Save Galway City's Green Spaces from the Bulldozer

A leading community activist has condemned as ‘environmental and health vandalism’ the proposals by Galway city council to advocate the construction of buildings and a road through the main urban parks as a betrayal of the hundreds of dedicated residents, scientists, teachers and youth who regularly give their time, energies and ideas to developing and maintaining the local authority’s woods, parks and green spaces for the benefit of the general public.  

According to Brendan Smith of the Terryland Forest Alliance, “There is a deep sense of shock and a feeling of betrayal amongst Galway’s army of environmental volunteers as we witness council officials undertaking a complete U-turn on long standing environmental policies, which will have serious negative consequences on people’s health, on air quality, on the education of our children, on the county’s commitment to combat global climate change and which will led to the destruction of sensitive wildlife corridors that have taken decades to nurture. We are calling on citizens and their elected representatives to save our city from what can only be described as institutional environmental and health vandalism and are hosting a public meeting on this issue at 7.30pm on Thursday November 24^th in the Maldron Hotel near the Kirwan Roundabout on the Headford Road.”

Community made wildflower meadow in Terryland Forest Park, Summer 2916

In the last few weeks, we have been informed by City Hall that the Terryland Forest Park multi-sectoral steering committee that includes NUI Galway, GMIT, An Taisce, HSE, schools and communities can no longer met due to budgetary restrictions; that a road will be built through the same forest park; that an ancient meadow in Merlin Woods will be bulldozed to make way for a hospice in spite of suitable alterative sites existing nearby; that the council propose to make it illegal for children to climb trees and that the number of workers in park maintenance are being reduced. 

2008: 10,000+ people sign petition which successfully stopped a road being built through Terryland Forest Park

It is only a few years ago that a petition signed by over 10,000 Galwegians stopped a road being built through Terryland Forest Park, a park referred too as the “People’s Park” as most of its 100,000 trees were planted by the people of the city from March 2000 onwards. The council are ignoring the reasons why people did so. For the latest scientific research shows the fundamental importance of trees and nature to people’s well being, which is why the next generation of cities across the world are integrating parks, food gardens and forests into their urban infrastructures. Ireland has the highest rate of obesity and weight excess in Europe whilst over 20% of our young people suffer from some form of mental health disorder, much of which can stem from what is known as Nature Deficit Disorder(NDD).  Experiencing the clean air as well as the calming and stimulation effect of the ‘Great Outdoors’ is now being promoted by the medical profession worldwide as an alternative to the costly drugs and pill culture.

Hence for the sake of our citizens, our future generations and our planet the council’s retrograde steps to design out biodiversity must be halted.

These brutal actions make a mockery of the city being declared a green capital of Europe as the EU Green Leaf City 2017. Projects involving community volunteers played a key role in securing this international accolade. Activists were therefore hoping that the city’s new found international eco-status would led to significant investment and progress being made in promoting greater public access to parks; in overcoming anti-social activity such as illegal dumping and bush drinking in bogs, parks and woodlands; in finally moving forward on the Galway city-Clifden Greenway and in supporting park-based nature learning initiatives for children.  

The Outdoor Classroom

Over the last year, scientists, technologists, teachers, health experts and environmentalists have begun working together to commence the process of transforming Terryland into a huge Outdoor Classroom and Outdoor Laboratory for our educational institutions that could also provide major tourist benefit. 

Traditional Mowing of widlflower meadow in Terryland Forest Park

Heritage enthusiasts have started to use it as a learning hub for traditional rural skills and crafts including the creation of native wildflower meadows where the grass is mowed by using hand held scythes, scarecrow-making events for children, and the introduction of horse drawn ploughing into the park’s organic garden.

Yet we are now faced with the extraordinary situation that the council has decided that Galway’s communities can no longer be involved in developing a park that they actually founded. This decision is the antithesis of civic engagement, a cornerstone of the city’s development strategy. 

