Coillte to harvest windblown trees by end of 2026

Coillte is on course to have all its “40 million windblown trees removed by the end of next year”, according to Mark Carlin, managing director of Coillte Forest at a recent harvesting and reforestation demonstration at the windblown forest of Raheen, outside the Co Cork village of Freemount.

“We also plan to replant the 14,500ha of storm damaged forests by 2027,” he said.

After assessing the full extent of the storm damage using satellite and drone technology, within 10 weeks “we created a new harvest and sales plan, utilising local harvesting and haulage contractors, focused on harvesting all of the damaged forests, mainly in the west and northwest”, Carlin said. “We are at the heart of the national response and leading a remarkable recovery effort across the forest estate, with the first windblown forests not just cleared, but already replanted with new trees to restart the forest cycle again.”

Clodagh Kealy, Coillte’s director of sales and supply chain, outlined the logistic challenges, which the company continues to face.

“Coillte is working closely with its Irish contractors on the ground who have stepped up to the significant mobilisation challenge by expanding their capacity.

“Their expertise in windblow extraction has helped ramp up felling and extraction operations, supported by the ability to utilise thinning licences, enabled by the speedy response of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to this challenge,” she added.

Harvest

Coillte now has over 65 harvesting machines operating in the windblow areas.

“The timber is being processed through Irish sawmills for construction products to build low-carbon timber-frame houses and for pallets, fencing, panel-boards and energy-wood,” said Kealy.

“We are fortunate that Ireland has a world-class sawmilling sector, which has the capacity to process increased levels of timber, and that Ireland is situated next door to the UK which is second biggest importer of timber in the world.”

The timber from the Raheen site is being processed nearby at Glennons sawmill in Fermoy.

“It will be used primarily in construction and for producing pallets and fencing,” said Bernard Burke, Coillte’s regional manager covering the Cork and Kerry area.

Small logs and timber residue – wood chips, sawdust – will be used for panel board production at the company’s Medite Smartply plants and for energy generation.

“Approximately 85% of the windblow area now has a felling licence thanks to the Department’s actions,” said Mark Carlin.

“Our aim is to utilise Irish capacity first, and only where there are shortfalls will we look to bring in international contractors,” he added.

“In terms of haulage capacity, while haulage trucks are available to increase capacity; the availability of additional drivers is limited, and so we are working across the industry to understand how to best meet this challenge.”

Minister of State, with responsibility for forestry Michael Healy-Rae, who visited the site, has said: “This forest was windblown in January and has since been mapped, licensed, planned, harvested and local tree planting contractors are finishing planting the forest to restart the forest cycle again.

“The wood is going to local sawmills for construction and I hope this is the first of many of these sites to be fully restored after the storm.”

Timber mobilisation in windblown sites “is a priority” said Niall Grainger, chair of the Irish Timber Council (ITC).

“Dealing with this devastating windblow affecting the growers in the northwest is a priority for the sawmills,” said Grainger, who in addition to chairing ITC is director of GP Wood, the Cork-based timber processing company with mills in Enniskeane and Lissarda. ITC, founded in 1918, represents all the major sawmills across the island of Ireland.

“ITC mills have already moved over 80% of our harvesting operations into windblown sites, and this will continue to increase on a monthly basis,” he said.

“It is important that we still protect our customer base and supply the full range of sawn timber and co-products required.”

The sawmilling industry in Ireland currently processes over 2m tonnes of sawlog annually, but “has a latent capacity to do significantly more”, he said.

“Each individual sawmill operates long term supply contracts and agreements with individual growers,” he added.

“At the time of the storm, as is normal, all mills had supply agreements in place for between three and six months at a minimum with some running for a year. These are binding agreements which must be honoured.”

He said the current windblow represents approximately 18 to 24 months’ supply to the sawmills.

“It will take this time to handle the volume blown and these crops will be in a millable state provided they are left attached to the root during this period,” he explained.

He said Irish sawmills have the capacity to handle all the sawlog coming from this storm.

“While we welcome debate on forestry issues, we find some of the criticism levelled at our industry to be unhelpful and ill-informed, but are happy to engage directly with any grower who has concerns about their crop,” he maintained. “Due to the competitive nature of our supply chain, this engagement must be on an individual sawmill basis.”