National: Coillte says Storm Éowyn clean-up to continue into 2027

Main pic: Trees down in the Coillte-owned Corravaddy forestry, Letterkenny, following last year’s Storm Éowyn. Pic: Donegal Daily.

Coillte has said the clean-up operation from Storm Éowyn will now take longer than originally forecast, and will continue to the middle of 2027.

The semi-State forestry company estimates a total of 50 million trees were blown over around the country or damaged during the storm, with around 20% of its trees recovered so far.

Over 26,000 hectares of forest were damaged by the storm, which hit this time last year.

Just over half the trees impacted were on Coillte land, with 11,000 hectares belonging to private forest owners.

The agency had initially predicted that the recovery would be complete in 2026, but now says it will stretch into 2027 with the predicted overall cost set to climb to a minimum of €60m.

Coillte communications manager Pat Neville told RTÉ News the storm caused “unprecedented damage” to Ireland’s forests.

“Initially following the storm, some work had to happen … to understand where the damage was and how much damage was caused. So we used satellite technology, drones and aerial photography married with ground surveys. After just eight weeks, we had the entire extent of the areas mapped,” he said.

Read the full report on www.rte.ie

National: Coillte says Storm Éowyn clean-up to continue into 2027 was last modified: January 22nd, 2026 by Staff Writer