The Irish Forestry Unit Trust
Forestry in Ireland
Today Ireland's woodland area stands at close to 700,000 ha, of which approximately 550,000 ha is commercial coniferous forest. This currently produces 2.9 million cubic metres of logs for the Irish processing industry and as more forests mature is forecast to increase to over 5 million cubic metres by 2015.
The Irish Forest Industry, although relatively young, is maturing into a technically advanced industry employing over 16,000 people from nursery production through to timber processing.
The Irish sawmill sector has invested heavily in state of the art production lines creating a log customer who is now highly efficient, internationally competitive and more importantly to the forest owner, able to step up capacity as more forests mature and are harvested.
Ireland also has a well-developed panelboard sector comprising of five mills using home-grown logs and sawmill residues. Technological advances in this sector have resulted in the rapid development of new products such as Medium Density Fibre Board (MDF) and Oriented Strand Board (OSB). Similar technology is also being applied to the development of structurally engineered wood, further widening the technical application of Irish timber.