Mr Michael Boyle of Foxford, Co Mayo, has been awarded the Connaught Provincial Award in the annual RDS Forest Service Irish Forestry Awards. Originally planting four and a half hectares in 1988, Mr Boyle’s plantation has now grown to over eight hectares made up of a mixture of Sitka spruce, lodgepole pine, ash, and sycamore.
The awards seek to promote excellence in timber production for commercial use and to encourage diverse forest habitats for ecological benefit. They recognise and reward forest owners who are employing the basic principles of sustainable forest management on their properties and promote the forestry industry in Ireland, the challenges it is facing, and measures it is undertaking to provide for commercial timber production while maintaining a rich ecosystem to pass on to future generations.
