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‘Windblow’ puts pressure on forest owners and timber sector: McHale Plant Sales says

A lesser-known dimension to the work being done by McHale Plant Sales is their role as distributors in Ireland and Northern Ireland for Komatsu forest equipment.

Included in them are harvesters (see photo) used to cut trees, strip surplus shoots and branches, and finish them into lengths ready for hauling to sawmills. A complementary Komatsu line are the articulated forwarders used to load and carry cut trees from the forest floor to the perimeter for onward collection by specialist hauliers used to deliver loads by road to sawmills for conversion into timber.

A current problem occupying the minds of authorities, state and private forest owners, and independent forestry contractors alike – to whom McHale Plant Sales is a key supplier – is the urgent task of harvesting trees damaged and felled during the recent Storm Éowyn and the earlier Storm Darragh.

Apart from the extensive damage they caused to homes, buildings, infrastructure, and power supplies on both islands, few would imagine that the impact they had in Ireland and Northern Ireland would be replicated in forests throughout England, Scotland, and Wales as they undoubtedly were.

The urgency arises from the fact that trees felled, uprooted, and lost to ‘windblow’ will rapidly deteriorate, lose condition and usefulness for conversion into timber if not harvested and processed as quickly as possible. In Ireland, industry experts put the volume of tree lost to storm damage at an estimated 11million cubic metres and possibly higher.

Apart from the pressure already placed upon them by nature, timber hauliers and forestry contractors are being overwhelmed by additional storm-damage difficulties due in the main to a shortage of trained and qualified truck drivers and specialist timber harvesting machine operators whose services, were they available, would enable contractors and hauliers to attack the problem in an even more sustained fashion.

According to Darragh O’Driscoll, Business Development Director at McHale Plant Sales “the need to develop and promote careers in the industry will become increasingly more urgent as governments look to increase state and private planting as a key element in offsetting harmful CO2 emissions and in advancing our commitment to sustainability and net-zero”.

To that end, McHale has pledged to support any campaign that Coillte, the Irish state forestry authority, or timber harvesting contractors might initiate to encourage greater interest in forestry amongst young people and promote long-term careers in the timber processing sector.

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