VIDEO: Forestry sparks residents’ outrage

“I love trees, but to look out and see that,” says Kieran Doyle, his frustration cracking through. “All day long!”
Sitting in Kieran Doyle’s Corlough bungalow all that’s visible through the living room window is a regiment of Sitka Spruce in its seemingly permanent base. The towering trees, according to Kieran, are “exactly 30 yards” from his home. According to Coillte who own them, it’s actually closer – 30 metres (see Coillte statement below).
As far as the commercial semi-state company are concerned, the trees are far enough back to comply with the legislation as it was when they were planted in 2002. Kieran contends they were planted after the date and should be a more breathable 60m back from his home.
Blessed with an elevated vantage point the townland of Culliagh would have formerly afforded breathtaking views into Fermanagh and Leitrim for most of the residents. Those places where a view can be snatched reveal a countryside redacted in the bottle green sweeps of Sitka Spruce plantations. The offending Sitka in this area are owned by State company Coillte. Driving the minor road up to Kieran’s house, the effect of the towering trees planted cheek by jowl with the tarmac has a suffocating effect. At one point you can see the crisply cut trunk on either side of the road where a tree had fallen and Kieran chainsawed a path through.
Kieran claims that he’s cleared the road of fallen trees “six or seven times last year”. He can’t always manage to do it however. A former New York fire fighter, he still feels the effects of his profession which forced him to retire early. He recalls one morning “my back was in bits” and was unable to clear the road.
“I called the fire department in Ballyconnell and they had to come out and cut down the [fallen] trees at the very end, because there were three or four trees lying across the road.”

Why does he not call Coillte to do it?

“If we don’t clear it Coillte won’t come up here full stop. The last time we seen them was a year and a half ago.”
Coillte dispute this, explaining that they respond as soon as they are notified: “Whenever trees blow onto the public road we are informed either by the council or residents and we immediately send a contractor to clear them.”
Kieran also fears what would happen if any of the residents in the area needed to call on the emergency services when the trees are down.

Outage
While the diminished views and the blocked roads are sources of concern, particularly for Kieran, the reason he actually contacted The Anglo-Celt last week was due to repeated power outages caused, he believes, by the trees whenever gusts strike.
Kieran is joined by his neighbour, John Clarke, who lives 100 yards up the road and is eager to share his mounting frustrations.
“Since last January to this week – fifteen times our electric has gone off,” says John, the frustration apparent.
“Eleven times last year and four times this year – we only got the electricity turned back on yesterday.”

While Storm Gareth was the wind that caused the latest black-out, the pair insist there doesn’t have to be a weather event for the electricity to go.
“It’s like this morning,” says John of the breeze, “it’s not a violent wind – but you know it [the electricity] could go.”
“Any time,” Kieran chimes in.
“It could go,” echoes John. “It didn’t used to be this bad, it’s because, obviously, the trees hadn’t grown to the height they are at now. It’s the height they are now that’s causing the problem. And as far as I can see unless they do something about it, it will continue.”
Whenever there’s a weather warning, it’s almost guaranteed they’ll be impacted.
“You could almost put money on it,” says John without a hint of mirth.
Kieran shows the Celt the jokey text messages between the pair last Tuesday anticipating an outage. At 9pm, within hours of their texts it was gone. Power was restored at 3.30pm the following day which, according to John is, “pretty short compared to some of the times”.
They recall that the longest they’ve been without electricity is three days.
“Along with that [the annoyance of being without electricty] you have to restock your freezer,” says John who has a chest freezer to save making the lengthy trip into the nearest supermarket. He says he’s had to restock three times since last year.
From the side of the road you can see spindly trees leaning perilously close to the electric lines ,which have only a narrow corridor of terrain in which to stretch through the evergreen plantation.
“I don’t blame the ESB because the lines were there before the forestry was there,” says John. “If they had kept back the 30, 40, 60 ft or whatever, they wouldn’t be interfering. It’s because the way they’re planted, the closeness of the trees each time there’s a decent wind, bang!”
They point out numerous darkened sections of the line which they claim are where ESB engineers had to undertake repairs.
Growing resentful, the men claim there’s been a lack of consultation from Coillte on their ongoing problems, and they feel powerless to affect change.
“If they had just come and said, ‘Do have you a problem with this?’ Do you have a problem with that?’ And it’s something you can sit down and sort out,” says John.
He adds: “We’re just like small boys at the end of it. Them, they can ignore you till the cows come home. Unless you’ve got the money to actually employ a solicitor or a barrister or whatever, take them to court... time and the money, and there’s no guarantee that you’re going to get there.”

 

Coillte - Plan in place to rectify issues