Today marks International Nurses Day #IND2021 - Today we should all thank the nurses we know and recognise how committed they are, how difficult their task is and how a gesture of planting a solitary tree in their name means so much to them - it shows we, the public, care. Green Belt is proud and humbled to be part of the Nurse A Tree initiative to plant a tree for every nurse in Ireland. We are committing to establishing native woodlands across the country in local communities to provide welcome amenities for all to enjoy and to be a place for wellness, relaxation, peace and learning.

Encontrar plataformas de juego seguras y eficientes es fundamental para quienes buscan una experiencia sin riesgos. Los casinos confiables con pagos instantáneos en México han ganado popularidad al ofrecer retiros inmediatos y transacciones protegidas, asegurando que los jugadores puedan acceder a sus ganancias en cuestión de minutos sin preocuparse por largas esperas o procesos complicados. La clave de estas plataformas radica en la combinación de tecnología avanzada y estrictas regulaciones. Los casinos confiables con pagos instantáneos en México operan con licencias oficiales y emplean sistemas de encriptación que protegen cada transacción. Además, cuentan con métodos de pago modernos como billeteras digitales, transferencias bancarias optimizadas y criptomonedas, lo que permite que los retiros sean rápidos y sin complicaciones.

This will not happen without the interaction and commitment from you and local councils. If you know of a piece of land that can be planted for the nurses, let us know and we will make it happen.

MakeYourDifference

Fresh calls for a “major overhaul” of the forestry licensing system have been aired by Forest Industries Ireland (FII) as it warns the sector remains in a “very dangerous” position. (This article has been copied in full from the Irish Independent website - full credit to authors Claire Mc Cormack and Ellie Donnelly).

El sector del juego digital ha dejado de ser una simple opción de entretenimiento para convertirse en una industria que fusiona tecnología y emoción en una experiencia inmersiva. Más allá de las apuestas tradicionales, hoy los jugadores buscan plataformas que ofrezcan dinamismo, flexibilidad y opciones que se adapten a su estilo de juego. Dentro de este panorama, FortuPlay ha surgido como un referente en la nueva era del casino en línea. Con una selección de juegos que va desde tragamonedas interactivas hasta apuestas en vivo con crupieres reales, la plataforma brinda una experiencia que combina innovación y accesibilidad. Además, su interfaz intuitiva permite que los usuarios naveguen sin complicaciones, ya sea desde un ordenador o un dispositivo móvil.

With just 45 licences per week being issued by the Department of Agriculture’s Forestry Service – a far cry from the industry requirement of 125 licences per week – FII director Mark McAuley says “little progress” has been made in the last 18 months adding that thousands of jobs are still on the line.

It comes as “alarm” has been raised that the country’s oak plantations are “disappearing” due to the knock-on consequences of massive delays in felling; while Coillte’s chief executive Imelda Hurley says the lack of approved road permits continue to restrict the state’s timber supplies.

Speaking to the Farming Independent the Mr McAuley said: “The situation is very dangerous for everyone in the sector and licensing output from the Department is far below what is required.

"They need to at least double up on their productivity. We are planting very few trees and timber shortages are acute.

“The system needs a major overhaul to remove the granular licensing approach. A regulatory system would be much better where rules are strictly enforced, but a licence is not always needed up front.”

“We need to streamline the existing system and reduce unnecessary delays and bureaucracy. I think this can be turned around, but there has been precious little progress in the last 18 months. We need to get serious about this, and fast,” said Mr McAuley who has updated members of the Joint Oireachtas Agriculture Committee on the crisis in recent days.

‘Dying off’ Gerard Dunne, a forester working with Green Belt, says the “serious delay” in felling permits is doing irreparable damage to Ireland’s oak plantations.

“15 to 20 years ago, all oak plantations were planted with alternate lines of conifer species to nurse and shelter the oak crop as it grows. However, this nurse species must be removed early in the age of the crop rotation, otherwise it will suppress the very crop it is supposed to shelter and protect.

