Coillte's forests occupy various upland and lowland positions throughout the country and many are in areas that are considered valuable from a landscape perspective, or are sensitive to landscape change. We have inherited large areas of upland forest from previous government policies that favoured large-scale planting of conifers on marginal upland agricultural areas. County Development Plans contain maps of sensitive landscapes and many of these include the upland forested areas, emphasising the sensitivity of the uplands to landscape change.

Forested landscapes can add considerable value to rural areas, and forests often form interesting and valued back-drops to rural towns, when they are designed to fit in with the natural landscape. Our objective is to create forests that are productive, attractive and environmentally sympathetic.

In broad terms this will be achieved by ensuring that the design of forests is in harmony with the landscapes in which they are set and that large even-aged forest blocks are restructured to create greater diversity in age structure and tree species composition.

In practice, this will require us to:

• Recognise that it is our responsibility, in undertaking activities such as planting and harvesting that can introduce change into the landscape, to work within the constraints of the landscape sensitivities;
• Undertake a baseline survey of all our forests to determine sensitivity to landscape change;
• Develop and implement forest management plans which incorporate  landscape design principles and the gradual restructuring of large even aged plantations.
• Integrate Forest Design into our GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to ensure that they are clearly recognised in all aspects of forest management;
• Develop a monitoring programme to ensure that landscape plans are working successfully on the ground; and
• Continue to routinely undertake landscape design training courses to improve the skills of staff involved with the on-going management of forests.

How to contact us:

For further information on Coillte's Forest Design policy, please contact:

Pat Roche

Coillte,

Unit 1, Kinvara House

Dublin Hill,

Cork
Tel: +353 (0)21 4306970
Fax: +353 (0)21 4398813                        Email:pat.roche@coillte.ie