Decision to Suspend Scottish Timber Imports on Threat of Bark Beetle the Right Call
IFA Farm Forestry chair Padraig Stapleton said the Dept move to suspend timber imports from Scotland is the correct decision, given the threat posed by the bark beetle.
IFA has raised this issue for the last two years and had called for the suspension as far back as last January.
“We would have liked to see this in place before now, but the discovery of the bark beetle at Cork Port meant action had to be taken.”
“A spruce bark beetle outbreak would cause extensive economic loss to the forest industry, but it would be farmers that would bear the brunt of the economic consequences. These would include a reduction in the commercial value of the infested trees, increased management costs as well as replanting costs. If the bark beetle is found in the country, we cannot have a repeat of the Ash dieback debacle,” he said.
“We must not put the forestry industry and our forests at risk for short-term gains. The experience from Europe is that overlooking just one spruce bark beetle can lead to widespread infestation,” he said.
Read IFA’s submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine on the ‘threat posed by Spruce Bark Beetles to the health of Irish forests’ Here.
