Friends of the Irish Environment
A small group of forestry contractors supported by the environmental group Friends of the Irish Environment are protesting current felling in the Ballyhoura Mountains in North Cork at a Cork Forestry Conference this morning.
The protestors are calling for a halt to the ongoing felling in the Awbeg River catchment, a tributary of the Blackwater, until proper protection is put in to stop the environmental damage.
Clearfell 2008
Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE] have posted to their website picture of the damage to the ground and water where the felling continues. The site is in the catchment of the Awbeg River, an area where extensive clear felling of sitka spruce plantations is being undertaken by Coillte Teo under their Distinct Management Plans.
The Awbeg is a breeding ground for otters and supports a significant population of Atlantic salmon. The river supports a population of White-clawed Crayfish, a threatened species.
Michael Cronin, a contractor who helped to organise the protest, said that water samples showed conclusively that pollution was ongoing. ‘We have no voice to complain, if we complain we lose our jobs. If we take damage control into our own hands and pay for it out of our own pockets we’ll get blamed by Coillte by causing this damage. We are aware of huge damage being done quite unnecessarily. Apart from the environmental damage done, it gives both the contractors and the forest industry a bad name.
FIE Director Tony Lowes said ‘This will be the 5th report we have made to the Forest Service, the Fisheries Board, the Parks and Wildlife Service, the Forest Stewardship Council and to Coillte Teo itself in the last 18 months in the South West of Ireland. High impact clear felling of extensive plantations on sensitive upland sites combined with high rainfall is a receipt for disaster’.
‘We don’t need more forestry conferences and more experts – we need to stop the damage’, Lowes said.
The Conference, organised by The Irish Natural Forestry Foundation, is entitled “Mitigating climate change: The challenges and opportunities for Forestry in Ireland” and is being opened by Denis Byrne: Assistant Secretary, Dept Agriculture and Food.
The conference begins at 9.15 at the Silver Springs Hotel in Cork.
Contact: Michael Cronin, contractor: 086 2562927
Tony Lowes, FIE 027-73131 / 087 2176316
Photographs on FIE website:
http://friendsoftheirishenvironment.net/forestry/cc_2008/cc2008_1.html
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