A major research project involving the afforestation of cutaway peatland should be of major benefit to the national economy and will be extremely important in the Midlands.
A study has identified over 120,000 acres of cutaway peatlands as being suitable for forestry development by a team which has set up a research programme to maximise its potential.
The project, known as BOGFOR, has been established by the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, Coillte and University College Dublin.
At the launch last week, the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, said his Department, through the Forestry Service, was placing a high priority on this long-term research project.
The Department will provide half of the total funding, estimated at £600,000 initially, to cover the first two-year phase of the scheme.
The UCD project team is headed by Prof Ted Farrell who said 120,000 acres would become available over the next 20-30 years and that this an opportune time to begin research: the initial project will last two years but it was envisaged this would be a long-term study lasting up to 15 years.
Prof Farrell said this time scale would allow researchers to monitor species and chart their progress well past the establishment of forest phase.
The launch of the project was hosted by one farmer, Mr John Wilson-Wrights, of Coolcarrigan, Co Kildare, who has already proved that cutaway bog can be used to produce quality timber. He owns a 730-acre forest and has already developed plantations on 300 acres of cutaway bog. But afforestation in this kind of terrain required more research, he added.
Mr Wilson-Wright, who is also a member of the Irish Timber Growers' Association, said the research was especially needed on species' suitability, nutrition and forest protection. In particular frost damage of young trees grown on cutaway bog needed more attention by scientists.
"Bord na Mona revitalised many rural midland communities and when the State established the company in 1946 it was envisaged that afforestation would be a viable option after the peat was exploited. There are now over 200,000 acres of cutaway bogs and the challenge is how best to use them. I am delighted to see that 60 per cent of these have been earmarked for forestry," he said.
The further development of some of the Midland peatlands is being opposed by a number of groups, including the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, which recently joined a number of other conservation organisations, including Birdwatch Ireland and An Taisce, which are concerned about the issue.
The organisations said All Saints Bog and Clara Bog in Co Offaly were under threat from moss peat extraction and Ballykenny Bog in Co Longford from drainage and moss peat extraction.