Tree species and provenances
I refer to your recent draft requesting stakeholder comments, and as a stake holder have the following comments:
Provenance Broadleaves
It is proposed that birch from ‘qualified’ stands only be acceptable. This is the only species in the whole spectrum with this strange restriction. There is only one source of ‘qualified’ birch: Teagasc’s indoor seed orchard. There is only one source for this ‘qualified’ seed orchard and that source is based on the results of only one trial, on only one piece of ground. Basing the future utilisation of birch on the results of a single 13 year old trial is not scientific, is unnecessarily restrictive and reduces genetic variation. There is no accounting for growth rate, form, disease resistance or longevity, and, most importantlyadaptability to other sites.
This source monopoly is inappropriate. Five other ‘selected’ seed stands are registered, four of which comprise essentially the same material selected from the same tree improvement programme: BPU 06 Seed Orchard at Rathluirc, BPU 08 Genebank at Kinsealy, BPU 09 Castletown House, and BPU 11 Irish Plus tree genebank atKilmacurragh.
I strongly recommend that this be changed to include ‘selected’ category seed stands.
Common alder has been subject to a similar intense improvement programme and seed orchards and genebanks are well established. Yet it is proposed that all categories are acceptable from ‘source identified’ to ‘tested’. As common alder is far more extensively planted that birch, this is just as inappropriate. I recommend that ‘source identified’ origins be excluded.
Species Selections Conifers
While coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) is included, the following species are not included, all are known to grow well in Ireland:Giant redwood/Wellingtonia (Sequoiadendron gigantean), Dawn redwood (Metasequioiaglyptostroboides), Cryptomeria/Tsugi (Cryptomeria japonica), noble fir (Abiesprocera), yew (Taxusbaccata), Atlantic and Deodor cedars (Cedrusatlantica and C.deodora). Note: Two cryptomeria seed stands were registered in 2014.
Due to very low survival rates of bare root plants, the following species should only be acceptable as container grown: Monterey pine and Monterey cypress,coast redwood, giant redwood, dawn redwood.
Provenance Conifers
It is proposed that Monterey cypress be restricted to ‘selected’, ‘qualified’ and ‘tested’. Should this species ever be planted commercially there is no foundation whatsoever to exclude Irish ‘source identified’ material.
Species selection Broadleaves
Consideration should be given to the inclusion of the following species: hornbeam (Carpinusbetulus), grey alder (Alnusincana), red alder (A. rubra), common walnut (Juglansregia) and American/black walnut (J. nigra).
In addition, now that eucalyptus and poplars are included,presumably for Short Rotation Forestry, consideration could be given to the high performance biomass willow species and varieties. It is noted that it is proposed that only eight poplar clones are considered acceptable in Ireland; it is understood that no biomass poplar plantation is permitted in Sweden with less than twenty clones.
The following list of tree willows might also be considered: White willow (Salix alba), Cricket bat willow (S. alba caerulea) and crack willow (S. fragilis).
In these times of climate change and accompanying species range change, and with the loss of two important and irreplaceable tree species (larch to Phytophthera and ash to Chalara), species diversification has to be underlying foundation of a healthy and vital forestry sector. Real diversification must be encouraged, and perhaps the only way to ‘encourage’ diversification is by additional grant aid. It must be understood that adding a small percentage of common alder to an otherwise pure Sitka spruce plantation is notdiversification in any sense other than bureaucratic box-ticking.
Derek Felton