Sir, – Regarding recent comments about Ireland growing the wrong kind of trees, we need to understand that Ireland’s conifer forests provide enormous economic, social, and environmental benefits (Eoghan Daltun, “Ireland needs more wild native forests – not lifeless Sitka plantations”, Opinion & Analysis, September 7th). Conifers are grown to produce softwood which is the essential ingredient in low carbon construction. Without softwood we will not be able to decarbonise our built environment and move away from carbon-intensive building products. All over the world, there is a rush to build more with wood and Ireland is in the enviable position of having our own home grown timber resource. Already, our timber products displace 3.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year and this is increasing as our conifer forests mature.
All our new conifer forests contain diverse species and are a boon for biodiversity. Sitka spruce is planted because it yields exactly the right softwood timber to produce timber products. The added advantage is these trees grow and remove carbon from the atmosphere three times faster than broadleaf trees such as oak.
Ireland made a great decision in 1903 to begin reforesting our island and this is now paying dividends in terms of carbon sequestration, sustainable wood products, and recreational woodland sites all over the country. We should all be supporting the planting of both native woodlands and productive conifer forests because each provides a different kind of benefit. It is not a case of the right and wrong trees, but of different trees for different reasons. The national vision for forestry captures it: “plant the right tree, in the right place, for the right reason”. – Yours, etc,
MARK McAULEY,
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Director,
Forest Industries Ireland,
Ibec,
Dublin 2.
