"There must be no windblow in Kerry," was one of the remarks from an audience member who was commenting on the absence of Minister of State with responsibility for forestry, Michael Healy-Rae, from a meeting for forest owners in Co. Leitrim last night (Tuesday, February 18).

The meeting was organised by Irish Forest Owners (IFO) to discuss the options and next steps which need to be taken by forest owners following the devastating impact of Storm Éowyn last month.

Among the speakers at the meeting were Enda Keane and Garett Mullooly from Cork company, TreeMetrics Ltd., who showed the audience the technology available to them which they used to determine that about 11,750ha are blown over.

Garett said that, to their knowledge, there are about 4.1 million cubic metres down across Galway, Roscommon, Longford, Sligo, Leitrim, and Cavan.

There was palpable anger and fear among the crowd in attendance at the prospects for forestry plantations, many of which were being relied upon to provide a pension in later life.

Neither Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, nor Minister Healy-Rae was present at the meeting, nor was there any representative from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) forestry division.

Derek McCable from IFO said: "People who sowed 25 years ago are left 'high and dry' now and those pioneers need to be looked after."

Garret Mullooly explained the context of the current damage to forestry by outlining that with 4.1 million cubic metres now on the ground, Ireland normally harvests about 4 million cubic metres per year on a normal basis.

His company has used free satellite images from the Sentinel satellite which passes over Ireland every three days to compile much of the data.

His colleague Enda Keane gave the stark statistic to the gathered audience that "typically after storms, the value of forestry can drop by between 40% and 60%". He indicated that is not what will necessarily happen in this instance but warned the forest owners to mobilise.

"You are lambs to the slaughter without data," he said. He also commented that it was a "disgrace" that no-one from the forest service at DAFM was in attendance at the meeting.

When demonstrating the satellite imagery from just before and just after Storm Éowyn, Enda Keane said it was "flattened, like a bomb" had gone through it.

Technical expert with the Irish Bioenergy Association (IrBEA) Noel Gavigan also spoke at the meeting and said that bioenergy makes up two-thirds of all renewable energy in Ireland.

He told forest owners that stacking of timber is very important to address urgently as fallen forestry can "start rotting very quickly".

Derek McCabe of IFO said that a call was put out last week across Europe to help to mobilise harvesters as capacity is an issue for both harvesters and sawmills in Ireland.

He said there needs to be a more coordinated timber removal programme and that sawmills are struggling to deal with the volume now coming through and, as a result, a depression in prices is already being experienced.

McCabe criticised both Minister Martin Heydon and Minister of State, Michael Healy-Rae for not being present at the meeting and not sending any representative from DAFM to answer queries from concerned forest owners.

Independent Ireland TD, Michael Fitzmaurice, addressed the meeting and said that the information he has received is that about half of forest owners have felling licences.

A felling licence granted by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine provides authority under the Forestry Act 2014 to fell or otherwise remove a tree or trees and to thin a forest for management reasons.

Forest owners who have suffered devastating losses of trees as a result of storm damage are being advised that they still require felling licences to remove the timber.

This point caused frustration and anger among forest owners and stakeholders in the industry, who fear bureaucracy such as this will result in forest owners being delayed in getting their timber to market, resulted in significant financial loss.

Enda Keane of TreeMetrics said: "Timber is down. Mother Nature has felled your timber, it's ludicrous to be asking you for a felling licence now."

He added that it's important to get "rid of the bureaucracy" and get timber to market as quickly as possible

The meeting called for immediate government support to help those who took the step forward to plant forestry decades ago with IFO calling on DAFM to dispense with the requirement for a felling licence in these extraordinary circumstances.

IFO also called for a plan to ensure sawmills are working at full capacity, as well as the Edenderry plant.

The main advice to forest owners was to link up with neighbouring forest owners and act quickly to organise the harvesting of timber and ensure the best negotiating position on price.