The Forest Service has criteria that must be respected in order to qualify for planting grants. Where the guidelines on forestry and archaeology are not adhered to, financial assistance for planting will be withheld.While the policies outlined in the Strategic Plan and the Operational Programme acknowledge the potentially adverse effects of forestry on archaeological sites, specific policy with respect to archaeology in forestry is more clearly defined with reference to the Forest Service. The ‘Forestry and Archaeology Guidelines’ leaflet (Forest Service, a), which is issued to each grant-applicant, summarises the legal position with respect to archaeological monuments and forestry, and outlines procedures for protecting sites during planting and felling operations. These guidelines must be adhered to in order to quality for all forestry grants. (An updated version of ‘Forestry and Archaeology Guidelines’ is being complied and is due to be published in mid-1998. It is assumed that the revised version will amend the information on the National Monuments Acts, the Record of Monuments and Places, and the recent changes in planning laws.) The current guidelines provide brief descriptions and illustrations of some of the most common archaeological monument types. While acknowledging the limitations of space in a leaflet, it is noteworthy that the guidelines do not mention early prehistoric, sub-soil sites or later historical sites such as mills, lime kilns and vernacular architecture. Whether or not the revised guidelines will include such sites remains to be seen.

Coillte is by far the largest self-regulating forestry company and, therefore, has a greater responsibility to archaeological sites on its property. The company acknowledges the potential impact of afforestation and forestry activity on archaeology in its environmental policy statement (Coillte Teoranta 1993). It recognises that ‘many remaining [archaeological] sites can be on marginal agricultural land, previously unaffected by development, where forestry is the preferred land use’ and that the ‘wide usage of heavy machinery for ground preparation, road making and extraction can also affect archaeological sites’. Coillte is forthright in acknowledging that ‘it would be unacceptable for the Company to allow any sites whether recorded or not to be damaged’. There is, however, a bias in the environmental policy statement, and in general, towards upstanding monuments at the expense of less obvious sites – the only sites mentioned in the statement are those of earth and stone.  Read more

Coillte gets FSC Certification. In order to do so they have to meet FSC Principles. Principle 3 dictates that the legal and customary rights of indigenous peoples to own, use and manage their lands, territories and resources shall be recognised and respected in relation to:

1. The safeguarding of rights of indigenous persons;
2. The maintenance of existing permissive or customary uses of the forest;
3. The provision of public access to the forest
4. The identification and protection of all sites of cultural, ecological or religious significance to indigenous peoples

In meeting this requirement, Coillte claims to do the following: 

• Recognises all permissive or customary rights existing in its forests including: 
  • Permissive footpaths, rights of Way and other permissive access to forests
  • De Facto access to well-known landmarks, features, or archaeological sites
  • Traditional ‘Common rights’, e.g. wells, Mass paths
  • Gathering of fruit and fungi by the public for their own consumption

• Documents all legal tenure and use rights both manually and electronically on its internal systems. All staff have full access to these documented use rights.

• Operates an Open Forest Policy and have devoted extensive  resources to the development of a recreation policy.  The company facilitates access to its woodlands in the following manner: 
  • Open Access Policy
  • Guided Woodland walks on Tree Week and Tree Day
  • Other Guided walks on request
  • Agreed access to specific routes including Sli na Slainte and other designated walking routes
  • Neighbourwood Schemes in Association with Local Authorities

• It is Coillte’s policy to protect all known archaeological and cultural features on our estate, as are the requirements of the National Monuments Acts 1930 and 1994. In addition, as part of our commitment to Sustainable Forest Management we abide by the Forest Service Forestry and Archaeology Guidelines. These guidelines outline:
  • how monuments should be protected in our forests;
  • how exclusion zones should be created and maintained around monuments;
  • how pedestrian access should be created to and from monuments;
  • what do to if archaeological objects are found;
  • what to do if new archaeological monuments are discovered; and
  • procedures to be followed during afforestation, reforestation, harvesting, and road making in the vicinity of the monuments.

In addition to these guidelines, a Code of Best Forest Practice in relation to archaeology has been jointly developed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Coillte.

To ensure that the requirements of these guidelines are met, many of Coillte’s staff has received training in how to identify archaeological monuments and how to protect these and known monuments.

This is a recent quote from their 2005 Social and Environmental Progress Report concerning their continued FSC Certification:

Archaeology

In accordance with the Code of Best Practice agreed with Dúchas (now the Office of Public Works, OPW), conservation of all archaeological sites was an integral part of every forestry operation on Coillte’s land during 2004 and 2005.

Archaeological surveys conducted on all sites prior to commencement of forest operations.

Where archaeology was identified as an issue on operational sites during the forest planning process, surveys were undertaken and management plans submitted to the Forest Service Archaeologist for agreement prior to commencement of operations. In 2004 and 2005, 64 and 70 operational sites had archaeological considerations respectively. The types of monuments on these sites included court tombs, holy wells, sweathouses, enclosures, ringforts, fulachta fiadh, lime kilns, tumulus’, stone circles, wedge tombs, country houses, standing stones, bullaun stones, circular enclosures, corn mills, ringbarrows, cashels, hut sites, caves, megalithic tombs, passage tombs, and hilltop enclosures.

All new archaeological sites identified by Coillte personnel during operations were notified to the Forest Service and relevant monuments authorities.

  
Looking south at Rath Lugh on right. You can see the piece of forest missing at the bottom