Tree cutting permission

March to August inclusive you cannot cut trees or ditches. The only exception is if it was for a legitimate safety reason. For example, a large tree was genuinely in danger of falling onto a house or into your yard. Trees or ditches cut under feigned or trumped up spurious H&S reasons dreamt up after the fact will not cut it in court.

Section 40 of Wildlife Act 1976, as amended.

Your not the only one.

From the link..

A garden isn't agriculture or forestry and I don't see how "any land not then cultivated" can refer to a garden as that is cultivated.

Half the country trim the trees and bushes in their gardens during the summer months. If it is illegal then no one enforces it because if they do the courts will be clogged up for years hearing cases.

Trimming hedges ie. giving them a bit of a haircut is normal in Summer but removal and invasive maintenance is best left until after the nesting season.

The law is very specific and does not cover domestic or residential property at all.

Section 40 of the Wildlife Act 1976 as amended by the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000 and the Heritage Act 2018

It's exempt in that the land covered by the legislation is clearly stated. It says 'cultivated ' land - in legal terms cultivated land is agricultural only.

Destruction of vegetation on uncultivated land restricted.

F114 [ 40. — (1) ( a ) It shall be an offence for a person to cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy, during the period beginning on the 1st day of March and ending on the 31st day of August in any year, any vegetation growing on any land not then cultivated.

( b ) It shall be an offence for a person to cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy any vegetation growing in any hedge or ditch during the period mentioned in paragraph (a) of this subsection. ]

(2) Subsection (1) of this section shall not apply in relation to—

( a) the destroying, in the ordinary course of agriculture or forestry, of any vegetation growing on or in any hedge or ditch;

( b) the cutting or grubbing of isolated bushes or clumps of gorse, furze or whin or the mowing of isolated growths of fern in the ordinary course of agriculture;

F115 [ ( c ) the cutting, grubbing or destroying of vegetation in the course of any works being duly carried out for reasons of public health or safety by a Minister of the Government or a body established or regulated by or under a statute;

( cc ) the clearance of vegetation in the course of fisheries development works carried out by the F116 [ Inland Fisheries Ireland ] or a regional fisheries board in the exercise of its functions under the F116 [ Inland Fisheries Acts 1959 to 2010 ] ; ]

( d) the destroying of any noxious weed to which the Noxious Weeds Act, 1936, applies;

F117 [ ( e ) the clearance of vegetation in the course of road or other construction works or in the development or preparation of sites on which any building or other structure is intended to be provided; ]

( f) the removal or destruction of vegetation required by a notice served by the Minister under section 62 (1) of the Act of 1946 to be removed or destroyed;

F118 [ (g) the felling, cutting, lopping, trimming or removal of a tree, shrub, hedge or other vegetation pursuant to section 70 of the Roads Act 1993 ; ]

but this subsection shall not operate to exclude from subsection (1) of this section anything done by burning.

F119 [ (3) The Minister may request from the person concerned details of any works carried out under subsection (2)(c) and such details shall be furnished to the Minister by that person together with a statement of the public health or safety factors involved.

(4) In any proceedings taken in respect of a contravention of this section consisting of the doing of any act, it shall be a good defence to prove that the doing of that act was necessary for the purpose of extinguishing or preventing the spread of a fire while it was in progress or for the purpose of saving human life or was necessary in any other emergency in respect of which that act was an appropriate measure. ]

Can someone point to the actual legislation that prohibits a residential garden hedge from being trimmed or removed?

Most of what is posted above is relating to scrubland or ditches and not a residential garden hedge.

A cultivated garden hedge and roadside or field separating hedgerows are not the same thing.

On the NPWS site, it states 'Restrictions on cutting hedgerows are set out in Section 40 of the Wildlife Act 1976 as amended by the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000 and the Heritage Act 2018. These Acts stipulate that it is an offence to destroy vegetation on uncultivated land between the 1st of March and the 31st of August each year. This information has already been circulated to local authorities.'

https://www.npws.ie/legislation/irish-law/restrictions-cutting-hedgerows

Well the thing is, unless there is other legislation which permits cutting back or removing trees or hedges in a residential setting, then by default the Section 40 of the Wildlife Act will apply by default, and under that section, there is no exemption for garden or residential hedges or trees in hedges or ditches.

I'd say the reality is that it is just not enforced. Usually when it comes to private citizens cutting back illegally, it only ends up getting enforced as a result of some dispute and the offender is reported to authorities by a vexed neighbour as a punitive "put that in your pipe and smoke it" punitive action.

Hi

I can't help you on the legalities but knocking that type of tree is labour intensive and can be very expensive between cutting and disposal. My wife's family had a similar issue with neighbour and it was done very cheaply by getting a biomass contractor to cut trees by machine on site and chip entire trees. The current high price for biomass should still make that a viable option. You'll need to ring around though

My drive opens to a very busy L road and we trim the hedge every couple of weeks during the growing season. Otherwise it would be a traffic hazard. Doing it regularly means only the outside is affected and only a few inches of new growth removed each time.

The hedge is old and has lots of variety so don't want to damage it. Our neighbours do the same so everyone has a clear view when exiting.

The grass verge is also cut regularly as it is used like a footpath to stay off the road. No one has ever complained and no birds have been made homeless.

Agree with that, a stove is best it can spark a lot.

You could recover some of your costs in these times of high energy costs.

Need a shed or good tarp and 2 years.