As the licencing scandal and crisis continues across Ireland, affecting employment and peoples livelihoods, a protest was held in dublin yesterday by harvesting contractores and foresters to force action to be taken.

While ministers McConalogue and Hackett did engage, there was a sense of frustration in those attending whch has spread across the industry - adding to the very high levels of frustration already in existence.

A press release was issues by the minsters: We met today with members of the IFA who were protesting at the rate at which forestry licenses are being issued to individual farmers by our department.

We gave them good news on recent improvements, and also told them that while we accept there are issues, we believe we are addressing them robustly, indeed with their help and co-operation, through Project Woodland.

In terms of figures, we explained that in June of this year 411 licenses were issued. 80% of those were private, the highest number of private licenses issued in one month in five years. We also updated them on staffing increases, in terms of ecologists, inspectors and administrators.

However we also focussed on the wider issue which is to devise a vision for Irish forestry for the next 100 years. We need as a country to agree on what we want from our trees, so that our woodlands and forests work for our communities, for industry and for biodiversity.

With the help of the farmers protesting today, and other stakeholders, Project Woodland is both fixing the current issues and working on the longer term vision. It involves representatives from all stakeholders, coming together in working groups, along with officials and outside expertise, to fix the backlog, reform the process, make organisational structures fit for purpose, and also devise that new strategy.

It is a process which is giving a genuine voice to all involved and it is working well.

One of the early asks from one of the groups was that Minister Hackett would undertake a fundamental regulatory review of the licensing system, as well as of the processes pursued by other Member States. Such a review had also been called for by the Oireachtas Committee and stakeholders. And Minister Hackett has asked the Project Board to progress that immediately.

And in the Irish Times today, an article was printed from Barry O'Halloran (copied in full, all credit to Barry O'Halloran of the Irish Times)

Family farm forest owners say they cannot get licences and income IFA-led protest outside the Dáil highlights backlog of permissions for forest activity Wed, Jul 14, 2021, 14:39 Barry O'Halloran

Delays in processing forestry applications have resulted in farmers not being able to access and thin forests they planted and so not achieve an income from the process.

That is according to farmers who on Wednesday protested outside the Convention Centre in Dublin to highlight what they say is the “no win” position of farmers who followed Government policy in buying into the forestry scheme.

“Farmers planted their land with the legitimate expectation that they would be able to thin and realise an income during its rotation, but the delays mean that this is no longer a reality for many,” IFA president Tim Cullinan said.

Mr Cullinan said there were nearly 6,000 applications for forest licences covering afforestation, road and felling licences caught up in the backlog.

“This is jeopardising the entire industry, from nurseries to sawmilling, with hundreds of jobs already lost”, he said.

Mr Cullinan said those who had bought into forestry were seeing “the value of their timber crop decrease by over €10,000 per hectare, if they cannot get a licence to thin.”

He said the crisis was undermining confidence in forestry as a land use option, “at a time when we need more farmers to plant if we are to meet our climate objectives”.

Following a meeting with the protesters, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue and Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity Pippa Hackett issued a statement saying the “good news” was that 411 licenses were issued in June of this year.

About 80 percent of those licences were private, the highest number of private licenses issued in one month in five years. “We also updated them on staffing increases, in terms of ecologists, inspectors and administrators” the statement said.

However both ministers said they also focussed “on the wider issue” which was to devise a vision for Irish forestry for the next 100 years.

“ Project Woodland is both fixing the current issues and working on the longer term vision. It involves representatives from all stakeholders, coming together in working groups, along with officials and outside expertise, to fix the backlog, reform the process, make organisational structures fit for purpose, and also devise that new strategy” the statement said.

Ms Hackett also undertook to complete “a fundamental regulatory review of the licensing system”, as well as a review of the processes pursued by other EU states.

Forestry accounts for 11 per cent or 770,020 hectares, of the total land area of Ireland, with 49percent in private ownership. The value of the industry to the national economy is €2.3 billion.

On Tuesday Mr Cullinan also took part in a protest at the Convention Centre, this time in support of horticultural workers who built a display of peat products. The protest was aimed at highlighting what they said was the Government’s inaction over the decline of their industry.

Larry Doran spokesman for the Kildare Growers said politicians who allowed a ban have “ignored and let down” some 17,000 people employed in mainly rural areas.

Mr Doran said operators are at “the end of their tether since the ban on harvesting of peat” on bogs of over 30 hectares in size.

Mr Doran said if no solution is found immediately, “businesses will be forced to close and there will be a loss of native biodiversity and biosecurity”.

As we read more and more about the world and how those conscious of the crisis we are in are working on solutions, we came across this article on Quartz. I know we are not meant to copy the article verbatim. We would therefore like to thanks Akshat Rathi for his work and article from 2018.

