Irish Sessile Oaks at Raheen Forest

I was back in the woods with my ProSilva Ireland forest family last weekend. With foresters,  ecologists, forest owners, tree-harvesters, forestry students and newcomers, we visited the beautiful broadleaf and conifer-mixed Raheen forest near Scariff in Co. Clare (West Ireland). There are remnants of wonderful ancient Sessile Oak woods there (picture above), and they, and much of the conifer areas, are being tended for close-to-nature continuous cover forest (CCF) management (the conifers are selectively thinned to let the native tree species naturally regenerate).

It was also heartening to be shown the new, first government-supported Teagasc advisory guide for farmers about continuous cover forestry management (ProSilva Ireland has been promoting this alternative to clearfell monoculture since 2000). This is significant, as being part of the committee of ProSilva Ireland, we are noticing many farmer-forester groups are making contact to join our open-forest, continuous cover forest management education days. Much of the move toward CCF in Ireland is also building from the private landowner sector and it underlines my and others’ work to have CCF as the key point of Irish Green forest policy (published in 2012). ProSilva Ireland is hoping to offer the first CCF training workshops in 2017. See more at prosilvaireland.org

Click on the link to read more from the ProSilva Ireland website.

ProSilva Ireland held a very informative day at Raheen Forest, Tuamgreany, Co. Clare, last Saturday on the 8 October. It was led by ProSilva committee member and site forester/mycologist, Jonatha…

Source: Launch of first Teagasc booklet on Continuous Cover Forestry at ProSilva Ireland Raheen Forest, Tuamgreany, East Clare

Save