Webinar “After the Storm: Pathways to Forest Recovery and Restoration in Ireland and Beyond”

On the wake of Storm Eowyn – which occurred this year on 24 January 2025 and brought unprecedented wind speeds and widespread disruption across Ireland – forest landscapes have suffered significant damage across the country.

This webinar, organized under SUPERB project’s “Forest Restoration Talks” series in collaboration with the European Integrate Network, TRANSFORMIT project and FoRISK facility, brings together forestry professionals, environmental scientists, policymakers, and a landowner to examine the extent and nature of the storm-related damage in Ireland as well as look at other European examples of major forest disturbances.

Together, we’ll explore the immediate impacts, assess longer-term ecological and economic implications, and discuss practices for recovery, resilience planning and climate adaptation measures.

Key Themes and Questions:

• How can we better deal with future disturbances across European forests?
• How do we transform / adapt our forests to make them more climate resilient?
• What can we learn from past experiences to recover and restore forests in an integrative way?
• What are current preliminary findings on storm damage across different forest types and regions?
• What are strategies to salvage logging, replant and protect biodiversity after storm damage?
• How can policy and funding from government and EU support recovery?

Panelists:

– Noel Kelly, Irish forest owner majorly affected by storm Éowyn

– Christophe Orazio from IEFC (Aquitaine, France) brings in knowledge and expertise on forest risk management and climate change adaptation

– Jo O’Hara is a professional Chartered Forester, director of FutureArk Ltd and a non-executive board member of Forestry and Land Scotland. She brings in policy and strategy expertise in relation to change management.

– Irish Ministry representative (TBA)

– Dr. Carolin Stiehl from Wald & Holz NRW brings in expertise in forest management and restoration implications after major forest disturbance.

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