The climate economy - Every industry can be part of the solution — or part of the ongoing problem. By Akshat Rathi, Senior reporter Published October 8, 2018

The world has delayed reducing carbon emissions for so long that humanity will need to suck enormous amounts of carbon dioxide back out from the air to avoid catastrophic global warming. That’s one of the conclusions of a new report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Earlier this year, Environmental Research Letters published three studies reviewing the need for negative emissions and laying out the state of development for the technologies that can help us achieve them. Quartz has synthesized those reports to help you understand the technologies that may be required to capture as much as 20 billion metric tons each year to prevent catastrophic climate change.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS To be sure, as the chart above shows (see associated web page), the deployment of negative-emissions technologies has to be alongside zero-carbon technologies that displace the use of fossil fuels or abate their emissions. In other words, we will also need more solar, more wind, more nuclear, along with the deployment of more batteries, electric cars, and carbon capture and storage for industries, such as cement, steel, and ethanol.

1. Afforestation and reforestation Annual capture potential: between 0.5 and 3.6 billion metric tons. Current estimated cost of capture: between $5 to $50 per metric ton.

A carbon sink. It’s a “mature technology” and is the simplest to understand: Just plant more trees, and replace the ones that have been cut down. The downside: just planting trees is not enough, as the annual capture potential is lower than what’s needed.

Trees need a lot of land and soil (along with a supporting climate) to grow optimally, and it’s not clear that we have enough to support a massive effort to plant more. There are other problems: Converting large pieces of arid land into forests will reduce the amount of light and heat that is currently reflected back into space, known as the “albedo effect,” which reduces the carbon-cutting effect of new forests. And, finally, forests only store carbon dioxide for decades to centuries at most. That’s a blink of an eye compared to geological formations that can store carbon for thousands or even millions of years.

2. Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) Annual capture potential: between 0.5 and 5 billion metric tons. Current estimated cost of capture: between $100 and $200 per metric ton.

DRAX The cooling tower of the UK’s largest power plant, which is trialing BECCS. This technology combines two separate innovations. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) injects CO2 deep underground, where it’s stored in rock foundations—essentially like extracting natural gas but in reverse. Some 19 plants around the world have store approximately 40 million metric tons underground each year. Most climate scenarios require carbon capture to mitigate emissions from power plants and industry.

Bioenergy is the use of biomass to generate heat and power. In theory, burning wood is considered carbon neutral because it is only releasing carbon dioxide that was captured in the first place when the plant was growing. If CCS is used to store those emissions underground, then the total emissions from the process would arguably be negative.

The trouble is that scientists aren’t yet sure if biomass can always be considered carbon neutral. As Quartz previously explained, “The carbon dioxide released by burning trees, some experts say, is not recaptured back by new trees for many years. In that period, the greenhouse gases released will have contributed to heating up the planet—a process that cannot be negated by the new trees. In addition, felling a tree tends to release carbon that’s been trapped by the soil surrounding the plant.”

There are also concerns that, if we rely on using the technology for all negative emissions, we may not have enough land to grow the trees needed to be burned. That may even push against the world’s need to keep feeding a growing population. Finally, though we know there is enough potential to store carbon dioxide underground, the types of rocks and regions needed are not evenly spread out. That means, to make BECCS work, we will need to also build infrastructure to move carbon dioxide from where it is produced to where it can be stored.

3. Direct air capture Annual capture potential: between 0.5 and 5 billion metric tons. Current estimated cost of capture: between $200 and $600 per metric ton.

CLIMEWORKS Climeworks’ direct air capture plant in Troia, Italy opened on Oct. 1, 2018. Direct air capture takes BECCS one step further. The idea is to directly suck carbon dioxide out of the air and store it underground. There are currently three startups in the world that have working technologies, but the costs are so high that the startups have only built demonstration projects so far.

Climeworks, a Swiss startup, estimates its costs are between $600 and $800 per metric ton of CO2 captured. Carbon Engineering, a Canadian startup, puts it at closer to $250 per metric ton. In either case, the cost is many times the cost of CCS applied on coal or biomass power plants. But the technology has the advantage that it doesn’t need to be located where the CO2 is produced. Instead, it could be placed where the CO2 is to be injected.

4. Soil carbon Annual capture potential: up to 5 billion metric tons. Current estimated cost of capture: between $0 and $100 per metric ton.

The amount of carbon contained in the soil is a balance between carbon inputs—litter, residue, roots, manure, etc.—and carbon outputs—respiration or soil disturbance. To increase the amount of soil carbon, inputs need to do be more than outputs. The methods of achieving the goal vary, including adding manure, decreasing soil disturbance, grazing optimization, and the planting of legumes among many others. Each of the techniques is designed to help add more carbon to the soil. The challenge: As soils are enriched in carbon, it gets progressively harder to add more carbon, and the process becomes more expensive. There are also concerns of that the amount of carbon stored in any particular year may not always remain stable in the soil. That said, the researchers note that soil carbon has been managed for millennia (knowingly or unknowingly), because the upshot is improved agricultural production. Thus there is intimate knowledge among farmers in different regions of the world. Better still, the technology could be deployed today, and the monitoring needed to ensure soil carbons stay there can catch up later.

