The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) has claimed that a book that is being sent to primary schools promoting the Sitka spruce tree is "one-sided".

The book, title Sitka spruce, The Amazing Timber Tree is being delivered to every primary school on the island of Ireland, and is being supported by the Society of Irish Foresters, the Social, Economic Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland (SEEFA), and the Irish Timber Council.

Two copies of the book, along with a digital version including a narrated story with sound effects, are set to be sent to every primary school on the island of Ireland.

The IWT has heavily criticised the move, calling on the Department of Education and Youth to revise what it claims is "misleading messaging".

The trust has called on the department to provide schoolchildren with "educational materials which offer a more balanced understanding" of ecosystems.

It claimed that the book "fails to acknowledge the well-documented impacts associated with Sitka spruce monoculture forestry".

The IWT said it is concerned that children are "being exposed to material that normalises industrial forestry systems as environmental best practice, without adequate reference to native ecosystems, biodiversity loss, or ecological trade-offs".

According to the trust, Sitka spruce plantations are structurally uniform, single-species systems that support significantly lower biodiversity than native woodland ecosystems.

The group claimed this has led to "ecological simplification" such as reduced habitat diversity and impacts on water quality in sensitive catchments.

Oisín Ó Néill, nature advocacy officer with the IWT, claimed the book "risks normalising an environmentally damaging model".

"In the context of the global biodiversity crisis, it is deeply concerning that children are being presented with promotional narratives about extractive industrial forestry... Ireland's ecosystems are under severe pressure, and education materials must reflect ecological reality," Ó Néill commented.

"As anyone familiar with woodlands in Ireland will tell you, a Sitka Spruce forest is not a healthy forest ecosystem, and should not be represented as such in educational materials," he claimed.