and identify trends that could help us better understand their occurrence and prevent them in the future.”

Aerial Agri Tech works with a number of Irish and overseas companies, including the insurance sector, in assessing damage to forests. Cian is confident that satellite data will continue to improve and become more freely available, while drones will become an essential tool in Irish farms and forests. “It’s very encouraging to see Irish farmers and forest owners embracing the technology. The challenge will be making sense of this data and integrating it into existing forest and farm management procedures.”

Forest industry still at work during COVID-19 pandemic

The forestry and forest products sector is still working despite COVID-19 restrictions. “It says something about the resilience of the sector that it is still operating while conforming to social distancing and other guidelines,” said Daragh Little, managing director for forestry at Veon Ltd. “Non-essential work has ceased, but we are continuing planting and harvesting. The operational costs have risen so that we can comply with the government guidelines. Whereas once a seven-strong planting gang arrived on-site in a minibus, now they must travel separately by car.”

A number of Veon’s problems are not COVID-19 related. “Since last June, we have over 200 planting, roading and felling licences in the system, but so far only 77 have been issued, so the Forest Service has much to do to free up this backlog,” he said. “However, the Forest Service has been regularly issuing grants. which is welcome at a time when the sector is under huge pressure.”

The sawmills are all operating, although production has been scaled down. Felling licences have been a major issue, but Clodagh O’Reilly, director of sales and supply chain at Coillte, said there has been an improvement in issuing licences.

“As a result, we plan to hold a timber sales auction at the end of May or early June at the latest,” she said.

Glennon Brothers’ sawmill in Fermoy is operating on a single shift, according to Pat Glennon, joint managing director. “We are producing mainly pallet and fencing material, while sawn timber for the construction market is well down,” he said.

None so Hardy Nurseries Ltd continues to supply planting sites throughout the country. “We were quite busy during March and April, although the overall planting programme is well down,” said Teige Ryan.

“Orders for broadleaves were good, especially for March and April, with mainly native species making up over 30% of all plant supplies. We start the seed sowing programme next week and the challenge now is to estimate production, not only for the private planting programme in three years time, but also the percentage of species to plant.”