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1/23 I was asked to put together a pamphlet on my experience w/ forestry. This thread is a brief overview. If you would like a physical copy or pdf, send me a dm. WHY DO YOU HATE THE TREES A Primer on Commercial Forestry in Leitrim, Ireland as it stands in March 2019 
2/23 I love trees but current reforestation is often the wrong kind of trees planted in inappropriate places without taking into account the communities of people, animals and the plethora of living organisms that they are being planted atop of @SaveLeitrim
3/23 THE SITKA SPRUCE & MONOCULTURE All over Ireland you see batches of evergreen, orderly trees regimented into perfect rows. This is Sitka Spruce: a non-native, fast growing tree whose acidic needles poison the soil MONOCULTURAL‘The cultivation of a single crop in a given area’
4/23 AQUATIC LIFE Sitka is planted beside water. Spruce needles fall into water w/ disastrous effects on fish.'QUB identified high levels of phosphorous in Lough Melvin, caused by afforestation, which threatens the very existence of the unique species of fish found in this lake'
5/23 HEN HARRIERS & CURLEWS (who face extinction within 10 years) make their nests in raised bogs, wet heaths & grasslands. The more land that is given over to forestry, the less habitat that there is for these creatures to live in and to find food to feed themselves.
6/23 PINE WEEVILS Due to the monoculture of Sitka Spruce, the forestry industry has created a problem for itself with pine weevils who arrive to feed off the mature sitka forests & after clearfelling, stick around and wait hungrily til young sitka arrive & then devour those
7/23 PINE WEEVIL OPTIONS These beetles live for an average of 4 to 5 years. Forestry companies across the eu w/ a concern for biodiversity will not replant sitka for 5 years to bring the pine weevil into a suitable balance. But Irish forestry has opted to used CYPERMETHRIN
8/23 CYPERMETHRIN: an insecticide that is known to kill bees. Cypermethrin is illegal in Europe. But wait, Ireland was still in Europe the last time I checked, no? Yes! But, Collite and the Irish Foresty Unit Trust received a derogation from the EU to use this insecticide.
9/23 BEES: INSECTICIDES KILL INSECTS “Cypermethrin is toxic to bees, other beneficial insects, earthworms. fish, and shrimp. Birds in cypermethrin-treated areas are less successful at raising nestlings because their insect food sources are killed.” - Journal of Pesticide Reform
10/23 Cypermethrin is also toxic to cats. This is the replanting border to my land. This is our cat friend who we've lived with for 13 years. I can't be w/ him all day to make sure he's not drinking toxic water. I get very sad when I think about losing him to toxic poisoning
11/23 MENTAL HEALTH Imagine you’ve lived in the same place your whole life. You can see the hills in the distance. You can see the sunrise and the sunset. You can see the houses of your neighbours. Then the land around you gets sold to a commercial forestry company
12/23 Fast growing sitka spruce is planted and within a few years the hills have disappeared. The daylight begins to diminish and suddenly you find yourself visually cut-off from the human beings you have been connected with your whole life. You become physically isolated.
13/23 Internet, telephone and television signals decreases drastically as the trees grow dense and block them. People living in these situations talk about severe feelings of anxiety, depression and isolation. Why are we actively doing things that cause people to feel this way?
14/23 FIRES Years ago a fire broke out in a commercial forest in Sligo. Flames jumped across from the trees onto the roof of a home with occupants living inside. The house was unfortunately burned to the ground. These forests are planted uncomfortably close to people's homes
15/23 THE FARMER “Farmers can no longer afford to expand their holdings and our young farmers wishing to buy land cannot compete with the forestry companies” Farmers say they can't get loans for agri land but are often offered loans for forestry instead
16/23 SOLASTALGIA: 'a form of mental or existential distress caused by environmental change.' I am now surrounded on 4 sides by an industrial wasteland. Whether you like the trees or not, the destructive mess left behind by clear cutting is a whole other devastation all together.
17/23 WHY & HOW DOES FORESTRY MAKE MONEY? The Irish government needs to find ways to take action towards greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. One thing that is having a detrimental effect on the climate is too much carbon in the air. Trees absorb and hold carbon.
18/23 GOVT SUBSIDIES: The Gov gives tax-free grants to plant forestry cause it 'helps' w/ climate action targets. Basic idea: Farmer gets grant to plant forestry on her land. This helps Ireland reduce its carbon footprint. Years later farmer harvests forestry and has nice pension
19/23 YR TAXES ARE PAYING FOR PEOPLE TO RETIRE IN NORWAY But the reality? A local study found forestry was owned by, amongst others, pension fund cos based in Norway and in Canada. This means that Irish tax-payers money is being paid to people with pensions outside of Ireland.
20/23 CARBON SEQUESTRATION - THEORY - plant trees, sequest carbon. REALITY 1 - large portions of bog are being disrupted to be planted in forestry. These bogs might potentially hold centuries of carbon and when they are disturbed, that carbon is disturbed as well.
21/23 REALITY 2 Large diesel machines are used at every stage of planting, maintaining, harvesting, transporting, & processing wood from these forests. If an actual carbon study was conducted that took this into account, we would see the sequestration figures are flawed
22/23 WHAT TO DO: Find out if yr pension fund, financial institution or investor is tied to forestry. Ring them with yr concerns about insecticides, communities, birds, bogs, etc. Let them know y'll ring back in a week to see what actions they have taken about forestry concerns.
23/23 JOIN OR START A LOCAL GROUP/KEEP YR EYES OPEN: There's @SaveLeitrim & @SaveKerry. Check to see if land beside yr home or holiday home is getting sold to forestry & object. Contact foresty cos directly w/ yr concerns. agriculture.gov.ie/forestservice/…
