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IWT Press Release
21 April 2026
The Irish Wildlife Trust is calling for immediate action from the Department of Education and Youth to address and revise misleading messaging presented to primary school children by the Society of Irish Foresters, Seefa, and the Irish Timber Council on the ecological benefits of Sitka spruce forestry. In the context of the global biodiversity crisis the Irish Wildlife Trust urges the Department to provide schoolchildren with educational materials which offer a more balanced understanding of Ireland’s biodiversity, native ecosystems and the pressures they face.
The organisations are distributing a booklet titled “Sitka Spruce, The Amazing Timber Tree” in both printed and narrated digital form to primary schools across Ireland. The IWT says the material presents a one-sided and commercially aligned narrative that fails to acknowledge the well-documented ecological impacts associated with Sitka spruce monoculture forestry.
In the context of the global biodiversity crisis, the IWT warns that children are being exposed to material that normalises industrial forestry systems as environmental best practice, without adequate reference to native ecosystems, biodiversity loss, or ecological trade-offs.
One of the distributors of the booklet, the Society of Irish Foresters, has described Sitka spruce as “the most important commercial, environmental and social tree species in Ireland.” The IWT says this is not an objective statement, but a promotional framing of a non-native plantation species that omits significant ecological context.
The IWT highlights that Sitka spruce plantations are structurally uniform, single-species systems that support significantly lower biodiversity than native woodland ecosystems. The expansion of such plantations has contributed to ecological simplification, including reduced habitat diversity, impacts on water quality in sensitive catchments, and displacement of potential native woodland restoration.
The IWT notes that clearfell forestry practices associated with commercial Sitka spruce plantations can increase soil exposure and habitat disruption, and that drainage and harvesting in peatland and upland areas can contribute to sediment loss and water quality pressures affecting sensitive aquatic ecosystems.
Oisín Ó Néill, Nature Advocacy Officer with the Irish Wildlife Trust, said the material risks normalising an environmentally damaging model of land use at a time of accelerating ecological decline:
“In the context of the global biodiversity crisis, it is deeply concerning that children are being presented with promotional narratives about extractive industrial forestry from an industry that continues to cause serious harm to Ireland’s ecosystems. Ireland’s ecosystems are under severe pressure, and education materials must reflect ecological reality. This booklet is one-sided industry messaging presented as environmental fact.”
“As anyone familiar with woodlands in Ireland will tell you, a Sitka Spruce forest is not a healthy forest ecosystem, and should not be represented as such in educational materials.“
The IWT argues that Ireland remains one of the most ecologically degraded landscapes in Europe in terms of native woodland cover and biodiversity loss, and that education materials should reflect the ecological costs of our current forestry model.
The Irish Wildlife Trust is calling for immediate action from the Department of Education and Youth to address and revise misleading messaging presented to primary school children by the Society of Irish Foresters, Seefa, and the Irish Timber Council on the ecological benefits of Sitka spruce forestry. In the context of the global biodiversity crisis the Irish Wildlife Trust urges the Department to provide schoolchildren with educational materials which offer a more balanced understanding of Ireland’s biodiversity, native ecosystems and the pressures they face.
The organisation is also calling for greater safeguards to ensure that commercially aligned messaging is not presented to children as environmental education.
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Media Contact
Oisín Ó Néill, Irish Wildlife Trust Nature Advocacy Officer, oisin@iwt.ie