Get professional help on forestry matters

PRIVATE forestry growers can best play their role in the industry by getting together, get professional help and engage with the mills, advises Traolach Layton of GPWood, one of Ireland’s largest sawmillers, based in Enniskeane, Co Cork.

GPWood is the result of a 2013 merger between Palfab and Graingers sawmills and annually process in excess of 400,000 cubic metres of logs. In recent years output from Coillte managed state plantations has matured and stabilised, and future growth in log supply will come mostly from private plantations.

“But the challenge of efficiently mobilising this output is very different, with over 15,000 individual owners and an average plantation size of 8 hectares,” says Mr Layton. He says harvest and haulage contractors have been remarkable in their ability to meet the needs of the existing industry through investment in machinery, personnel and technology. “We need significant investment over the coming years to harvest the private forest, as well as the state forest, but investment requires confidence.”

GPWood supports a number of supply structures that aim to efficiently mobilize private logs in a professional and planned way. Logs are sourced from the established forestry companies as well as local foresters and forestry companies. Increasing volumes are coming through grower groups and coops who can efficiently engage their own forester and address supply planning, certification and quality on behalf of their members. GPWood has its own team of foresters who are always happy to advise private owners.