Community Tree Planting

Hence there is a genuine fear that the Green Leaf award could become nothing more than mere window dressing, a title without substance, a Greenwash. The council authorities are it seems treating forests and parks as a reserve land bank to be chipped away when land is needed to be cemented and tarmaced over. Not for nothing is Terryland officially recognised as the ‘Lungs of the City’; its nearly 100,000 trees that were mostly planted by the people of Galway since 2000 provide the oxygen needs of up to 400,000 people, absorb over a decade 3,800 metric tons of the carbon dioxide gas that is contributing to global warming and provide  €4.64 billion worth of air pollution control over 50 years. This park, stretching from the wetlands of the Corrib along the Dyke Road to the farmlands of Castlegar, has the potential to be even important to Galway than the Phoenix Park is to Dublin. But it is been denied the public resources that it so urgently needs whilst funds and support from steering committee members are being ignored.

We as concerned citizens see ourselves as the defenders of the council’s own recreational, health, community and environmental policies. We are not going to let officialdom destroy our precious life-giving wildlife habitats and green spaces. 

The community and environmental sector should once again be viewed as equal partners whose actions over the years have brought many benefits to the quality of life in the city, including stopping the construction of a giant municipal incinerator and its replacement by the first three bin waste recycling system in Ireland as well as the introduction of the country’s first cash-for-cans scheme.”

Environmental Damage being done to Terryland Forest River, October 2013

Letter sent to Paul Costello of the OPW

Greetings Paul.

I was notified earlier this evening by Tom Cuffe of Birdwatch Galway that the operations of the OPW digger was seriously damaging the ecology of the Terryland River and surrounding banks.

I was so concerned by what he said that I took time off work to investigate.

I was deeply shocked by what I saw when I got to the digger's location adjacent to Galway Bay FM.

1. The digger was dredging up the river bed thereby eliminating an aquatic habitat  in the process.
2. Most (but not all) the knotweed that previously covered the banks was gone, at least from the surface area. But large amounts of this invasive weed now was covering the waterways and being moved by the currents further along the course of the river! The digger was scooping up quantities of this weed from the waters, but much was being left behind. Rather that controlling this dangerous  invasive species, the present OPW works is contributing to its spread.
It would seem to me that the OPW should remove the Knotweed manually with a team of staff rather than by machine which is as stated doing more harm than good.

3. Native trees such as willow that grew near the river and provided nest areas for bird life were ripped up.

I attach a photograph that I took today of this environmental damage.

Mr. Cuffe has spent five months conscientiously surveying the amazing array of butterflies, moths and bird-life that inhabited this area of the Terryland River as part of a nationwide biodiversity survey. He is utterly devastated that the habitats of many of these species is now destroyed.

Hence I hereby ask the OPW to stop their digger operations with immediate effect in order to save the remaining river area habitats along the river and allow an environmental impact assessment to be undertaken with Galway City Council Parks department in conjunction with the National Parks and Wildlife service before further work in undertaken.

Terryland River, Summer 2013. Excessive Plant growth blocking water flow & hindering aquatic wildlife

As you know I lobbied you and the OPW earlier this year for works to be undertaken in order to professionally remove the knotweed from along the riverbanks as well as much of the plant-life that was choking the waterways thus hindering the movement of fish and water fowl.

You informed that it was already the plan of the OPW to undertake these works this year.

But this present activity is ecologically destructive and is not what I expected.

I expect that you yourself did not realise the damage that was being done as your emails of earlier this summer expressed realisation that the knotweed should be removed in a professional manner, hopefully in a sealed container for incineration. Furthermore, it is a great pity that your stated opinion in August that the OPW should meet onsite with members of the Terryland Forest Park Steering Committee as well as the parks, environment and maintenance sections of Galway City Council to discuss the situation in advance of the works commencing did not materialise. If this get-together had taken place, probably the present situation would not have occured.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Le meas

Brendan Smith
Member
Terryland Forest Park Steering Committee

Native Tree Detective Walk on Culture Night (Sept. 20th)

Discover the characteristics and cultural aspects of the native trees of Ireland.

 As part of National Culture Night (Sept 20), botantist Matthew O’Toole, from Conservation Volunteers Terryland Forest Park, will take participants on what promises to be an exciting investigative guided nature walk through the Terryland Forest Park.

