What type of land is suitable for planting new forests?

This page examines how we determine the suitability of a site to produce trees and what species are suited to the site. It also looks at how reform of the Common Agricultural Policy has provided further opportunities for the planting of woodlands.

The suitability of trees to a particular site is dependent not only on the type of soil that prevails, the elevation of the site and climatic factors, but can also be determined by the objectives of the owner. A broadleaved forest grown as a commercial plantation will require free draining and nutrient rich soils in a moderately sheltered location. A commercial plantation of the conifer, Sitka spruce is likely to be successful on a more exposed, wetter but less fertile soil. The creation of native woodland on a particular site may satisfy a conservation objective, but if timber production is also an intended aim, then usually the choice of species will be further restricted.

In the past, the land that was available for forestry was mainly poor hill farmland or agriculturally unproductive upland. This was to ensure that food production would not be adversely affected. Today, reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy have provided an opportunity to extend afforestation "down the hill" onto more productive sites. Planting on these sheltered sites allows a greater variety of tree species to be planted. Details on land types considered suitable for afforestation and land types where there is a presumption against planting are given in the Forest Service Booklet on "Afforestation" the DANI statement on environmental policy (1993), a copy of which is available on request from the Customer Services Manager at Forest Service Headquarters.

In 2008 the Forest Service produced a map of land suitable for planting new woodland in Northern Ireland. The map can be downloaded from this website at the link below.