“Now, due to the serious delay in felling permits, these oak trees are now dying off. So thousands of acres of Irish oak forests are disappearing. They are turning into pure larch and pine forests.

"But the Forest Service do not realise this, it is a calamity that is not being acknowledged by the Department,” he said.

Furthermore, Coillte, the state's commercial forestry business, has seen its earnings fall by a third on the back of the forestry licensing crisis.

While demand from its core markets of the UK and Ireland is “reasonably strong,” the company said forestry licensing issues - now “primarily related to road permits” – continue to restrict supply.

"We are fully licensed for this year, all of the volumes we need to be licensed is licensed. The challenge we have is that we can’t access some of that volume at the moment because we need to have roads to access to the volume and in a number of situations we haven’t as yet received the road license from the Department.

Spillutvalget på disse casinoene er også imponerende, med alt fra klassiske spill som baccarat og roulette til nye spilleautomater som byr på spennende funksjoner og store jackpotter. Kombiner dette med attraktive bonuser og lojalitetsprogrammer, og du får en spillopplevelse som både er underholdende og effektiv. For deg som ønsker å slippe lange ventetider og samtidig få tilgang til kvalitetsspill, er dette den ideelle løsningen. Det unike med norske casinoer med raske uttak er deres fokus på tilpasning til norske spillere. De tilbyr ofte betalingsmetoder som Vipps, Trustly og e-lommebøker, som ikke bare er raske, men også svært brukervennlige. I tillegg sørger de for lisensiering fra pålitelige spillmyndigheter og avansert krypteringsteknologi for å beskytte all sensitiv informasjon.

"We need those road permits in order to be able to access that timber that’s licenses, as we are not really behind just now in terms of the hectares.”

The Department had not responded to queries on the licensing backlog as this article went to print.

https://www.independent.ie/business/farming/forestry-enviro/fresh-callsfor-forestry-system-overhaul-asoak-plantations-disappear-40383738.html

Green Belt is proud to be a member of the All Ireland Pollinator Plan business action group.

We are committing to protecting areas for pollinators and to create new areas in suitable locations - especially new forests and woodlands.

We are supporting the 18 actions suggested by AIPP and the use of Biochar to enhance soil conditions and improve microbial diversity is one such positive step.

Keep an eye on the AIPP website and our own as we highlight the actions and steps we are taking to increase the pollinator population nationally.

Why not have your company join too? #MakeYourDifference

Arising from current high pressure dominated weather patterns a high fire risk is deemed to exist in all areas where hazardous fuels such as dead grasses and shrub fuels such as heather and gorse exist. This risk phase is expected to peak on Friday, April 23rd. Based on recent fire activity, ignition risks appear to be focussed on areas with public access, particularly active turf cutting and peatland sites. The relaxation of some Covid-19 requirements mean that members of the public can now travel within their respective counties and higher visitor activity levels at recreational sites can be expected in line with fine weather. Members of the public intending to visit forests and other recreational sites are reminded to adhere to regulations introduced to limit the spread of Covid-19. Vehicles must not be parked at site entrances or impede emergency service access to forest roads. Forest visitors should not use barbeques or open fires at any stage. Fire behaviour and spread rates are likely to be influenced by lower afternoon humidity levels and moderate to fresh easterly winds in many areas. There is potential for wind speeds to reach or exceed the critical 30km/h threshold in several regions and this will significantly increase suppression difficulties in all fuel types. Due caution is advised.

Green Belt is delighted to develop its initiative Nurse A Tree where we will be dedicating a tree for every nurse in Ireland.

Nurse A Tree are raising €200,000 to plant a tree for all 80,000 nurses across Ireland as a living legacy to honour, give thanks and recognition to all nurses in Ireland who have been frontline during the Pandemic.

Trees have already been planted at the Midlands Hospitals in Tullamore and Portlaoise on April 13th by Pippa Hackett, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, to mark the start of the campaign. “My Department has a number of schemes to encourage tree-planting, so I’m delighted to see this initiative coming from the healthcare and private sector,” said Minister Hackett. “I wish them well in their efforts.” Nurse A Tree plans to work with public and private landowners, as well as local councils, under schemes promoted by the Department of Agriculture.

