There was a cautious welcome from the forestry industry for the €79.5m ash dieback support package announced this week by the Department of Agriculture, but opinions among woodland growers are more divided.

While the Social, Economic Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland (SEEFA) said it broadly supported the assistance provided by the Department, which will equate to a payment of €5,000/ha for diseased plantations, the Irish Forest Owners (IFO) said there was a “mixed response” from its members.

“We fully support all assistance provided to landowners and farmers on vital issues like ash dieback. We believe this package will encourage more landowners to enter the scheme and will help us toward our environmental goals, adding more active carbon sequestering forests,” said SEEFA chair Padraig Egan.

Caution

However, Egan cautioned that the precise details concerning timelines, exact requirements and the terms and conditions landowners face have yet to be established.

The SEEFA chair also expressed disappointment that a task force on ash dieback was not convened ahead of the support package being announced.

“Additionally, the resources provided in the package in no way cover maintenance and may leave forest owners at a loss,” he added.

Reacting to the announcement of the support package, the IFO said the “consistent lobbying” by forest owner representatives on ash dieback had “finally borne some fruit”.

However, an IFO spokesperson conceded that there was not universal agreement among members that the support payments being offered were sufficient.

“Some of our members are ready to move on and welcome the payment, whereas other forest owners, particularly those with larger, more mature plantations, feel the payment does not come close to making good the financial loss ash dieback has caused,” said IFO national co-ordinator Olive Leavy.

Complex situation

The situation is complex and the impact of the disease has been different for different forest owners, depending on the size and age of the plantation, the IFO explained.

“A one-size-fits-all approach is never going to reasonably compensate all owners of ash plantations and we hope that the door remains open to those forest owners experiencing the biggest losses and particularly in cases where the cost of clearance and maintenance far exceeds what is covered in the grants,” Leavy said.

“It is also essential that all ash plantations, whether grant-aid or replanted after clearfell, are eligible under the terms of this package,” she added.

“What forest owners now need is clear and concise information on how to proceed, a swift decision on their application to the reconstitution ash dieback scheme, a fair and prompt receipt of payment without additional constraints or paperwork and an increase in contractor capacity,” the IFO representative maintained.

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“We hope the ash dieback taskforce, which our chairperson Derek McCabe is a member of, will convene in the coming weeks to ensure the rapid implementation of all the recommendations in the independent ash dieback review and to give forest owners the support needed to move on and get new trees in the ground,” Leavy said.