A panel of forestry experts will speak at a webinar on the barriers to tree felling licences, run by University College Dublin (UCD) forestry students next week (March 16, 2022).
The online event called ‘Unlocking the barriers of the felling licence process’, will be streamed from 1:00p.m to 3:30p.m and will feature experts from the various bodies in the industry, including Coillte.
A questions and answer session will also take place after the audience has heard from the speakers.
One of the organisers of the event, Tom Cullen, said this seminar will focus on the difficulties those working in forestry face in relation to procuring felling licences.
“It’s very hard to get a licence; applying for one is a really long process and they can often be denied due to public objections,” he said.
“It has made it really hard for those working in the forestry industry to fell the trees that they’ve been growing for a long time.”
The free webinar is being run by 2nd year forestry students at UCD, as part of a module in their programme. Cullen said they felt it was important to discuss this as it is one of the main issues the industry is currently facing.
“The seminar is going to talk about firstly, what led to the problem and discuss the current situation. Then secondly, we’ll discuss onward revisions for the future.”
The free event is open to anyone who may wish to attend.
Tree felling licences
Recently released data from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), shows that it issued 293 tree-felling licences in the first month of this year.
The data also showed that the department received 3,601 applications for tree-felling licences in 2021, however, only 79% of these were granted. 1,532 were issued to Coillte while 1,341 were given to private owners.
The total number of licences issued was a 40% increase on 2020, when only 1,717 were issued.
Coillte, Ireland’s state forestry group, is responsible for much of the mature national forest estate, and supplies 75% of logs to sawmills in the country according to the DAFM.