The NAT project was established in early 2021, inspired by the CleanMed conference and the Filipino nurses working in Finland. **Nurse A Tree is partnering with Green Belt **who will provide professional forestry expertise. Green Belt, established in 1982, is Ireland’s largest and oldest private forestry group.

Sandra McCarthy, Director of Nursing at the Midland Regional Hospital at Portlaoise and Louisea Burke, Director of Nursing at the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore said, “We are delighted to see the support for our nurses on the frontline and would like to thank ‘Nurse a Tree’ for this kind gesture of an Oak Tree and Minister Pippa Hackett for her support. Covid-19 has been a relentless battle for all our staff across the health services. The Oak tree is one of the most loved trees in the world, it is a symbol of strength, morale, resistance and knowledge, which very much represents the efforts of all Health Care Professionals during the Covid19 pandemic. It is encouraging to see the support of our community and this tree for our Hospitals symbolises all our efforts and hope for the future. Thank you.”

Nurse A Tree - ‘Our Forests, Our Future’ - will plant 80,000 trees for nurses in Ireland this year on municipal and public lands and also with the support of private forest owners. Our woodlands will be located throughout Ireland, in and close to communities where nurses and their families live and work. These trees will, in time, nurse the planet.

The European Nurse Climate Challenge has also been recently launched and NAT is collaborating with Healthcare Without Harm Europe (HCWH) to raise awareness of Climate Action in Healthcare in Ireland. This initiative will create native woodlands that will help clean the air by capturing and storing carbon. Respiratory and cardiovascular diseases can be adversely affected by our environment and the solution is in our hands. By planting these woodlands, healthcare in the future will be greatly influenced by the actions we take now.

These nurse forests will also help with stress and enhance wellbeing. We envisage greenways between health centres, community centres and hospitals. Raising awareness of positive climate action is an important part of the mission. Nurse A Tree will be providing information points throughout the forest walks.

We welcome your local communities getting involved. For further information and to register your interest visit our website www.nurseatree.ie or on our social media channels.

For more information and corporate support, please Maurice Ryan at maurice@nurseatree.ie or on 087 675 3097**

We are delighted to welcome Emily Fair into the fold. A fully qualified ecologist with a wide variety of experience, Emily has joined at a really exciting time for Green Belt.

Emily hails from Canada and grew up a Calgary Flames ice hockey fan. Since moving to Ireland, where she studied under Flo' Renou Wilson in UCD, Emily has hiked all across Ireland (when Covid allowed) and has settled in Galway now. She enjoys baking and we are promised a cheesecake soon!

Emily will be spending her time delivering ecological reports for Green Belt clients to ensure that every aspect of the environmental considerations in the application process are adhered to. We see a really bright future for Emily in Green Belt and the whole team wishes her every success.

To learn more about the ecological services Green Belt can provide for forestry and natural land management solutions, please contact efair@greenbelt.ie

Last week was a wonderful week across Ireland as numerous initiatives were in action to promote the value of trees in the country. Green Belt were active across a number of fronts and one we were particularly proud of was the 4th year (TY) Tree Hugger project taking place in St Jarlath's College in Tuam.

O tratamento da disfunção erétil é um tema delicado para muitos homens, especialmente aqueles que não desejam discutir o assunto com profissionais de saúde. Procurar uma solução eficaz e ao mesmo tempo discreta é uma prioridade para quem vive essa realidade. O Cialis é um dos medicamentos mais conhecidos e recomendados nestes casos, devido à sua eficácia prolongada. A opção de adquirir Cialis sem receita médica em Portugal tornou-se uma alternativa viável e segura. A entrega é feita de forma confidencial, e os dados pessoais são protegidos com elevados padrões de segurança. É, contudo, essencial seguir rigorosamente as instruções de uso e estar atento a eventuais contraindicações.

