The Future of the Sitka Spruce in Irish Forestry

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Out of all the trees that grow in Ireland, the Sitka Spruce is one of the most common. This is because it makes a sensible timber tree to be planting on commercial forestry sites. The timber from the Sitka Spruce can be used in construction operations or it can be put to use as pulpwood in the manufacture of paper and other related products. Much of the Sitka Spruce that is growing in Ireland at the moment is earmarked for bio diversity. This is especially so when it comes to forest thinning. Once the Sitka Spruce forest has been thinned only the best trees are left behind to further develop. The trees that are felled and extracted can be used in their entirety to produce wood chippings that can then be utilized in the production of heat. The only part of the trees that cannot be used is the needles.

The native species that are common to Ireland include the Sessile Oak and the Pedunculate Oak, the Ash, the Wych Elm, the Black Alder, native birches, native cherry, native willows, the Scots Pine, and Hawthorn. Many of these species such as the Scots Pine were once extinct on Irish soil and needed to be imported and replanted from elsewhere. But, trees like the Scots Pine are capable of growing under many and varied conditions. This is the same as the Sitka Spruce.

The Sitka Spruce is a native of Alaska and in those native conditions can grow to tremendous heights. The record Sitka Spruce is well over 100 meters and although the tallest in the Sitka Spruce trees today are just shy of 100 meters, and there is a concerted effort to try and conserve the species as much as possible. The largest Sitka Spruce tree in existence is the Queets Spruce. The Queets Spruce has a volume in its trunk of almost 12,000 ft.³ and is located in the Olympic National Park. My problem is that although the Sitka Spruce is an important species and not native to Ireland, it is being planted in vast numbers, but nowhere is the tree allowed to grow to full maturity. Given the right circumstances, Irish forestry could be growing Sitka Spruce so that these trees can be with us for many generations to come, not only as a species but we can admire them as individual specimens. Many in Ireland have fallen out of favor with the Sitka Spruce because when our commercial forestry plantations are established there is no real aim towards diversification. Each forest that is planted is the same as the next forest that is planted. In order to have this diversification in Irish forestry, Forest Ireland believes that not only should we be planting different species, we should also be seeking the approval of the people who have to live in the communities where these trees are growing and one way to do this is to leave certain sections of the forest untouched, to leave them growing into specimen examples of Sitka Spruce.