Returning home from Slovenia after another fabulous forestry trip with Pro Silva Ireland, the grey bleakness of the Irish countryside is getting in on me.

After sleeping a night in a hotel in Dublin to recover from the Ryan Air flight, I’m gazing out the window of the train on the journey home and thinking. Why doesn’t Ireland have 60% forest cover?  How come our forests never develop into real forests like they do in Slovenia/Germany/Estonia/ Switzerland, etc.,etc., etc.

Some say that this being an island, high forests would blow over with the Atlantic storms.  But well structured, permanent forests have proven themselves to be far more stable than even-aged plantations, so that’s not it.  Nor is it the climate or the soils. It’s well documented that Ireland grows trees faster than anywhere else in Europe, so that’s not it either.

Over the years I’ve heard Irish foresters, when discussing the subject of regeneration achieved in old forest countries, saying things like “It’s fine for them. If they want to regenerate their forests all they have to do is to open the forest canopy”, - as if having a forest canopy to open is a God given gift to every European country except Ireland.

But the truth is that the only factor stopping us from having a forest canopy to open is that when we want to harvest timber here we cut down the entire forest to get it.  End of forest.  End of forest canopy.

The argument is, of course, that a new forest is then planted on the site of where the old forest was cut down. But somehow walking through a clearfell site or a new ‘re-aforestation’ site is just not as inspiring as walking through those big tall trees with their lush and varied shrub layer and seeing all size classes represented under the one…..well,… canopy.

Notice the many size classes of trees in this forest. - Beech and Norway Spruce.  

Notice the many size classes of trees in this forest. - Beech and Norway Spruce.

60% of Slovenia is forest covered, bringing in 60% of their gross national product.  The infrastructure is in place to deal with that amount of timber of course, and harvesting large logs is about all they do.  Clearfelling, or cutting down the whole forest, is forbidden.  Their management is mainly by selection of single stems or small groups. It is the same practice that has been carried out for generations. Small dimension thinnings don’t occur. Only large logs are felled and never too many as would put the forest under pressure.

The trip to Slovenia was very inspiring. Without these forest trips organized by Pro Silva Ireland to see forests that are managed in this way, we would never know any different.  Here, forestry is about growing plantations of even aged conifers and then cutting them down.  There, forestry is about working hand in hand with nature to continually safeguard and improve their forests and forest soils. Quality timber is the by product of their approach.