Their Environmental Studies group were putting some finishing touches to their biodiversity project and planted 350 native Irish trees including Birch, Walnut, Oak and Rowan. Our forester, Mike Moroney was the man to help with getting the trees and where and how to plant them.

Well done to all involved - and remember, you need need an excuse to pant a tree.

Το Cialis έχει καθιερωθεί παγκοσμίως ως μία από τις πιο αξιόπιστες επιλογές για την αντιμετώπιση της στυτικής δυσλειτουργίας. Η αποτελεσματικότητά του, σε συνδυασμό με τη διάρκεια δράσης, το καθιστούν εξαιρετικά δημοφιλές σε άνδρες κάθε ηλικίας. Ωστόσο, η διαδικασία απόκτησής του μέσω παραδοσιακών οδών παραμένει περιοριστική για πολλούς, κυρίως λόγω της ανάγκης για ιατρική συνταγή. Για το λόγο αυτό, η δυνατότητα αγοράς Cialis χωρίς συνταγή στην Ελλάδα μέσω αξιόπιστης διαδικτυακής πλατφόρμας αποκτά ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον. Με προστασία προσωπικών δεδομένων, ασφαλείς πληρωμές και εγγυημένα αυθεντικά προϊόντα, η εμπειρία γίνεται άμεση και χωρίς άγχη. Είναι σημαντικό, ωστόσο, η επιλογή να γίνεται με βάση ελεγμένες και επαληθευμένες πηγές.

In an article published on the Farming Independent, written by Claire McCormack, Private forest owners and their families have been warned to “exercise caution” about selling harvesting rights to their woodlands.

The caution from Irish Forest Owners (IFO) – a representative body for the majority of forest owner groups in Ireland – comes amid concern that many private forest owners “may not realise the true value” of their asset.

According to the latest prices, the final harvest value of a conifer forest is likely to be in the region of €10,000–€15,000 per acre.

It also follows moves from a number of investment companies that are seeking to buy the harvesting rights from private forest owners – offering a lump sum up front with annual payments until clearfell.

In a statement, Nicholas Sweetman chairperson of the IFO said many landowners have invested in forestry, especially over the last 30 years.

"Owners should be cautious of relinquishing the value of their timber mid-way through the life cycle of their trees. They should not become sharecroppers on their own land.

“It is of particular concern that these companies are cherry-picking softwood plantations that have recently come out of premium payments and that the owners are not being offered the true value of their forest,” he said.

The IFO is recommending that any forest owner considering these offers gets a valuation of their forest from an independent expert.

“Forest owners can also benefit from information and support from their local forest owners group, as well as independent advice from their local Teagasc Office”.

Harvesting rights Forest owners also need to carefully consider the tax implications of selling their harvesting rights. At present, there is a favourable tax regime for forest owners for profits relating to forestry and for the transfer of forestry to the next generation.

“It is possible that relinquishing harvesting rights may have unforeseen adverse tax implications for the landowner and their family,” he said, adding that “detailed independent legal and taxation advice is vital.”

We were delighted to speak with Sharon and the team from Kokoro. We discussed forestry and how we relax or unwind. Please read on the below link.

https://kokorozenwear.com/kokoro-eco-tribe/meet-maurice-ryan?fbclid=IwAR25Fyn0yog8rL-KdahXZIZ3RWQ4iv3wIw48z1k_SMJ9Wd6w7SOrbFoksTo

**Campaigns questioning the use of woody biomass for energy are missing key facts ** There are concurrent media campaigns and publications questioning the use of woody biomass for renewable energy production. Several of them misrepresent on-the-ground forestry practise and bioenergy systems, and associate the use of woody biomass for energy with overexploitation of forests, even permanent deforestation, and "the burning of trees". In reality, forest bioenergy is an integral part of the forest sector which responds to bioenergy demand by devising forest management approaches and industrial processes to produce fuels, heat and electricity along with sawlogs, paper and a multitude of other biobased products. The media campaigns also often ignore the many steps that have already been taken towards sustainable forest management, particularly in Europe and North America. While it is certainly important to identify what is needed to ensure that biomass is produced and used in a responsible way, the misrepresentations within recent soundbites run the risk of discrediting biomass as a sustainable material and energy source altogether – a feat that could have dire consequences for global carbon neutrality ambitions.

