03 Jul Beyond Trees (Part 2): The Reality of Tree Planting in Irish Forestry
The Reality of Actual Tree Planting on a Commercial Scale, Where Human Labour Meets Management in the Mud.
Forestry is often reduced to silviculture, paperwork, and regulation. All of those things matter, but they are only part of the picture. Real forest management is, above all else, about people, experience, judgement, and the constant balancing of competing realities.
This “Beyond Trees” series explores those realities — the practical, human side of forestry that is often overlooked, but shapes almost everything that happens in the woods.
In this article, I want to look closely at tree planting in Irish forestry; not afforestation or reforestation as a whole, but the physical act of planting itself, because it is far more difficult and complex than most people realise.
To most people, tree planting appears to be one of the simplest tasks in forestry. A young tree is taken from a bag, a slit is opened in the ground, the roots are placed into the soil, the slit is closed again, and that’s done 2,500 times per hectare. The process looks straightforward, repetitive, and simple.
On paper it is — or in the classroom.
But in reality, tree planting is one of the clearest examples of how forestry departs from theory the moment the trees arrive on site.
A planting specification may be simple enough to write. It may describe spacing, species, stem-height, root-collar-diameter, stocking levels, and the standard expected. But those specifications rarely account for the realities of the site itself, the conditions on the day, the labour available, or the economic pressures behind the operation. This is where the difference between theory and practice begins to show.
Before the First Tree Enters the Ground
By the time the first tree is planted, a considerable amount of work has already taken place. The trees have been ordered, lifted, transported, counted, and delivered. The planting crew has been arranged, ground cultivation is complete, fencing may already be complete, access prepared, and the weather watched carefully for a suitable window.
All of this costs money.
And once the trees are on site, the clock begins to tick.
Tree planting stock is living material, and expensive (plants for a Native Woodland establishment in Ireland cost about €1000/Ha) so they cannot sit indefinitely in bags, especially in warm or dry weather. Every delay adds pressure. Every problem becomes more urgent. By the time the planters arrive, the operation is already carrying momentum, cost, and risk. (And it’s worth mentioning here that cold-store trees arrive frozen, and so cannot be planted on the day they arrive.)
That pressure is invisible to anyone who sees only the finished plantation.
The Specification Never Tells the Whole Story
A planting specification can never fully capture the realities of the site itself – ground conditions can differ wildly across a site, even where the planting specification remains the same. Deep peat, heavy clay, shallow rock, wet flushes, steep slopes, and exposed ridges all affect how planting is carried out; and either too much rain, or too little, has an enormous impact – drought can make some soils hard as rock. The spec remains the same, but the physical realities of achieving it can change constantly.
Even more impactful is the type of sapling being planted. Industry standard conifer species like Sitka or Norway spruce are (at 30-50cm) relatively small, with relatively manageable fibrous roots, and a bag of 100 of them is relatively easy to carry. Broadleaves are just different – they can be bigger, heavier, have massive roots, and they often go into the better, but harder ground, while often being more delicate; and they are usually much more expensive.
The Physical Work
Planting trees at scale is hard work, far harder than most people realise.
Before the first tree is even planted, a planter may have had to carry the trees across steep or wet ground, through rough terrain, over drains, brash, and obstacles. By then, the work has already become physical.
Then the planting begins.
And it continues, tree after tree, often in rain, wind, frost, or heat, for hours at a time. Planters tend to concentrate on the current tree being planted, rather than on the thousands of trees remaining; and with good reason.
The trees themselves are not always straightforward either. Some have clean, manageable root systems. Others have large, awkward roots that take time and care to place correctly. Those few extra seconds may seem insignificant, but multiplied across thousands of trees they become very significant indeed.
This is the part of forestry that many never see.
Scale Changes Everything
Planting a few trees in a park or garden is easy, but tree planting on a forestry scale is both mentally and physically challenging. It’s usually done in the cold, wet, winter months, in the middle of nowhere, and just popping out to the local café for a latte simply is not an option. It is physically demanding, but the concentration required to maintain rhythm, speed, and consistency is the hardest part. There are far easier ways to make a living.
On my first day of planting (I had a forestry Degree, but had never even seen a planting bag, much less carried one), I remember the Forester walking down my line, inspecting what I had done, pulling out practically every tree because they hadn’t been firmed-in properly — scores of them — and simply telling me to do them all again. He didn’t explain or instruct.
I didn’t argue — the trees weren’t properly planted.
It never occurred to me at the time, but I often think of it now. I wonder if he didn’t show me because he knew what the result should look like, but not how to actually do it. The truth is, I still don’t know if that forester actually knew how to plant a tree—but he certainly knew what a well-planted one felt like.
