Permaculture Ireland

Bring back the Wild Woodlands!

By Alanna Moore June 2009
(This is an extract from my forthcoming book – ‘Sustaining the Sacred – permaculture design for sensitive souls’)

We owe so much to trees. Trees have provided a multitude of benefits from their wood, leaves, bark, flowers and roots, giving us foodstuffs, timber and shelter, weaving materials, paper, fuel and medicinal products. They also protect the soil, create rain and are essential to healthy water catchments. They give us oxygen to breathe and they purify the atmosphere, with trees such as conifers able to absorb air pollution. They give us beautiful environments and habitat for wildlife. Trees have been central to human culture, the engine of ancient economies, until the last ones were felled…

There is nothing more anguished than the feeling of shock and annihilation when forests have been clear-felled and the land left in a wounded and impoverished state. In Ireland forest clearance was extensive from thousands of years ago, but although at a much slower pace, the long term effects are similar. In many cases lands cleared in the Bronze Age then enjoyed a flush of fertility for agriculture. But that often only lasted a few hundred years. The changing pollen records tell us that pasture land for grazing then predominated, or there was a natural return to trees, or the climate got wetter, after which vast bogs of acidic soil with an impervious iron podsol developed, the land’s fertility lost.

Like Ireland, most of northern Europe was originally totally forested. The last remaining natural Irish woodlands were lost between 1500 and 1700, as a result of colonisation. This left the land bare and the people more impoverished. There were even laws enacted in the seventeenth century banning people from harvesting timber from trees, when once, under the ancient Brehon laws, everyone was entitled to access to trees, enough to build their homes and satisfy their simple needs.

Nowadays only around 10% of Ireland is devoted to forestry, this being the lowest level in the EU. A total of just 2% (130,000ha) is native woodland, according to a recent National Forest Inventory, CRANN reports. But the plantations (they are not really forests) managed by the state are mostly monocultures of non-native conifers with only about 4.2% of the 10% being of mixed species and not necessarily native ones, explains Ireland’s Woodland League.

When the predominantly Sitka Spruce stands are clearfelled there are enormous negative effects on biodiversity, the nutrient depleted and acidic soil is then extremely vulnerable to erosion and landslips, while wildlife habitat and drainage patterns are destroyed. It’s basically total devastation.

The ugly cycle is repeated when more trees are afterwards planted, with liberal amounts of fertiliser sloshed around, much of which runs off to pollute watercourses that are not allowed the protection of vegetation on their banks. This typical style of Irish ‘forest management’, plain for all to see when you travel around the countryside, is minimal and gung ho, as they have managed to sidestep EU requirements for independent monitoring of watercourses and the like.

It’s almost as if the colonial mentality from 800 years of British occupation has been indelibly etched on the national psyche and, in terms of callous exploitation of the land, the Irish have become their own oppressors. Originally it was illegal to harm a tree, now, it seems, there are no adequate laws to protect them at all.

The ghastly spectre of Irish national forestry is a world away from Sustainable Forest Management, which says that ‘Forest resources and forest lands should be sustainably managed to meet the social, economic, ecological, cultural and spiritual needs of present and future generations.’ This is from the Forest Principles of Local Agenda 21, Principle 1 (b), a Blueprint for Sustainable Development in the 21st Century that was adopted as part of the Rio Convention of 1992. Ireland was a signatory to these principles, although perhaps it has slipped from their memory.

Andrew St Ledger of the Woodland League informs us that “One of the issues that they may not want to have had investigated [by the EU] is that despite the state forest company Coillte, who monopolise Irish forestry, having had Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for nine years – they have no forest standard in place”. Such unsustainable forestry practises, as are the norm in Ireland, are endemic the world over as well. It’s happening under our noses and when we all know better.

What to do? A forest revolution is needed! St Ledger told me that the EU has decided that an ideal approach towards sustainable forestry is to encourage processes of natural regeneration and species succession. And this can happen with an almost ‘do nothing’ approach. John Seymour, the English self-sufficiency pioneer, wrote about these processes happening on his own land back in 1982.

