The volume of roundwood removals increased by 18% last year, new forestry figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

Removals increased from 4.4 million cubic metres in 2024 to 5.2 million cubic metres in 2025.

The total value of roundwood removals was €238 million in 2025, a 1% increase on the €236 million figure in 2024 and a 6% decrease from the series high of €253 million in 2022.

Forest wood removal

Niamh Shanahan, statistician in the CSO's environment division, explained: "In 2025, 5.2 million cubic metres of roundwood, which is wood in its natural state, was removed from Irish forests.

"This was up 18% compared with 2024, when 4.4 million cubic metres were removed, and was the highest volume of roundwood removed across the 2015-2025 time series.

"The impact of Storm Éowyn in early 2025 likely impacted the increase of roundwood removed from Irish forests."

Privately-owned

Privately-owned forests provided the majority of the wood, accounting for 57% of the total wood removed, with publicly-owned forests making up the rest at 43%.

Shanahan said that compared with 2024, removals from public forests fell by 6%, while removals from private forests rose by 48%.

"This was the first year in the time series where removals from private-forests were higher than removals from publicly-owned forests," she said.

"In 2025, the value of wood taken from forests was €238 million.

"This was 1% higher than the value of wood in 2024, in contrast to the 18% increase in volume of wood removed in 2025."

Shanahan said the highest product share of the wood removed in 2025 was large sawlogs (used in construction) at 36% of the total removals volume, followed by small sawlogs at 28%, and pulpwood at 24%.

"These three categories together accounted for approximately 90% of all wood removed from Irish forests each year," she added.