CCF Thinning at Cruagh Woods

Forest thinning will commence the week of 25th July at Cruagh as part of Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) management of parts of this woodland. This thinning was due to start in late May but was postponed due to the wet weather and poor ground conditions.

You may have already noticed trees marked with a pink dash – these are the trees to be removed during this CCF thinning operation. Removing these trees creates gaps in the canopy to allow more light to reach the forest floor and create the conditions for regeneration of new seedlings in the future.  Over time we aim to gradually make the forest more diverse in terms of age, tree sizes and species in future.

This thinning will take place across 25 hectares of forest in the in the west and along the lower road of Cruagh Woods (see map).

CCF= Continuous Cover Forestry Management   R&R=Remove and Replant with Native Woodland

Over the last six months other sections of conifer forest at Cruagh were harvested, with native woodland planted in their place as part of our R&R operations. You can see in our earlier blog that students from Edmondstown N.S. Green Schools committee helped us with some of the planting.

This work is part of the Dublin Mountains Makeover which will see an area of over 900 hectares across nine Coillte forests transitioning away from commercial forestry, to be managed for recreation, biodiversity and climate.

We thank you for your patience during this process. Please follow all signage while visiting the forest and please take care on the roads with timber lorries entering and exiting the forests.