CCFPI Ireland
Advanced decision support for transitioning Irish Sitka spruce forests to Continuous Cover Forestry.
CCFPI is the flagship operational pathway within MyForestPass, the evidence-based Forest Intelligence Platform for modern forestry and woodland management.
CCFPI Ireland was developed from original MSc Forestry GIS research by Jay Gilbert into the suitability of Irish Sitka spruce plantations for Continuous Cover Forestry, and expanded by BranchX into a six-module operational pilot model.
Irish forestry is under pressure to move away from clear-fell dependence on even-aged Sitka spruce, yet owners and managers have no consistent way to judge whether a given stand can transition safely. Windthrow exposure, stand structure, soils, access and regulatory sensitivity all interact, and the judgement is currently made stand by stand with fragmented evidence and little traceability.
CCFPI Ireland is a spatial and forestry decision-support platform that assembles the available evidence for a parcel, reports six independent module positions, states its own confidence and evidence gaps honestly, and produces a traceable pilot record that a forestry professional can review, challenge and build on.
Six independent modules, reported separately.
These are operational assessment modules, not the factors of the CCFPI research model. The seven-factor research model of the completed MSc is shown in full on the CCFPI research page. No blended suitability score is produced here. Each module reports its own position, its own confidence and its own evidence gaps, so a reviewer can see exactly what the assessment rests on.
- 01
Site Capability
Terrain, soils and exposure characteristics that govern whether a site can physically sustain a continuous cover system.
- 02
Stand Transformation Readiness
Structure, stability and thinning history of the existing crop, and whether it can be opened safely at all.
- 03
Dynamic Windthrow Risk
How windthrow exposure changes under different intervention scenarios rather than as a single static rating.
- 04
Climate Resilience
Exposure to drought, storm and waterlogging pressures across planning horizons.
- 05
Operational and Financial Feasibility
Access, extraction, entry frequency and the operational realities of repeated light interventions.
- 06
Environmental and Regulatory Sensitivity
Designations, water, peat, archaeology and consent considerations that shape what is permissible.
Evidence sets the tier, not the other way round.
Screening
Desk-based orientation using available spatial evidence. Indicative only.
Professional
Adds surveyed stand inventory and management history supplied by a forestry professional.
Verified
Adds a named professional verification and provenance declaration against the supplied evidence.
What a pilot participant receives.
- A six-module assessment profile for each participating parcel, with no blended composite score.
- Explicit evidence gaps showing which missing inputs constrain each module.
- Rule statuses showing what was evaluated, what was triggered and what could not be evaluated.
- A provisional transformation pathway framed as phases, not as a prescription.
- A watermarked pilot report suitable for internal review and professional comment.
- Structured reviewer feedback captured against each module for calibration work.
Ways to take part in the pilot.
Paid institutional pilot
A funded pilot across a defined estate or portfolio, with structured outputs and review.
Research validation
Academic or institutional collaboration to test module structure and threshold calibration.
Professional methodology review
Structured review of the six-module methodology by practising foresters.
Pilot forest sites
Access to real stands for evidence capture and output comparison.
Data partnership
Provision of inventory, boundary or environmental data to support calibration.
Organisational licence
Early access arrangement for organisations intending longer-term operational use.
What the platform does not yet claim.
- The model is uncalibrated: no module threshold or weighting has been scientifically validated.
- Pilot spatial inputs are demonstration placeholders, not live national datasets.
- No composite suitability score is produced, and none should be inferred.
- Outputs are not a silvicultural prescription, a licence, or a regulatory approval.
- Every result requires review by a qualified forestry professional before any operational decision.
- Research Model v1.0 remains a historical proof of concept and is not the operational engine.
Original Irish research, built out in the open.
Jay Gilbert is the founder and director of BranchX Limited, a neurodivergent-led Irish technology company based in Wexford. CCFPI originates in his MSc Forestry research, which applied GIS multi-criteria and fuzzy suitability analysis to the transition potential of Irish Sitka spruce plantations. That dissertation model is retained as a historical proof of concept; the operational pilot model was designed separately and deliberately left uncalibrated pending validation.
View a sample pilot assessment