To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs what steps his Department is taking to protect and restore Randalstown Forest.

My Department manages and protects Randalstown forest in line with its responsibilities under the Forestry Act to promote sustainable forestry. Forest Service delivers this responsibility through its development and implementation of sustainable forestry management plans which are subject to independent external audit against the UK Woodland Assurance Standard.

The plan for Randalstown forest has recently been revised in consultation with stakeholders as part of the review of the wider Antrim forest planning area. Randalstown forest includes areas of high conservation value, including ancient woodland, native woodland, semi-natural woodland and deadwood habitat. The forest extends to the edge of Lough Neagh and is within a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

The management objectives due to be implemented under the plan include management of productive forest areas under a continuous cover regime. This ensures retention of the forest canopy at one or more levels by successively removing and regenerating trees over the longer term. This allows greater opportunity for the enhancement of the landscape, water quality protection, improvement of wildlife habitats, and increasing the diversity of trees to improve the resilience of the forest whilst reducing the impact of forest operations on visitors.