The NPWS report made no mention

5 8 Nov/Dec 2016

ENVIRONMENT

Ranger states: “I phoned the forester who said

he will stop the felling immediately if requested.

Can you advise if I can stop the felling?”.

She was told, accurately, by her line manager:

“that the NPWS cannot stop such works and that

is in the remit of the Forest Service [alone]”. Work

was in fact suspended by the Forest Service on

24 March, but the ensuing review approved

resumption on the 12th of April, citing the

ﬂooded nature of the woods as one of the rea-

sons to permit work in the drier breeding season,

and pointing out that licensed forestry felling

was exempt from the breeding-season restric-

tions that applied to landowners. As to the

woodpecker, while the presence of a pair was

conﬁrmed “no evidence of breeding was found”,

according to the Department, belying the Rang-

er’s report of the “nest of woodpeckers”.

Work resumed on 25 April, a day after the Min-

ister for Agriculture received what was to be two

letters from the NPWS under the Forestry Con

sent Regulations seeking a suspension of the

licences until September. In fact, the NPWS cur-

rently has no authority to stop work undertaken

under a licence granted by another state

authority.

Partly because this woodland was located

near the back gate and the road, there was an

explosion of protest. Shannonside Radio

reported that “We have 10 calls from Newtown-

forbes people distressed this morning”, listeners

drawing attention to the “large amount of wood-

peckers there are in danger as are the cuckoos

and other birds and wildlife who live in the area”.

“Please do something – it’s appalling what’s

going on – there are wild animals scampering

out in the road”.

Even a sequoia went down, although when the

controversy began this year the Forest Service

sought and received a map on April 1 of the

sequoias from Scottish Woodlands with the

statement “I can conﬁrm the sequoia will not be

felled”. One sequoia circled on the map as pro

tected had already been felled.

Nor was it lost on the public that two local

farmers had recently been ﬁned in Longford

Court for hedgerow destruction during the bird-

breeding season. More than 8,000 people

viewed photograph of birds killed during the

works published on the internet. Mark Connellan

emailed Shannonside Radio, saying that “claims

that certain bird species were being put at risk”

meant that: “There may therefore be an implica

tion that the Estate has acted in some way which

is irresponsible or inappropriate – and if so

these allegations were utterly without founda-

tion” and “entirely baseless”. The “Estate has

acted at all times properly”, the statement from

the man who is the County’s State Solicitor said,

implausibly.

Scottish Woodland wrote to the Forest Service

that they would of course co-operate with the

statutory requirements. However they added the

arrogant telltale rider, “provided they were

reasonable”.

On 17 May, Minister Creed announced that no

further felling was to take place until September,

but expressed absolutely no concern about what

would happen then. While strangely no further

felling has taken place, a witch hunt to ﬁnd who

is providing photographs and information on the

destruction increasingly corrodes the demesne,

where working conditions are described as “just

like Downton Abbey”, the BBC period drama of

British aristocracy and their servants in the early

twentieth century.

And there is no sign that the underfunded and

legally frail NPWS, a dysfunctional Forest Ser-

vice, a Foundation sheltering behind

Lichtensteinian anonymity, or even a property-

protective Parliamentary system can protect our

ancient woodlands. As Village was going to

press, the harvesting machines were moving

back into the woodlands.

Tony Lowes is a Director of Friends of the Irish

Environment.

The NPWS report made

no mention of the licence

restrictions to ﬁrewood, or of

the prohibition on removal

of oaks. It never referred the

fellings to the Forest Service,

the licensing authority

Oak stack at Castleforbes

Dead Chafﬁnch

Felled oak

Heather Humphreys, the

typically uninspired Minister

for Heritage, replied “My

Department is investigating

this matter” but it never

reported

Nov/Dec 2016 5 9

CMY

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