Mr. Joe Gowran:

Apologies, I forgot to unmute the microphone.

I thank the Chairman and the members for inviting Woodlands of Ireland to address the committee. Woodlands of Ireland is a not-for-profit charity dedicated to native woodlands. It is an inclusive organisation, whose primary objectives are to generate awareness of native woodlands among policymakers and the general public and to develop projects and sustainable management strategies aimed at ensuring the future viability of native woodlands.

As regards the appropriate assessment and the Natura impact statement appeals backlog, many site applications relating to the native woodland scheme, NWS, afforestation that contain significant sub-compartments with native woodland grant premium category, GPC, plots within larger applications, are being delayed by a very thorough rate of appeals. We have asked the Forestry Service whether codes could be applied in order to indicate the percentage of NWS GPCs in each application. We believe that the people lodging appeals will respond to that distinction being made.

The factors that have compounded the appropriate assessment and the Natura impact statement backlog situation are linked to genuine efforts by various Departments and agencies, including the Department for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, to significantly improve compliance with the water framework directive, WFD. Hence the need for appropriate assessment screening and Natura impact statements in respect of a range of sites where previously the cycle of forestry activity and practices, such as clear felling and pesticide use in reafforestation, had predated the State’s now focused implementation of the WFD, which is an umbrella encompassing 17 different EU directives, including the habitats and birds directive.

As regards the WFD and the timescale for reform and the implementation of such reform in the forestry sector, the deadline for all EU member states, including Ireland, to comply fully with the WFD, is 2027.

Many of the points in the written submission, which all members should have, have been made by forestry industry representatives.

Most conifer stands are designed to be clear-felled or can be too unstable to thin because of soil type and shallow rooting. Rotation lengths have in some cases been reduced to as low as 27 years. Clear-felling often creates conditions for surges in pine weevil populations, which in turn present a ring-barking threat to restocked plants. In most cases, plants are treated with pesticide and may later have top-up spray treatments on site.

Each individual harvesting and reforestation plan detailed in a felling licence application requires an assessment by the Forest Service which in turn may need to consult local authorities, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Inland Fisheries Ireland and An Taisce. The frequently asked questions of all of those organisations and those lodging appeals are as follows. Can siltation be avoided? What form does a new or improved water setback take? Is there run-off or leaching of fertiliser or pesticides into water courses? Does the plan meet the 15% broadleaf restock requirement of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine? Is there sufficient enforcement of licence terms following on-site inspections over time?

What I am suggesting as a part solution to move towards better planning in forestry is to consider developing what we call protective forest zoning. Many forest sites are in upland areas and will invariably drain into river catchments. Consequently, they should be regarded as potential components of a network of protective forests within catchments. This concept originated on the European mainland, for example, in countries such as Switzerland, it dates back to the 14th century. However, in an island of Ireland context, the function of a protective forest could be the protection of drinking water sources, Natura 2000 sites and fisheries, and the repair of woodlands, which would come into the dairy sector's response in the carbon accounting equation. Repairing woodlands would also reduce habitat fragmentation along water courses.

As regards forests that are designed to reduce the risk of flooding and landslide and also, in their own right, to maintain woodland habitats for conserving biological diversity, this concept of protective forests links in with the objectives of the national technical implementation group, NTIG, of the river basin management plan. Much of this is outlined in two documents published by the Department entitled Woodland for Water: Creating new native woodlands to protect and enhance Ireland’s waters and Forests & Water: Achieving Objectives under Ireland's River Basin Management Plan 2018-2021. The idea in these documents is "to provide the basis for identifying key locations where new native woodland will contribute most to protecting and enhancing water, and for engaging with farmers and other landowners to undertake such planting."

In Woodlands of Ireland, our technical advisory panel is looking at developing the criteria for a research project on mapping potential protective forest zones in catchments. Essentially, we are offering a part solution in terms of whether that will go forward into proposed legislation, as mentioned by a previous speaker.

On the issue of ash dieback, there are two key points. A reference was made in last week's meeting of the committee to elm having become extinct and ash going the same way. Elm, although a shadow of its former self, survives in semi-natural woodland and in hedges in a range of localities around the island, as I have observed. In the 5% survival scenario for ash, it is likely to remain present in mixed species woodland, scrub and hedges. The natural regeneration of ash and elm needs to be encouraged to keep these species alive. This can be done in the context of native woodland scheme conservation measures, woodland improvement measures, the neighbourwood scheme, continuous cover forestry schemes and agri-environment measures.

Second, let us consider supporting those who were under contract with the Department to plant single species or a few species such as ash stands to convert them to multi-species stands of indigenous genetic stock of native species, including Scots pine, using an amended version of the under-utilised native woodland scheme conservation measure. The target in the native woodland scheme conservation measure was 1,950 ha of funding for the period 2014 to 2020. By the end of this year it looks as though significantly less than 200 ha of that funding will be allocated. We suggest an amended version of that to assist those who were in that ash dieback situation. Those are my key points.