Currently I am marking a small sitka spruce plantation near Cavan town for its first thinning. It is not a line thinning, as most plantations get in a first thinning. Instead I am selecting trees of good, straight form that are lightly branched and firmly rooted and then marking out the trees that are inhibiting them.
The forest is 19 years old and is growing on fertile ground. Many of the trees have grown well. The plantation is now very dark inside, and I have been looking forward to when the harvesting machine comes in to take out the marked trees and let in some light.
Dark, unthinned plantation at Inishconnell
The forest owner doesn’t want to end up with a clear-fell site after 40 years, (see image below) as is the usual fate for these plantations. He wants it to develop as a permanent forest that will remain standing but that will also produce fine quality timber as it grows. He wants to leave something of value for his grandchildren that will stay after he has gone. But he also wants the forest to bring in an income during his life time so that it pays its way.
Clearfell site at Drumshanbo. This is NOT what we want after 40 years of trees growing at Inishconnell!
The trees will have to be carefully thinned in such a way as to make the forest itself more stable and more varied, or ’species rich’, in order to help it stand up to the ravages of time and not blow over during the thinning process. And it will need to invite in more valuable species than sitka spruce.
A few lines of trees were felled and taken out last February to make way for the harvesting machine. The dark canopy was opened up a little bit and long shafts of sunlight found their way to the forest floor for the first time in well over a decade.
Ash seedlings coming in on forest floor
By the end of June, thousands of small ash seedlings began to appear on the forest floor near to where the lines of trees had been felled. The warm sunlight stimulated their awakening, after many years of waiting as small seeds just below the surface of the soil. Their waiting has paid off, and how lucky for them that the forest owner has a mind to allow nature to play a hand in the future management of his forest.
When let, – forests are forever evolving and changing. The trick for the forester is to harvest timber in such a way as to enrich, not deplete, the forest. (Never deplete the capital. Only spend the interest.) That way there is always something coming on for the future and the whole ecosystem just gets better and better.
This type of forest management is new to Ireland. Here we only see tree plantations up to 40 years old, and clearfell sites after they have been cut down. The type of forest management being practiced at Inishconnell is called ’close-to-nature’ and I have been learning this approach over the last 8 years with Pro Silva in many other European forests. I have been very fortunate to have some great teachers. I am greatly enthusiastic about this approach to forest management. I know it holds the key to us getting back our Irish forests.
Wesley from M & F Timber Harvesting arrived with his harvesting machine
So finally Wesley arrived with his harvesting machine and the trees are being thinned.
New light coming into the forest after first thinning.
