Trees & The Law

Felling License Requirements:

Why You Can’t Fire Up Your Chainsaw Anymore Until Paperwork Is Completed

To report violations, see contact details below for the NPWS, Birdwatch and Irish Wildlife Trust.

http://www.independent.ie/business/farming/forestry-enviro/why-you-cant-fire-up-your-chainsaw-anymore-until-paperwork-is-completed-36144593.html

The Ban On Tree & Hedgerow-Cutting During Nesting Season:

Section 40 Of The Wildlife Act 1976

It Is illegal from 1st March 1^st – 31st August, To Cut, Grub Or Otherwise Destroy Vegetation, Including Hedgerows & Trees, on Land Not Tilled For Agricultural Use or To Burn Upland Vegetation.

Any Instances Of Illegal Hedge Or Tree Cutting Or Upland Burning Should Be Reported Immediately To The National Parks & Wildlife Service And To The Gardai.

Reported Instances Will Be Investigated & Potentially Prosecuted.

Exemptions include:  Commercial forestry, trees that are an immediate proven hazard, trees on land for lawful building or construction work.  Although certain aspects of commercial forestry are exempt from the above, they are subject to the EU Habitats Directive and potential penalties for violation.

In situations where there is a purported “immediate hazard”, unsubstantiated claims of an immediate hazard are not sufficient.  There must be documented evidence of the hazard including photographs and a written assessment of the tree proving the hazard and the immediate nature of the hazard such as recent storm damage occurring after 1st March.

The first point of contact regarding the above should be the NPWS:  www.npws.ie/

And the gardai.

If the issue is severe or relates to a row of trees or more, contact Birdwatch Ireland.

If the NPWS fails to investigate and address the issue in a satisfactory manner, you should at that point contact Irish Wildlife Trust:

www.iwt.ie

Please also notify Save Ireland’s Trees at:

www.facebook.com/SaveIrelandsTrees

Be sure to compile evidence – photos, documented conversations, records of phone calls, etc.

Contact Details

NPWS

Address:  National Parks & Wildlife Service, 7 Ely Place, Dublin 2, Ireland
Tel:  (01) 888 3242
LoCall:  1890 383 000 (from Republic of Ireland only)
Fax:  (01) 888 3272
Website:  www.npws.ie
E-mail:  nature.conservation@ahg.gov.ie

Designated Nature Conservation Areas Freephone Helpline:  1800 40 50 00.

NPWS Local Rangers

https://www.npws.ie/contact-us

Birdwatch Ireland

Tel:  01 281-9878;  353 01 281-9878.

E-mail: info@birdwatchireland.ie 

https://www.birdwatchireland.ie/

Irish Wildlife Trust

Tel:  01 860-2839.

Email:  enquiries@iwt.ie

Website:  https://iwt.ie/

https://wildlifecrime.ie/pages/Reporting.html

The Nesting Season Ban Applies To Urban Areas – Dr. Andrew Jackson

From the article: Prohibited Tree And Hedge Cutting At UCD And TCD During Nesting Season

The Wildlife Act makes it an offence to willfully destroy, injure or mutilate the eggs or nest of a wild bird, or to willfully disturb a wild bird on or near a nest containing eggs or unflown young.

According to Dr. Andrew Jackson of UCD’s School of Law, the term willfully in this context needs to be “interpreted consistently with the word used in the EU Birds Directive, which is ‘deliberate’”.  He added, however, that the term “deliberate” has been “interpreted expansively” by the European Court of Justice to cover “accepting the possibility, or knowing that the risk exists, and proceeding anyway”.

In general, Dr. Jackson told The Green News, there “appears to be a misconception” that the laws prohibiting vegetation cutting during the breeding and nesting season “somehow do not apply in urban areas, in gardens or campuses”.  “This is incorrect,” Dr. Jackson said, “and those out cutting during the closed period should be aware that they are running a gauntlet of criminal offences.

“The failure to respect these laws and the general absence of enforcement are clear contributors to the perilous state of our biodiversity, which ultimately endangers us all,” he added.

https://greennews.ie/tree-cutting-tcd-ucd-nesting/

 

Dispelling Arguments & Distortions Of The Nesting Season Ban

Section 40 of the 1976 Wildlife Act

There are people under the mistaken impression that the ban stated in the act is confined to rural trees or trees growing in a hedge. It is not. The ban applies to “vegetation” (which includes trees) on “any land not then cultivated”.

Since the definition of “cultivated land” is as follows:

“Arable land that is worked by plowing and sowing and raising crops.”

“ploughland, plowland, tillage, tilled land, tilth, farmland“

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cultivated+land

“The noun cultivated land has 1 sense:

1. arable land that is worked by plowing and sowing and raising crops

Synonyms: cultivated land; ploughland; plowland; tillage; tilled land; farmland; tilth“

https://www.audioenglish.org/dictionary/cultivated_land.htm

“Cultivated land is used to grow crops: cultivated fields/soil/land“

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/cultivated

And since the definition of uncultivated land is:

“(of land) not used for growing crops.”

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/uncultivated

The Act is therefore stating that the ban applies to vegetation, including trees, on land that is not “arable land worked by plowing and sowing and raising crops”.  Since urban street trees are not on this type of land, the cutting of such trees is therefore subject to the ban stated in Section 40 of the Act.

Claims by local councils that urban trees are exempt because they are cultivated is a distortion of the wording.  The exemption is not based on whether the organism is cultivated, it’s based on whether the land is tilled as arable land or not.  If Councils want to go down the route of using “cultivated plants” as a defence, hedgerows are far more cultivated and require far more work to plant than trees.  Regardless, this particular aspect of the exemption refers to the land, not the organism.  There is no exemption for trees on non-arable land.