A Government taskforce looking at managing forests damaged during Storm Éowyn and supporting foresters has met for the first time.
The forestry sector was particularly badly affected by the storm, with some forests in the north and west of the country being entirely flattened by record-breaking winds.
Coillte and the Department of Agriculture has begun a process to assessing the full extent of the damage to forests using satellite imagery.
Ross Buchanan, a forester managing a 120-acre crop in Drumfurrer, Co Monaghan, said: "The level of damage that we've seen in this storm, we still don't have any handle on it, but we're looking at a real national situation".
Mr Buchanan has been carefully managing the forest for the past nine years but estimates that around half of the trees (around 25,000 to 35,000) on the site were lost in the storm.
"During the storm the force of the winds was such that it managed to break through into the crop and essentially start knocking it down at one end and working all the way through almost like dominoes.
"So, now we have a lot of trees and a mess on the ground. It's very expensive to clear up."
That clean-up operation will be an arduous one, as Mr Buchanan explained: "The trees are by and large blown on one particular direction. So it's going to start with a machine at one end getting a hold of tree at the root plate, cutting it off and starting to process it and then moving along to the next - in a line as best as possible.
"But as you can imagine, working in here versus working in a forest where you're just reaching for trees in front of you is a completely different beast.
"The process cutting and processing the timber is going to be significantly slower and hence the the higher cost associated with it."
There is also a huge financial cost to the forest owner.
"They (the trees) put on so much mass to get into higher value categories where you're into big-saw log that's worth money and that's what owners are holding on for. And when this happens, that growth is immediately arrested. Any future returns are cut off," Mr Buchanan said.
The Irish Farmers' Association has said farmers and forest owners must be given the opportunity to recover at least some value from their damaged crop and get support for replanting.
The IFA has also called for an amnesty on the requirement for felling licences to remove windblown timber.
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