merrion street

Speaking at the Irish Timber Growers Association (ITGA) field day at Larch Hill Stud, Kilcock, County Kildare today at which he visited two local enterprises ‘Enrich Environmental Ltd’ and ‘Log On Firewood’, Shane McEntee T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with responsibility for forestry, noted that “This is ‘enterprise in action’, as they saw and seized opportunities to make use of by-products of forestry, landscaping and garden maintenance which were formerly wasted”.

The field day, organised by the ITGA, included a walk through the woodlands of Joe Barry, which had won RDS/Forest Service Irish Forestry Awards in recent years, and a tour of the Enrich Environmental and Log On Firewood plant. Both businesses were started seven years ago and, between them, currently employ ten people, with a large number of other local sub contractors indirectly engaged in auxiliary services. Enrich Environmental produces a range of garden products using organic materials like grass, forestry brash, hedge cuttings, fruit, tree stumps etc which are composted to provide a nutrient rich, peat free soil improver which in turn is blended with other ingredients like topsoil and sand. Log On Firewood store, dry and process small thinnings from woodland into logs for sale to home owners.

During his visit to the plant, the Minister of State commented, “In these difficult times, we have two outstanding examples of businesses taking advantage of a natural and sustainable supply of raw materials to produce value-added products and create local jobs”. Minister of State McEntee also thanked Joe Barry for hosting the field day and sharing his experiences of growing and managing his forest. The Minister noted that Mr. Barry’s woodlands had won the RDS/Forest Service awards in both the Farm Forestry and Biodiversity categories, which was an indication of the high quality of the woodlands