February 2021 – Combustion is today the most frequent means of converting woody biomass into energy, particularly in the form of heat and/or power. This can conjure the vision of “cutting down forest stands and burning the trees for energy” in the mind of the common reader and also scientists that are unfamiliar with on-the-ground forestry and bioenergy systems. However the reality is very different!

Forests are generally managed to provide multiple forest products, such as sawnwood, paper, bioenergy and also other biobased products. The wood used for bioenergy is not high quality lumber, but typically comprises thinnings, low-quality wood, salvage wood, harvest logging residues, processing residues or wood waste. As a case in point, about 90% of global renewable industrial heat consumption is currently based on biomass, mainly in industries that can use their own biomass waste and residues, such as sawmills and the pulp and paper industry. By shifting from fossil fuels to biomass these industries can stop injecting fossil carbon into the atmosphere. Energy efficiency improvements and changes in industrial processes in addition enables them to produce fuels, heat and electricity for use elsewhere, e.g., for heating homes.

The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission found that about 50% of wood used for bioenergy in the EU is derived from secondary products, such as forest-based industry by-products and recovered post-consumer wood, 17% from treetops, branches and other residues, and 20% from stemwood - which is mostly coppice wood, small stem thinning wood and harvested stems of poor quality that cannot be used in sawmills or pulp and paper production.

Further, it is well-recognized that any harvesting of biomass – be it for bioenergy, construction material, paper, or other use – should occur within sustainability boundaries. This implies management and harvesting principles providing safeguards against overharvesting and maintaining ecological sustainability as well as cultural and recreational values. This is why in the past 30 years sustainable forest management schemes such as FSC or PEFC endorsed schemes have been developed and deployed. Hundreds of millions of hectares of forests globally are currently certified by FSC or PEFC. Many countries have adopted similar forest management principles in their national or regional forestry legislations. Moreover, in the European context - the focus of these media campaigns - the recast of the Renewable Energy Directive imposes further requirements to minimise the risk of using forest biomass derived from unsustainable practice.

It is critically important to recognize that CO2 from bioenergy use is part of the short-term carbon cycle. When a forest stand is harvested and some of the biomass is used for energy, the carbon that was previously taken up from the atmosphere during stand growth is emitted to the atmosphere, and new carbon is taken up again when the stand regrows. So as long as harvests do not exceed carbon uptake in the forest, it does not increase atmospheric CO2 concentrations. In contrast, fossil fuel use causes a linear flow of carbon from geologic stores to the atmosphere. Just comparing CO2 emissions at the exhaust – as is sometimes done - misses this fundamental difference between biogenic and fossil carbon. What matters is whether increasing use of forest biomass for energy is part of a changing forest management paradigm that brings systematic decreases or increases in the amount of carbon stored in forests. If there is a decrease this diminishes the climate benefits of forest bioenergy. If there is an increase the climate benefit is enhanced.

The most important way to fight climate change is to transform energy and transport systems as soon as possible so that we can leave fossil carbon in the ground. Sustainable bioenergy is available now, and is compatible with existing energy infrastructure, enabling immediate substitution of coal, natural gas or petroleum fuels. Moreover, it can actually remove CO2 from the atmosphere when combined with carbon capture and storage of the CO2 associated with bioenergy use. Bioenergy can therefore play a significant role in supporting energy system transformation to achieve carbon neutrality.

The use of woody biomass to meet growing energy demand as well as its carbon neutrality goals should not be excluded because there may be risks of unsustainable practice. Rather, the focus should be on what practices, innovations, and policy regulations are required to ensure sustainable sourcing and efficient conversion to bioenergy and bioproducts.

This article is reproduced from a press release from IEA Bioenergy. Further information can be sought from Name: Luc Pelkmans, Technical coordinator IEA Bioenergy Tel: +32 492 977930 Email: luc.pelkmans@caprea.be