Ongoing challenges facing forestry owners following Storm Éowyn
One of the trails at Mote Park, taken in March. Pic: Courtesy Mote Park Conservation Group
A well known County Roscommon man has highlighted the ongoing challenges facing forestry owners following the devastation caused by Storm Éowyn.
While fallen timber can be salvaged, growers are very concerned about a drop in timber prices and a shortage of contractors.
A series of events, organised by Teagasc, are taking place to advise forestry owners of the steps they can take to deal with damage caused by the January storm The events held on holdings where the forestry clean-up operation is continuing, have attracted large numbers to Castlerea, and to Mountbellew, County Galway.
Speaking to RTÉ News, Pyers O'Conor Nash, Castlerea, said that his stock was nearing maturity when the winds hit, and that timber prices had fallen sharply as a result of the anticipated oversupply.
"The great problem here for every forest owner is that, in the past, we would like to take it [timber] out at the optimum time, when prices were good. Now, that particular discretion has been taken away. We have to sell at the lowest time, when prices are really poor," Mr O'Conor Nash said.
He explained how saw log was fetching around €100 per cubic metre at Christmas, but was now "bouncing around €50 to €60, maybe a little bit more, but that's a straight reflection between supply and demand".
Estimates suggest that close to 24,000 hectares of forestry were blown down by the storm, half of it on private holdings.
That amounts to around 10 million cubic metres of timber, felled in one night, or almost two and a half times the total volume harvested, from all Irish forests in 2023.
