AIE Request – Forest Birds Project FU IR

Coillte 20240205

Walkover survey_01092023 records three Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers

Breeding Cormorant Survey

This survey aims to determine the presence / absence of breeding Cormorant at a proposed Coillte clearfell forest site located at [redacted] Co. Tipperary

Proposed Terms of Reference: Irish Forest Birds Monitoring Group, with initial focus on hen harrier & merlin

Forest Birds Training Summary

Forest Birds Working Group Proposal

Walkover Survey Form

Forestry licence: CN93132 Forest Road, 775(m)

Lissatinnig, Dromnakilly, Kerry

Appeal grounds

Notes:

If an application to afforest the lands was submitted it would be refused because of the peat depth – why does the Forest Service consider it to be Good Forestry Practice to construct a Forest Road over land that it would not permit to be afforested?

The Forest Service continues to licence reforestation on sites that it would not permit to be planted.

Peat depth is measured in the field on certain afforestation projects – but often just to 30cm + rather than a measure of the full depth.

AIE: Whether Coillte was justified, under article 9(1)(d) of the AIE Regulations, in refusing access to records relating to the HydroSed project

Case: OCE-129327-G3R3L5

Appellant submitted a request to Coillte seeking access to: “All environmental records relating to the ongoing HydroSED project to include, but not restricted to:

  1. Methodology
  2. Interim Reports
  3. Preliminary findings
  4. Correspondence
  5. GIS data (in GIS format)

“18. The date for Coillte’s response to the Investigator’s request for submissions was 12 September 2024 and Coillte was subsequently granted a number of extensions. Although Coillte sent a few emails to this Office, indicating that submissions and a revised schedule of records would be provided, no submissions have been received to date and Coillte did not respond to the Investigator’s latest request for an update on 15 November 2024.”

AIE: afforested lands on Bord na Móna landbank

Bord na Mona Lands leased to Coillte

Download maps in shp file here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KXLaY16v_cU1GPZKsSac4iSou0CPcYXy?usp=sharing

BnM and Coillte Native Woodland Establishment on Cutover Peatland

Note: NPWS have no record of receiving the above report (April 2019, Project sponsors: Stuart Conaty (BnM) and [Redacted]. Report prepared by: [Redacted] Declan Little (Woodlands of Ireland, Ken Byrne)

Internal Review

Note

With regard to record 1) of Category 2), BnM Coillte Native Woodlands Establishment Report 26042019 Final, this is not an “ecology report on afforestation lands on Bord na Bord na Móna [landbank]”, as was requested. Rather, it is a feasibility study in relation to a proposed joint initiative between Coillte and Bord na Móna with a view to increasing native forest cover on cutover peatlands at a national level.

Coillte Works adjacent to Vartry River, Wicklow

AIE Request 20240153

“Information related to the construction, reopening, upgrade or maintenance of forest roads, recreation trails or other temporary/permanent roads/trails and their related drainage operations, and surfacing, to and adjacent to sea trout spawning pools on the Vartry River in Devils Glen, Wicklow to include, but not restricted to;

  1. Meetings – internal and external
  2. Environmental Risk Assessment
  3. Ecological Surveys
  4. Screening under Article 6(3) of the Habitats Directive (including discussions in relation to
    the need for an Appropriate Assessment)
  5. Assessment under Article 6(3) of the Habitats Directive
  6. (i) Operational Records, including (ii) environmental monitoring
  7. Date of works
  8. Relevant Correspondence, internal and external – all media
  9. Data collected on the Field Data Collector App.
  10. Complaints and meetings to address the same
    Please consider the period 2022 to date.