Tree planting by tenants in County Down during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Abstract

Registers of tenant tree planting in Co. Down between 1769–1909 are examined. Excluding (hut trees, undershrubs and acorns, over 5.13 million trees were planted. This apparently high total should be compared with current rates of planting in Northern Ireland where, in 1994. the Forest Service alone planted almost 2.2 million trees at an average of 2600 per ha. Registrations were highest in the decade 1810–29. declining sharply in the mid-1830s. Numbers of trees planted peaked in the 1820–29 and 1830–39 decades as plantations became prominent. Spatially, registrations were more frequent in parishes adjacent to Co. Armagh and across the middle of west Down. Three quarters of trees planted were conifers and larch accounted for 51% of all trees planted. Ash was the most commonly planted broad-leaf. The spatial distribution of species planting shows the importance of ash and larch plantations in individual parishes and those southwest of Newcastle. Landscape impacts of planting arc discussed in comparison with present woodlands and trees.