“I fenced off five acres of land on my farm in Pembrokeshire against farm animals fifteen yeas ago,” he said. “…The ground soon got covered with gorse and bracken, the gorse gradually winning from the bracken, and then, after about five years, I noticed thousands of young birch beginning to grow through. Among these there was a sprinkling of alder, in the wetter parts, and ash in the drier. In one or two places there were young sessile oaks. …I shall be surprised, if I am still alive, if in 50 years time the area is not predominantly ash and oak – chiefly oak – and that this will become the ‘climax forest’,” he wrote.

Natural woodlands are not the only rare ecosystem in Ireland and elsewhere. We need to also recreate habitats such as wildflower meadows, as well. Let the native flowers bloom each spring, inviting in the wildlife, bringing helpful birds and bugs that can then patrol your food gardens. (Beware of cheap wildflower seed imports from somewhere else however, stick to local sources!)

If you end up with your own diverse meadows and woodlands you might want to encourage others to follow suit by becoming a seed supplier yourself. Not to mention all those wonderful by-products that a sensitive approach to small scale commercial mixed forestry might provide – such as timber, firewood and coppice rods, wild mushrooms, resin, herbs and honey.

But the backyard is not going to be big enough. In a sustainable future community based local economies need to have community forests to supply many of their needs. Natural forestry will be the key to survival, St Ledger concludes. When there is no more oil to burn and plastic to mould we will need to become wild woodsmen and women again!

References:

Waddell, John, ‘The Prehistoric Archeology of Ireland’, Galway University Press, Ireland, 1998.

Kelly, Fergus, Early Irish Farming’, Institute for Advanced studies, Dublin, Ireland, 1998.

Seymour, John, ‘The Lore of the Land’, Corgi Books, UK , 1982.

‘Pilot Project Proposal For Integrated Sustainable Forest Management in East Clare’ and ‘The Case of Ireland Funding Forests into the Future’ by Andrew St. Ledger & Kevin Hurley of the Woodland League, Ireland, download from www.woodlandleague.org

Wilson, Andy and Lynch, Paul, ‘Mayo Energy Audit 2009-2020’, Sustainability Institute, Ireland, 2008 (contact – office@sustainability.ie)

CRANN- Ireland’s Tree Magazine, no 85, summer 2009. www.crann.ie

Dear Readers

Welcome to the fourth edition of Living Lightly this July 2009. We are happy to report a successful Eco-Living Festival held last month, which was attended by over 100 people each day and covered the cost of putting it on. It was worth our weeks of promotional work in the lead up just to see those happy faces and receive the lovely feedback, with everyone buzzing and wanting more!

The weekend was fun and informative, while behind the scenes there were some challenges to make things run smoothly. Last minute cancellations of several speakers resulted in surprise alternative presentations that filled the gap beautifully, so it was a very organic smorgasboard of events and a great occasion for social gathering and gluing. We didn’t get as much voluntary assistance as we wanted, but hopefully if there is a repeat helpers will be more forthcoming and would-be stall holders will actually turn up. (Volunteers receive a free weekend pass.)

For a second Eco-Living Festival, we think it would be grand to host one on the Lughnasa/August 1st weekend 2010 with a theme of Bringing in the Harvest, a first fruits celebration, as was enjoyed at this time of year in days of old. We would plan to offer more of the same (see Seamus’s Festival report following) especially the gardening workshops, as they were in great demand.

There’s a flavour of the forest running through this edition of LL. I hope you enjoy it. If you would like to be on our emailing list to find out when LL is coming out and what else is in store from Permaculture Ireland, do drop us a line. And we love feedback too!

Yours for a sustainable future,
Alanna Moore

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

BRING BACK THE WILD WOODLANDS!

MAYO ENERGY AUDIT

ECONOSPACEMAKING