Some Planters are Better than Others
On an ideal site, in ideal conditions, an experienced planter can plant over 3,000 trees in a day – all straight, firmed-in, roots covered. It really is a combination of rare, precious skill, natural ability, and hard-earned experience. I’ve even seen a planter eating his sandwiches without any discernible impact on his work or tempo, and I still can’t understand how he did it.
The problem arises when a new or inexperienced planter, being human, tries to keep up with their faster workmates, with the inevitable decline in quality of the work. A bad planter working alone is easily discovered and corrected, but if that bad planter is part of a gang of 10 good planters, their work is easier to miss, and the result could be 10% losses only discovered long afterwards.
Of all the people involved in forestry, few are as important — or as overlooked — as the planters. From the politicians who secure funding, to the Foresters, the Inspectors, all the other contractors, and all the report writers, planned, structured afforestation and reforestation simply could not happen without the planters; they are the foundation the entire industry is built on, but people forget that. They shouldn’t.
The Economics of Time
Most planters are paid by output, usually by the thousand trees planted. This simple fact shapes the entire operation.
A planter cannot work as though time has no value, because time is his income. If every tree was treated as if perfection was the only acceptable standard, the economics would quickly collapse.
This is one of the hardest realities for outsiders to understand.
In theory, every tree could be planted perfectly. If time were unlimited, if labour were abundant, if weather remained ideal, and if money were no object, perfection would be possible.
But forestry has never existed under those conditions.
The forester’s role is to bridge that gap — to achieve the highest possible standard while still making the work economically viable for the planter, the landowner, and the project.
That is not lowering standards.
That is management.
The Human Reality
Modern forestry is not simply constrained by biology or weather. It is constrained by people.
Skilled planting crews are increasingly difficult to secure, and that changes the balance of power on site. There was a time when foresters may have held greater authority over operations, but today labour is scarce, and experienced workers know their value.
That matters.
A forester may have twenty thousand trees sitting at a site entrance on a warm spring morning. If relations break down with the planting crew, there may be no replacement available. In that situation, the crew may lose a day’s pay, but the forester could lose the entire project.
That is not an exaggeration.
And because forestry remains a small industry, reputation matters. A forester who becomes known for making operations unnecessarily difficult may soon find it harder to secure labour not only for planting, but for fencing, spraying, road building, and harvesting.
This is one of the invisible pressures that shapes forestry every day.
The Difference Between Planting and Managing
This is where experience matters most.
A truly experienced forester understands that tree planting is not simply about meeting specifications. It is about balancing quality, economics, labour, terrain, weather, and long-term success all at the same time.
Mistakes made at planting often stay with a forest for its entire life. Poor root placement, bad spacing, or weak establishment may seem minor in the moment, but they can shape growth, quality, and stability for decades.
This is why forestry cannot be understood purely through inspection or theory. A planting line viewed months later tells only part of the story. The weather that day, the difficulty of the ground, the quality of the stock, the labour pressures, and the compromises made to keep the operation moving — all of that has disappeared.
But it mattered.
And it shaped the forest.
After Planting
By the time an inspector arrives, the weather has passed, the crew are gone, the stock conditions are forgotten, and the decisions that shaped the result are invisible. A site that was wet in winter, with dormant vegetation, looks very different in the full flush of early spring. Frost, drought, or wind-burn could have hit the site, and even the best planted trees can fail due to ‘transplant shock’ after lifting from the nursery.
Beyond the Trees
Tree planting looks simple because the final act itself is simple.
But the reality behind it is not.
It is physical, economic, biological, and human all at once – and the clock is ticking. It demands judgement, compromise, and experience in ways that are rarely visible from the outside.
And like much of forestry, it teaches the same lesson again and again: the deeper you go, the more complicated it becomes.
From Personal Experience
It’s a long time ago now, but I worked planting trees in Scotland early in my career; and I remember it well. I remember the site was so big that the mounds seemed to go on for miles. I remember carrying the bags on my back because no vehicle, even the quad, could travel the soft ground. I remember having to plant at least 1,600 trees per day, because at £35/K I literally couldn’t survive on any less. And I remember my cheese & pickle sandwiches and flask of tea during lunchtimes with ‘the lads’ when we were cold and wet and laughing while we couldn’t feel our fingers.
Honestly though, what I remember most is how satisfying it was – to look back at the end of a long, hard day and literally see the long lines of trees, my hard work complete.
Over 30 years as a Forester later and I’m still learning about planting trees on a forestry scale – the well-planted result has always been the same, but every new site and every new year brings changes and challenges, and important lessons to learn.
“Silviculture can be taught in a lecture hall. But real forest management is learned in the woods—and often in the mud.”
(Read Part 1: The Real Work of a Forester in Ireland)
If you are interested in large-scale tree planting or need guidance on establishing a new forest, get in touch with Ecoplan.
