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Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Pippa Hackett, encourages forest owners to make use of Ireland’s Tree Volume and Carbon Calculator. Minister Hackett highlighted the functionality and benefits to forest owners;

“This tool, developed by my Department, allows forest owners and managers to estimate tree volume and carbon using basic tree information for the main conifer and broadleaf tree species. With the supporting user manual, the calculator offers a simplistic interface for forest owners to input information from their own forests. This online tool provides another step in assisting forest owners to develop their forestry knowledge and assists them in taking a hands-on approach to managing their forest.”

The forest sector has an important part to play in meeting the ambitious roadmap towards climate neutrality. One aspect where forestry can play a role in meeting these targets is through utilising and managing our home-grown timber resource. The calculator is built upon data collected from forests in Ireland which allows the estimation of the volume of a tree or forest. For practical purposes, the calculator provides an opportunity for users to separately calculate the volume and carbon of a single tree, a batch of single trees or of a forest stand.

Commenting on this the Minister said: “Tree volume is an important unit of measurement as it details the size of a tree, which can be used to inform forest management decisions. When this information is coupled with the Felling Decision Tool it can assist forest managers and owners in making an informed decision to the timing of management interventions. This will contribute to the local economy, employment in rural areas and the supply chain of roundwood to processors.”

Ireland’s Tree Volume and Carbon Calculator supersedes the existing tree volume calculator by providing additional functionalities, an improved interface and a suite of pre-processed results for users.

Note for editors:

Ireland’s Tree Volume and Carbon Calculator is available on the Department’s website:

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/tree-felling-and-management/