Calls for establishment of a commercial tree nursery in Northern Ireland

​Premier Woodlands’ managing director, John Hetherington, points to the difficulties that already exist in sourcing the stock of young trees required to meet current demand, never mind under-pinning future plans to grow the level of tree cover in Northern Ireland

He explained: “In the short term we are finding it difficult to source the trees that we need for current projects from forest tree nurseries in Great Britain.

“Put simply, many of these forest tree nurseries’ view the paperwork associated with the Windsor Framework as being much too cumbersome and excessive.

"To our knowledge, “very few if any, nurseries have, as yet, registered for the trusted trader scheme.

“In addition, the exclusion of four key species from all importations of young trees into Northern Ireland on EU biosecurity groundsis already hampering our current planting operations.

“The excluded species are: Hawthorne, Crab Apple, Rowan and Cherry.

"The EU ban has been introduced on the back of the trees’ potential predisposition to the disease: Fire Blight.

“But the reality is that the Fire Blight is already here in Northern Ireland.

Hetherington continued: “We can and are importing young trees from forest tree nurseries in Southern Ireland, but demand often exceeds availability.

"The real solution is a very simple one: the establishment of a large-scale commercial forest tree nursery that will meet the bespoke needs of the forestry and woodland sectors here in Northern Ireland.

“This is one of the areas that needs encouragement and NI Forest Service to show leadership on this matter.”

In the not too distant past the NI Forest Service had their own nurseries, which were all closed.

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Looking ahead, the Premier Woodlands’ representative points to there being total uncertainty, regarding the future availability of forestry and woodland support schemes in Northern Ireland.

He explained: “The current Forestry Expansion and Small Woodland Grant Schemes have run their course. However, there has been no clarification from Forest Service as to what support measures, if any, will replace them.

“I attended a recent seminar, held to discuss the setting of Northern Ireland’s carbon targets for the next decade. The event was hosted by the DAERAat AFBI Hillsborough.

“Three main courses-of-action are on the table, where these matters are concerned: the cutting of cattle numbers, feeding ruminant animals’ bespoke diets that will reduce methane emission levels and the planting of an additional c.3000-4,000ha of trees across Northern Ireland on an annual basis.”

But according to John Hetherington, the setting of targets means nothing, if the required budgets to make it all work are not put in place.

He continued: “When asked about the funding of these measures, DAERA officials indicated that the matter could only be resolved by a future Stormont Executive.

“So, essentially, everything is on hold and we have been here before. Over the past number of years numerous targets have been set to expand the level of forest cover in Northern Ireland. But none of these commitments have ever been met, due to a lack of sufficient long-term funding on the part of our government.”

John Hetherington concluded: “Forestry and woodland development have key roles to play in allowing Northern Ireland to meet its climate change targets.

“But NI Forest Service must take a more active lead on the matter now, if this potential is to be fully realised.”