Extension of farm grants could reduce forest fires

FOREST FIRES which cost almost €7 million last year could be almost eliminated if the need for burning gorse and scrub on farmland was removed, Friends of The Irish Environment has claimed.

The environmental watchdog was commenting on recent warnings by the Garda and State forestry company Coillte, that farmers have legal liabilities when burning scrubland.

According to the group, “clawbacks” in area aid payments to farmers resulted in the exclusion of farm areas such as scrubland and land with buildings.

“A direct result of this was that farmers used burning as a management tool on economic grounds. Burning is a historic and discredited management tool for valuable habitats,” said a spokesman.

Now the group has joined with a group of other non-governmental agencies in a bid to have the forestry grant scheme extended to these “scrub” areas – “as they are a legitimate part of the national forestry inventory with up to 14 per cent of some counties’ forest estate in scrub,” according to the spokesman.

“Transferring the Area Aid to a Scrub Forestry Scheme would maintain the farmer’s income, avoid an establishment grant – currently more than €3,000 a hectare – while increasing the native forest estate,” he added.

In addition to the cost of forestry destroyed by fires the NGOs are concerned about loss of wildlife and habitat. According to BirdWatch Ireland the impact on birds this year has been particularly severe, as thousands of nestlings will have perished in the fires or will face slow starvation as their main foraging areas have been destroyed.

Populations of birds such as stonechats, wrens and song thrushes, already severely reduced by the cold weather in January, are among the worst affected by scrub clearances. Returning migrants such as whitethroats, a specialist of this type of habitat, will also have been badly affected.