Thematic area: Establishing and growing forests

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Establishing and growing forests are core activities of forest management. Central to these activities is the concept of sustainability which is changing the way in which we live our lives today. Sustainability in forestry finds its expression in sustainable forest management (SFM) which is the underlying principle by which forest management is being practiced in many countries throughout the world. Since the concept as first introduced in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio, SFM has revolutionised the way in which we manage forests and has been a key driver in forest research and development programmes for the last two decades. SFM has required us to re-examine the value of forests and the goods and services they provide; also to rebalance the economic, environmental and social aspects of forest management for a more sustainable future.
The projects outlined in this section are concerned with making forest management more sustainable in Ireland. For example:

•  rebalancing the species composition of the forest estate towards broadleaves and mixed species stands to create greater diversity in both timber products and enhancement of biodiversity;
•  having a better understanding of the timber yields from private forests so that sustained yield can be achieved;
• sustaining an experimental infrastructure from which we derive much of our scientific knowledge that underpins policy and management decisions;
• developing new technologies for multi-resource inventories;
• developing planning tools for redesigning forest plantations established on environmentally sensitive sites to make them more sustainable;
• Seeking new methods to reduce chemical usage in forest establishment thereby sustaining the health of the forest ecosystem.
  These outputs will provide us with the necessary guidance and methodologies which will ensure that practices are appropriate for the sustainability of forests and to ensure that they are in harmony with other land uses and the wider landscape.

   

  Research programmes and projects within this thematic area:

  FOREST REPRODUCTIVE MATERIAL
  ASHGEN: Identifying the scale of suspected hybrid ash (F. excelsior x F. angustifolia) in Ireland and its potential for genetic pollution of indigenous ash germplasm
  ASHQUAL: Comparison of Irish ash seed sources
  BEECHQUAL: Testing seed stands of Irish beech
  BIHIP: British and Irish Hardwoods Improvement Programme
  BIRCH/ALDER: Selection and improvement of Irish birch.
  EUFORGEN: European Forest Genetic Resources Programme
  OAKPROV: Establishment of Irish oak seed stand and progeny trials
  QUALIBROAD: Improving the uniformity and quality of broadleaf planting stock
  SEEDSTANDS: The national catalogue of seeds

  SILVICULTURE 
  BROADFORM: Silviculture of new broadleaved plantations: shaping and thinning
  CONTINUCOVER: An evaluation of continuous cover forestry in Ireland
  GBREVIEW: Growing Broadleaves review
  GROWCHECK: Pilot project using a ground-based fertiliser spreader on sensitive sites

  FOREST PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT - PLANSFM
  FORESTSCAN: Terrestrial laser scanning technology for multi-resource forest inventories
  NATFOREX: Establishing a national resource of field trials and a database for forest research and demonstration
  PRACTISFM II: PractiSFM - implementation, communication and optimisation
  STANDMODEL: Development of dynamic yield models for conifers, broadleaves and mixtures
  TREEMODEL: Development of single tree volume models and stem profile models
  WESTFOREST: A GIS-based multi-objective decision support system for the optimal management of forests on sensitive sites
  CLUSTER: A cluster based approach for identifying farm forest resources to maximise potential markets
  FORECAST: Geospatial forecasts of private sector timber supply

  FOREST HEALTH AND PROTECTION
  ABATE: Integrated reduced-chemical control of Hylobius abietis in Sitka spruce