5. Biochar Annual capture potential: between 0.5 and 2 billion metric tons. Current estimated cost of capture: between $90 and $120 per metric ton.

Biochar is created by the thermal degradation of biomass, usually wood, in the absence of oxygen. When added to soil, it has the ability to increase the amount of soil carbon—more than what can be achieved through conventional means. Beyond storing carbon, the use of biochar leads to greater retention of water in soils and reduction in methane and nitrogen emissions. The difficulty with this technology is that so far most studies have only been done on a small scale. Additionally, if it does scale up, it will consume vast amounts of wood, which, if not harvested sustainably, could have other impacts on the climate.

6. Enhanced weathering Annual capture potential: between 2 and 4 billion metric tons. Current estimated cost of capture: between $50 and $200 per metric ton. In Oman, scientists collect samples from one of the world’s only exposed sections of the Earth’s mantle to uncover how a spontaneous natural process millions of years ago transformed CO2 into limestone and marble. Some minerals have the ability to react with and capture carbon dioxide, as the natural forces cause the rock to break apart and expose unreacted parts. Enhanced weathering accelerates that process by grinding the rock and then spreading it on a piece of land to increase its exposure to the atmosphere. As a side effect, the alkalinity (opposite of acidity) of weathered rocks can also help improve soil quality.

In Oman, for example, peridotite exists in vast quantities. When exposed to air, it reacts and forms carbonate minerals that can be seen as white-colored veins in rocks. It is estimated that the region could help store as much as 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. As with biochar, there aren’t large-scale studies of enhanced weathering’s impact on geochemical cycles and on the biomass and carbon stocks in the soil and in plants. The cost is also highly dependent on where the rocks are mined, and where and how they are crushed and spread.

The future of Ireland’s planting of woodlands and forests has been highlighted by the world economic forum in a video that urges people to plant more trees.

Watch it and begin to understand how important this is for Ireland!

Green Belt is planting almost 50% of new lands with native broad leaves and is encouraged with the desire and demand from our land and forest owners to see more of the same.

Nurse a Tree is establishing a tree per nurse across Ireland - that’s 80,000 trees and these will be all native Irish trees.

Contact us today to learn how you can help tackle climate change!

Commercial forests can help climate change fight, UL research finds Results challenge recent research that suggests commercial forests act only as a short-term sink of carbon dioxide Commercial forests can help climate change fight, UL research finds The study shows the key role afforestation can play by including new accounting of greenhouse gas mitigation achieved from future use of harvested wood. TUE, 22 JUN, 2021 - 16:11 EMER WALSH Commercial forests can play a vital role in the fight against climate change, according to a new study involving researchers at the University of Limerick (UL).

The results of the study challenge recent research that suggests commercial forests act only as a short-term sink of carbon dioxide.

The study involved researchers at UL’s Bernal Institute, Bangor University, Wales, and scientists in British Columbia, Canada.

It showed the key role afforestation can play by including new accounting of greenhouse gas mitigation achieved from future use of harvested wood.

The study applied a novel, time-dependent assessment to capture the complex dynamics of carbon uptake, storage, and partial eventual release back to the atmosphere, alongside product and energy substitution by wood products, over a 100-year timeframe.

“Our goal was to undertake a really comprehensive life cycle assessment that considers the whole life cycle of carbon taken up by trees in new commercial forests,” said Eilidh Forster, a PhD student in Bangor University and lead author of the study.

Because new forests won’t be harvested for another 50 years, the standard assessment approach of applying current technology emission factors to wood value chains is inaccurate.

"Therefore, we decided to apply projections of future technology deployment to better represent the likely long-term climate change mitigation achieved by harvested wood.”

Her PhD supervisor, David Styles, the study’s co-author, who is a member of the Bernal Institute and lecturer in environmental engineering at UL, explained that carbon capture and storage technology is likely to be in widespread use after 2070.

This means that new commercial forestry can be a long-term sink of CO2 from the atmosphere, even if a large share of wood is ultimately burned for bioenergy generation, he explained.

Carbon capture and storage technology works by extracting carbon dioxide from exhaust gases during energy generation and locking it away in oil and gas wells.

The study also shows that a large share of the carbon removed by afforestation is locked up for many decades in wood products, such as sawn-wood and panel boards used for construction.

“This ‘buys time’ for the successful commercial deployment of carbon capture and storage technology in the future,” explained Mr Styles.

The authors stress that whilst this evidence supports the planting of new commercial forests in temperate regions as a way to combat climate change, a range of other considerations need to be taken into account for sustainable land use planning.

However, Mr Styles adds, “planting new commercial forests is a flexible way to contribute to long-term climate stabilisation goals.”

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.

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).

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.

"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