The DAFM have issued the following status warning due to the high temperatures forecast this week: Take care and be extra vigilant!

Condition Orange – High Fire Risk Warning Effective From 1200hrs 14/07/2022 Effective Period Expires 1200hrs 20/07/2022 Arising from current 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. A high-pressure ridge currently located to the south west of Ireland will move northwards during the lifespan of this notice and influence Southerly airflows with high air temperatures low to moderate humidity and moderate windspeeds as the weekend progresses. Members of the public intending to visit forests and other recreational sites are reminded to adhere to regulations regarding fire use. Forest visitors should not use barbeques or open fires at any stage. Vehicles must not be parked at site entrances or impede emergency service access to forest roads. Fire risk is expected to peak on Sunday, July 17th. Where fires occur, fire behaviour is likely to be influenced by moderate windspeeds in the 15-25kmh region. Higher windspeeds above the critical 30km/h threshold may be experienced in southern areas. Fire behaviour will be moderated by increased live fuel availability and high live fuel moisture levels in upland areas.

Green Belt continued with our tree planting days, this time in St Jarlath's College in Tuam, Co Galway.
Our local forester, Mike Moroney was on hand to deliver the 50 Native Irish Tree's and to guide the TY students in the best way to plant the tree's. This is Green Belt's second year supporting this really wonderful schools initiative, for their Eco UNESCO Project 'The Tree Amigos'.

Thank you for having us St Jarlath's and we look forward to watching those tree's grow with you and the community you support.

SEEFA, representing Ireland’s private forestry industry staged a protest on Kildare street on the 3rd of November. This protest was seen as the only option available to the industry in light of the lack of action and commitment from the Forest Service and the Department of Agriculture (DAFM).

At risk are more than 12,000 jobs in mainly rural communities within the industry. The issue is around the fact that there are more than 9 thousand licences for new tree planting, timber harvesting and road construction for forests.

This has led to an increase in timber products prices for construction. Irish timber is in high demand for all aspects of construction.

Further to this is stark loss of potential carbon capture in lands left unplanted - this has been calculated at a conservative 500,000 tons of Carbon. When it is put in context with the current COP26, it is easy to see why Teige Ryan from None So Hardy nurseries and SEEFA said it has been a COP OUT by the department.

Minister McConalogue has clarified his departments stance on the ownership claims on private forestry carbon and the trading of those potential credits.

There is a viable voluntary market that can provide a platform for private forest owners to trade to a private company. It is important to ensure there is no double accounting.

In todays Farmers Journal, Donal Magner wrote that Minster McConalogue clarified the position to the IFJ and states "I want to be clear that the state is not trading or seeking to trade the carbon sequestered in farmers forests. We are however, obliged to report and account for all greenhouse gases here under our international obligations and this includes sequestration and emissions from forestry."

"THIS DOES NOT IMPLY OWNERSHIP", He continues, an important point!, "but simply reflects the requirement for those reductions and emissions to be included in the State's climate inventory." Obviously this has been broadly welcomed by all private forest owners and those considering the establishment of a private forest. The potential for Carbon to add significantly to their earning power and returns from forestry are immense and we believe will lead to an increased interest in the afforestation program.

Now all we need is a forest service that can deliver licences and a program.

Aldi plants 37,000 trees as Dunshaughlin store to open

John Donohoe Published: Fri 6 Aug 2021, 10:23 AM Last updated: Fri 6 Aug 2021, 8:49 PM Aldi has announced its Dunshaughlin store is to open on Thursday 19th August, and to mark the occasion, is planting 37,700 trees in Ashbourne.

The Dunshaughlin store staff teamed up with Green Belt and local landowner Joseph Corry to plant the native trees. The Woodland Environmental Fund, administered by the DAFM, provides additional support to the land owner from a supporting company. Aldi has been working with these land owners across the country as part of their drive to establish 1,000,000 trees.

The field which is being developed was known as 'The Lawn', as it was once part of the grounds of Supple Castle, home of an old Dunshaughlin family who date from the 17th century. It was later owned by Murphys, and most recently, by Maddens, of the neighbouring hardware store.

Aldi says it is the first retailer in Ireland to commit to planting one million native Irish woodland trees by 2025 in partnership with Green Belt. The native trees will create a wildlife corridor for native species and enhance biodiversity, while also removing more than 160,000 tonnes of carbon emissions over their 100-year life span.

If your company would like to become involved with the Woodland Environmental Fund and support local land owners develop Native Irish woodlands, please contact your local Green Belt forester.

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.

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.

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