New Woodlands in Ireland

Birch Wood

The source of our households firewood is a nearby bog. It was abandoned in the 1960s and since the 1970s a pioneer wood of birch, willow and rowan has grown up. We have been harvesting it for over twenty years. The only practical way to get wood out of these old bogs due to huge bogholes is to carry it by hand onto solid ground. From there it’s moved home on a handcart

Most of our harvest is birch, a good hardwood timber. Not as good as oak but vastly superior to spruce. Birch will not spit in an open fire and is best split when fresh, as it hardens when seasoned. It has a waterproof bark so if left in long poles it will not season it will rot. It is surpassed only by hazel for charcoal making. Howard Hughes monster plane the Spruce Goose was built from birch.

Willow is the second most common wood we harvest. Harder to get at, as it grows in the wettest ground. Like birch it is good hard wood but with a higher moisture content it requires more seasoning. It will not spit in an open fire. In the recent freezing winter weather willow was more accessible as the ground was frozen. The raw material for cricket bats.

Willow cut last winter

Rowan or Mountain Ash is the third kind of wood we harvest, usually found on the higher and dryer ground, it is a poorer quality hardwood. It has a very distinctive aroma.

Harvested sustainably this kind of Irish woodland is capable of producing vast amounts of firewood over many generations. The secret to achieving this is coppicing. Cutting the trees back and letting them sprout again, and repeating the process a decade or two later. When a tree with a developed root system is cut, it shoots very quickly and produces a lot of new timber in a relatively short time. Willow managed this way will give a useful harvest in ten years, birch in twenty.

We cut this section last winter

In Ireland there are literally thousands of acres of scrub willow and birch wood on old bogs. There are many more acres of scrub oak, ash, sycamore and hazel on steep hillsides all over the island. There is also a vast amount of unmanaged forestry planted in recent decades, much of which will be only be suitable for pulping or firewood. In addition there are immense amounts of timber in Ireland’s ditches (hedgerows).

Ireland has one of the best climate on earth for producing timber. We have vast timber reserves suitable for firewood, we have vast amounts of unused labour and we have an energy and economic crisis. How long can we continue to ignore this huge store of potential energy, this store of tangible and real assets.

Willow ready to cut