Local environmental groups are urging Galway City Council to reconsider plans to clearfell mature standing conifers in Merlin Park Woods next month.
The proposed works follow damage caused by Storm Éowyn in January 2025, with an arborist assessing some trees as posing a potential safety risk.
However, the assessment includes plans to remove undamaged mature conifers, prompting concerns about their ecological importance and the impact on local wildlife -particularly the local red squirrel population.
“Those trees have stood for 60 to 80 years, we’ve had many winds in there,” said Caroline Stanley of the group Friends of Merlin Woods.
“They may fall but we also need to remember that biodiversity is there as well, and we need to have a balance...you don’t just cut everything down because something might fall.”
Ms Stanley said the conifers are particularly important to the red squirrel population, as well as other species found throughout the woodland.
“The red squirrels depend on the mixture of the conifers and the broadleaves that we have in Merlin Woods to survive - [as do] all the other bird life, and mammal species,” she said.
Friends of Merlin Woods has previously called for greater management of the site, but Ms Stanley said that insufficient funding has made this difficult.
“Something we’ve always called for is some kind of management, but honestly there’s no funds for that in Galway City Council,” she said.
It is understood that silvicultural management had previously been explored for the site by the council’s former Biodiversity Officer.
