These Aren’t The Trees You’re Looking For - Sitka Spruce

We know what you’re thinking...

“Sitka Spruce?! That’s a non-native tree, why is there Sitka Spruce in your forests?”

Well, today, we’re going to answer that question by laying out some facts, dispelling some myths, and telling you how powerful a tool the Sitka Spruce can be in making planet earth cool.

The Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) is a large, coniferous, evergreen tree. Sitka can grow up to 100 meters (330 ft) tall. They are long-living trees, with some individual trees being 700 years old. The bark is thin and scaly, while the leaves are stiff, sharp, and needle-like. Meanwhile, they have distinctive cylindrical cones, which are pale green in summer but ripen into nearly white, pale creamy-brown cones.

Native to the west coast of North America, Sitka Spruce occupies a narrow land zone from Alaska to California. Ever since it was introduced to the UK & Ireland in the 19th century, it has quickly become the most planted tree in both regions. Sitka Spruce accounts for around half the tree population in Ireland (51.1%). But, how did it become so popular in Ireland, so quickly?

According to Teagasc, the Sitka Spruce is incredibly well adapted for this country:

Sitka spruce is the predominant species used in Irish forests. The species is extremely well adapted to growing in Irish conditions, it loves the rain.

Despite it not being a native species, the Sitka is ideally designed for the Irish climate. It is tolerant to exposure which makes it possible to plant Sitka spruce at elevations of up to 450 meters, while also being well suited to our soils. As proof of its ‘ecological fit’, the Sitka’s flowers produce seeds and are able to regenerate naturally. Overall, it has proven itself as one of the most productive coniferous species grown in Ireland and as such has become vital to the Irish forestry sector, which is worth approx. approximately €2.3 billion annually to the Irish economy.

Sitka Spruce is the backbone of the Irish Forestry Industry, with over 1.4 million cubic meters of Sitka spruce logs being produced annually from Irish forests. This harvested timber is then used as a raw material for numerous different uses including packaging and construction. It has also created thousands of jobs for the Irish economy (total employment in the forestry sector in Ireland is 12,000 and is expected to grow to 18,000). As Fianna Fáil TD Jackie Cahill recently put it:

While broadleaf trees are very welcome and have a role to play in making the countryside attractive and in carbon sequestration, the harsh reality of life is that without Sitka spruce, there will not be a forestry industry

In saying all of this, the most important element of the Sitka Spruce is its ability to mitigate against climate change through Carbon Sequestration. Carbon sequestration refers to the process by which Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, a contributor to global warming, is ‘fixed’ by trees and stored in timber and foliage. There are over 300,000 hectares of Sitka spruce planted in Ireland, which represents an outstanding carbon store. This equates to hundreds of 2.5 million tonnes of C02 being sucked out of the atmosphere and stored in Sitka Spruce, this represents 75% of all the carbon stored in Irish forests.

However, the Sitka Spruce continues to store this carbon long after it has been felled (cut down). After it’s harvested, the sequestered carbon in the timber can be stored over a longer-term – safe from biotic (animals) and abiotic (wind, climate, etc.) challenges.

At Cloudforests, we are determined to do things differently. We are not just a tree planting company. We create Forests for The Planet. This means we create Forests for Habitat Creation, Native Irish Woodland Forests, Rainforests and Forests for Carbon Sequestration.

While our incredible CoolPartners plant their Native Woodland Forests, with native, Irish trees like Oak, Beech, Rowan at our Annual Planting Day. We put just as much value in our Carbon Sequestration Forests, which are made up of Sitka Spruce. These forests capture huge amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and play a major part in our mission to Make Planet Earth Cool.

As Darth Vader put it; ”You don’t know the power…. of the Sitka Spruce”.

If you’d like to buy a Native Irish tree planted on our Gift Tree Grove at Cloudforest One, simply follow the link below: