Straight advice on your woodland, from foresters who measure the crop themselves.
Thinning, felling, replanting, licences and sales — FMI works for private forest owners and farmers in every county in Ireland. We neither buy timber nor harvest it, so the advice is yours alone, and the first call is free.
The questions we hear most, and what we do about them.
Is it time to thin — and how?
A walk through the crop with a forester, the stand measured, and a plain answer on whether, when and how to thin, with the licence and the sale that follow if you go ahead.
Selling timber
Pre-sale measurement so you know what is standing, then a sale by tender run as your independent agent: contractors assessed, the operation supervised, every load reconciled against the weighbridge dockets.
Felling licences and replanting
Thinning, clearfell and forest-road licence applications prepared in your name, replanting obligations planned, and the site data they depend on recorded in the field.
Storm, fire and disease
Windblow, fire damage, ash dieback and Phytophthora assessed on the ground and from the air — the affected area, the volume in it and the options for each part.
What is it worth?
Independent valuations and growth forecasts for a sale, a purchase, lending or an investment decision — professionally indemnified.
A survey of the whole property
Orthophoto, canopy height, stocking, tree health and terrain from one survey by our own aircraft — an honest picture of what is standing before a thinning, a sale or a replanting decision.
Replanting and the next crop
Species choice, establishment surveys and the care of natural regeneration — protected, where deer make it necessary, stem by stem rather than by fencing.
Roads and access
Farm forest road planning and marking, haul routes planned from terrain models, and the road licence application.
Orthophoto, 1.5 cm/px
Canopy height model
25 m stocking grid
Hillshade: drains and old boundariesEvery survey output from one flight.
For a privately owned forest at Ballyhale we flew one survey and delivered the lot: an orthophoto at 1.5 cm per pixel, a canopy height model, individual tree detection, a 25 m stocking grid, hillshade and multispectral indices — the whole property, readable at a glance, before a decision was taken on the ground.
Most private woodlands need less than that. The point is that the picture comes from your own crop, measured, rather than from a guess — and that the foresters who flew it then walk it with you.
A phone call, then a written estimate.
Tell us where the woodland is and roughly how big; county and hectares are enough. A forester replies within one working day, the first call is free, and you get a written estimate of what is needed before any work starts — usually beginning with a walk through the crop.
- Foresters based in Sligo, Cavan, Kildare, Wicklow, Wexford, Kilkenny, Waterford and Tipperary, working in every county
- Registered Foresters with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
- Professional indemnity insurance in place for valuations and advice
- No prices on the website, because no two woodlands are alike — the estimate is written for yours
Measured, not guessed
Windblow mapped from the airBefore you pick up the phone.
I have been offered a price for my timber. How do I know it is fair?
Have the crop measured independently first. FMI neither buys timber nor harvests it, so our measurement is your evidence of what is standing — volume by assortment, not a guess from the roadside. If you then sell, we can run the sale by tender as your agent: design the sale, assess the contractors’ method statements, supervise the operation and reconcile every load against the weighbridge dockets. The award is yours.
Do I need a felling licence to thin?
In Ireland, felling or thinning trees normally needs a felling licence from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, with limited exemptions — and a licence to fell usually carries a replanting obligation. We check which applies before anything is cut and prepare the application in your name.
My trees were blown down in a storm. What now?
The first job is to know how much: we map the blown area from the air and measure it on the ground, by subcompartment, with the volumes and the options for salvage, replanting and licensing. Then the sale, if there is one, is run on measured volume rather than a buyer’s estimate.
What does the first conversation cost?
Nothing. A forester replies within one working day, the first call is free, and you get a written estimate before any work starts.
Own a forest or farm woodland?
Tell us where it is and roughly how big. A forester replies within one working day. The first call is free.