It is estimated that Irish forests produce 3.3m cubic metres (m3) of timber annually, comprising 2.6m m3 from Coillte and 0.7m m3 from private forests. Private sector production is forecast to increase to 3m m3 within six years based on high planting programmes by private growers – mainly farmers – from the early 1990s. An additional 0.4m m3 are produced in Northern Ireland, bringing total volume on the island to 3.7m m3. This will bring total production on the island, if it is harvested, to approximately 6m m3.

What do we do with this timber and are we making the best use of it? The 3.3m m3 of timber sourced in Irish forests makes its way to a number of destinations before it is converted into a range of products including sawn timber and reprocessed into panel board products and energy. Logs leave forests for three main destinations: sawmills (2.4m m3); board mills and wood energy outlets (0.9 million m3).

Sawmills

Sawmills convert logs into sawn timber products for construction, fencing and pallet markets, as well as producing round timber fencing posts. Ireland’s three board mills process small logs and sawmill residue (wood chips and sawdust) into products such as medium-density fibreboard (MDF) oriented strandboard (OSB) and door panels.

While wood biomass for energy generation is an increasing market in Ireland , the priority is to make things out of timber rather than burn it.

The wood processing chain is complex regardless of where the timber ends up, be it on a house roof, paddock fence, panelboard, furniture, pallets for packaging or in the furnace of a combined heat and power plant (CHP).

One of the main advantages of wood is that it can be reprocessed into a wide range of products. For example, the 2.4m m3 logs that end up in a sawmill convert into 1.15m m3 of sawn timber and 0.15m m3 of round fencing posts. That leaves 1.1m m3 of residue including bark, wood chips and sawdust.

Once regarded as waste, this material has a range of uses including:

  • Wood-based panel (WBP) products, MDF, OSB and panel door production.
  • Heat for sawmills’ own energy requirements. In addition sawmills with CHP units such as GP Wood in Enniskeane, Co Cork, produce 2.5MW of electricity which is sold to the national grid.
  • Horticulture and bedding for livestock.
  • Conversion of residue into wood pellets for energy.
  • Panel board mills

    Most of the 0.9m m3 of small logs harvested in Ireland goes to the three WBP mills, which combined with pulpwood logs and residue from sawmills, account for 1.51m m3 of wood fibre, according to Eoin O’Dricsoll in his report An Overview of Wood Fibre Use in Ireland (2017).

    In 2017, this converted to 0.84m m3 of WBP. Close to 80% of WBP products are exported, mainly to the UK and the Benelux countries, but markets now exist globally for these products.

    Timber processors maintain that we are making the best use of our timber resource. Their mantra that “there is no waste in wood” stands up to scrutiny in Ireland, but whether we are maximising the added value of timber is another question.

    Many European mills are now converting sawn timber into a range of engineered wood products, especially cross-laminated timber (CLT). CLT is used as the primary structural load-bearing element in a number of multi-storey buildings in Canada, Austria, Germany, Norway and Finland. The species used are softwoods in all cases. This may be the next step for at least one Irish sawmill based on the positive results so far of research work on the suitability of homegrown Sitka spruce for CLT construction.

    While we know what to do with our conifers or softwoods, processing and manufacturing of broadleaves or hardwoods is still based on imports. The first major broadleaf planting programmes in Ireland began as late as the 1990s so it will be another three decades before sufficient quantities will be available to develop a viable hardwood sector.

    Broadleaf thinning and woodland improvement grants are available to ensure quality hardwoods in the future. To date, almost all broadleaves harvested in Ireland end up as firewood. Letterfrack College is doing excellent trial research into hardwoods including adding value to small wood. This needs to be encouraged as well as supported for at least one sawmill specialising in hardwoods in Ireland.

    In the meantime, high-producing conifer forests are taking the pressure off broadleaf woodlands.

    Engineered and reprocessed timber in WBPs such as Medite MDF products, used for furniture, panelling and interior fittings, are providing a spectacular aesthetic and functional substitute for hardwoods.