University College Dublin (UCD) forestry students will present a free webinar featuring forestry experts discussing the barriers to tree felling licences. The panel will appear on 16 March, 2022, with streaming from 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm.
The presentation, called Unlocking the barriers of the felling licence process, will host experts from the various bodies in the industry.
One of the organisers, Tom Cullen, shared that the seminar will hone in on the difficulties those working in forestry face in relation to procuring felling licences.“It’s very hard to get a licence. Applying for one is a really long process and they can often be denied due to public objections. The seminar is going to talk about firstly, what led to the problem and discuss the current situation. Then secondly, we’ll discuss onward revisions for the future.”
Statistics from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) show that it issued 293 tree-felling licences in the first month of 2022.
It also catalogues that the department received 3,601 applications for tree-felling licences in 2021, however, only 79% of these were granted. Of these, 1,532 were issued to Coillte while 1,341 were given to private owners.
The total number of licences issued was a 40% increase on 2020, when only 1,717 were issued. Coillte, Ireland’s state forestry group, handles much of the mature national forest estate, and supplies 75% of logs to sawmills in the country.
The webinar is being run by second year forestry students at UCD, as part of a module in their programme.
The floor will open to a Q&A session after the speakers, and is open to anyone who wants to attend.
LSL News.