Save Leitrim is a voluntary organisation, comprising of like minded individuals from across county Leitrim, who are willing to fight the continued exploitation and decimation of the indigenous people and their environment by the Government’s subsidised conifer (Sitka Spruce) afforestation programme.
The people of Leitrim see first hand the detrimental impact which decades of afforestation have had on our rural communities, with the closure and the threatened closure of schools, the destruction of local GAA clubs and other sporting organisations. The conifer plantations threaten the viability and sustainability of our small farms and businesses in our villages and towns.
Save Leitrim are shouting STOP to the blanket afforestation of our county. The government’s national target of 17% of this country to be planted by 2030, has already been surpassed in Leitrim as we have 18.3% planted.
Save Leitrim will no longer stand idly by and watch Irish taxpayers money being given to Speculators, Vulture Funds or Pension Funds to clear Ireland’s most rural county of its people. Save Leitrim is not opposed to farmers planting their own lands with native species of trees and we would support agroforestry schemes.
Save Leitrim have a number of core principles which include,
- To protect the health and well being of the indigenous people of Leitrim.
- To stop the further decimation of our rural communities, schools, sporting organisations and businesses in our small villages and towns.
- To secure a future for our young farmers who currently cannot compete with forestry companies to buy land. To protect the 54 million euros that our farmers contribute to the rural economy of this county annually.
- To change the model of afforestation and introduce sustainable Agroforestry and High Nature Value grassland schemes. Leitrim land to be planted by Leitrim people only.
- To protect our Environment and to stop any further loss of our habitats which is contributing to the terminal decline of many species of endangered birds, including the Curlew, Hen Harrier, Lapwing, Meadow Pipit and many more ground nesting birds.
- To protect the water quality of our streams, rivers and lakes to stop the reckless use of insecticides and herbicides which are continuing to decimate our fish stocks and other eco systems of our water courses. We demand Environmental Impact Assessments to be carried out on all forestry developments.
We seek planning permission for all forestry developments to protect the local residents from having homes surrounded or farmland overshadowed with Sitka Spruce, to prevent potential fire hazards and the destruction of our local roads.
The people of Leitrim are staring into the abyss, we demand that the Forest Service of Ireland stops exploiting and funding the destruction of our county. The indigenous people of this county want a future for their children and future generations in the rural communities, small villages and towns which defines who we are as a people.
People are most important in our rural communities. They are vital in so many ways that communities suffer when the numbers of people living and working there decline. Irish Government forestry policy has now reached a point where it is incentivising the replacement of people in communities with large swarths of non native mono-culture sitka spruce. The plantation of the sitka spruce has been going on for 40 years or more. Currently well over 50% of the available lands are covered in industrial conifer plantations. That’s over 20% of the total area of County Leitrim. Several areas across rural Ireland including Co. Leitrim are suffering from the government’s policy which is have a very serious negative impact on people, their lives, mental health, businesses, communities, biodiversity, wildlife and their rights. This is now exacerbating decline in these communities and rural areas. 147 town lands in Leitrim are now abandoned with many of them fully planted in conifers.
Farmers and farms are being displaced and their numbers reduced as farm after farm is being sold or planted. This has down stream knock on deline in businesses supporting and servicing farmers (agri-suppliers, vets, marts, contractors, machinery mechanics, etc etc) and also in the towns and villages in these areas. Farmers cannot expand or develop their holdings due to the hike in the price of land by the tax breaks and grants for forestry and being snapped up by outside investors getting very significant profit or return on their investments.
Numerous Electoral divisions across Co. Leitrim have lost between 5% and 12% of their population between the 2011 and the 2016 census and these areas are also those where very high levels of conifer cover exists. This is now seeding up the decline in surrounding areas. The people left in these areas are very isolated and talk of the physical and mental affects of a 60 foot wall of darkness pervading their lives and cutting them off from their neighbors, their familiar landscapes and even reducing their daylight. When these plantations are thinned and clear-felled the haulage of massive loads of timber impact severely on the local roads and no one appears responsible for repairing them but creating access issues for the residents on these roads.
There are also many other people concerned and affected by this including those whose community services are closing and withdrawing such as post office, Garda stations, schools etc who see the diversity in the wildlife significantly declining in these plantations, those whose water quality and fisheries are affected by phosphate enrichment and acidification on these lands which are satisfied and denuded of people for generations come.
All these people see that the only way that change will happen is to shout stop. We are now insisting that our elected representatives listen to the people and that the few politicians responsible for Ireland’s failing forestry policy immediately change tack and redesign a people friendly sustainable forestry policy which will co-exist fully and properly with people, with farmers, within communities, supporting diverse wildlife and landscapes, sensitive sites and also upholding our water quality.
Coillte and the private forestry companies must be told that there is already enough Sitka Spruce planted to keep the wood processing factories going for at least a decade while they adapt to the change. The government need to stop pretending that Sitka Spruce fast rotation plantations are helping to sequester more carbon – the science says otherwise. They must protect Irelands rural population from the socially isolating and mentally and physically harmful effects of being encircled by dark, lifeless plantations.
The must improve and restore rural landscapes in keeping with Irelands obligations under the Florence Convention and everse the damage to water quality caused by nutrient and sediment runoff from plantation spraying and clear fell. Avoid fines from EU for poor water quality standards. Avoid the need to use biocides such as Roundup and Cypermethrin which kill a wide range of insects including bees. The must comply with EU Environmental Directives which seek to protect human health, flora and fauna and avoid more fines.
And finally, increase skilled employment in the forestry sector through training and employment of expert foresters to grow long life, quality, broadleaf trees rather than quick rotation fence posts, pallets and pulp.