So become an arboreal detective by studying the bark, shape and form of the Oak, Alder, Hazel, Ash and other native flora. Find out why such trees were so important in the lives and beliefs of the peoples of Celtic Ireland.

Time: 5.00pm-7.00pm, Friday, September 20th 2013
Rendezvous: Terryland Castle, Dyke Road, Galway city

 For further informaton, contact Brendan at speediecelt@gmail.com

Saving Ireland’s Largest Urban Forest Park: Your Support is Needed to Establish a 100 Member Volunteer Club for Terryland Forest Park

Three community organisations in Galway city are part of an ambitious scheme to integrate the environmental, heritage, learning and neighbourhood aspects of the Terryland Forest Park in order to provide a Greenprint for its future development and that of other natural heritage areas across Ireland. Click here for an outline of a local community plan for the park's regeneration as unveiled a few months ago.

The ‘Conservation Volunteers Terryland Forest Park’, Cumann na bhFear and the Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden are appealing for your help in securing a membership of 100 volunteers who will each give a few hours per month to get involved in park based events designed to increase public footfall within its perimeters and protect biodiversity.

‘Conservation Volunteers Terryland Forest Park’ want to establish a permanent presence in the park every weekend, with each volunteer that is working onsite wearing a identifiable jacket or badge, thus encouraging the general public to use and to enjoy what is officially known as the Citizen’s Park and the Green Lungs of the City. 

Activities include planting of trees, weeding in an organic garden, reconstruction of drystone walls and hedgerows, building a wildlife pond, litter clean-ups, repair of vintage (touring) bicycles, participation in guided nature walks and heritage cycle tours.

Exciting opportunities and support mechanisms now exist for transforming this man-made natural heritage resource into an asset even more important to the people of Galway than the Phoenix Park is to the population of Dublin.

Illegal Dumping

A fleet of High Nelly bicycles for park touring, a 7 castle Greenway trail, school-created arts murals, community willow sculptures, the restoration of traditional drystone walls/hedgerows, the installation of park-wide information signage, the development of a Poet’s (Cuairt)woodland and a corps of volunteer park rangers are amongst some of the proposals that should come to fruition over the next year. 

When it was first planted in early 2000, it was the largest urban neighbourhood forest project in the history of the Irish state. Initiated as a result of years of campaigning by local community groups, 120 acres were zoned by Galway City Council for a new woodland and riverine park. 

Over a five year period, approximately 100,000 native Irish trees were planted by the people and schools of Galway city, thus creating an expansive natural habitat for a wide variety of flora and fauna located not far from the city centre that connects into the vast Lough Corrib waterways, one of the most cherished areas of biodiversity in the country.

River Corrib wetlands near Terryland Forest Park

Within its grounds or on the park’s periphery, lies a rich fabric of our city’s history that includes working farmlands, the ruins of medieval castles, forgotten canals, the remains of a Georgian garden and WW2 urban allotments, Victorian railway lines and engineering waterworks. 

Abandoned Victorian Waterworks, at entrance to Terryland Forest Park

A few months ago, a multi-sectoral steering committee was re-established to help promote community engagement and to develop a long-term strategic plan for this wonderful green resource. Under the auspices of Galway City Council, it includes representatives from the City Parks’ department, Galway Education Centre, OPW, HSE, An Taisce, Galway City Community Forum, GMIT and NUIG.

In the early years of its formation, a programme of family picnic days, outdoor theatre, art workshops, community tree and school children bulb planting days took place in the park that often attracted thousands of participants. 

'Off the Beaten Track' Heritage Cycle Tour group, Castlegar Castle

2012: A Year of Progress
‘Conservation Volunteers Terryland Forest Park’ want to offer such activities once again to the students and pupils of our local schools as well as to the general public. Already, by working with other groups such as Cumann na bhFear (aka Men’s Shed), Castlegar Connect, GTU, Galway Civic Trust and the Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden we held an initial series of events in 2012 that included heritage cycling tours, a multi-cultural picnic, nature detective walks, tree plantings, organic gardening digs and a harvest festival. Most notable was ‘Slí na gCaislain’, which is a pioneering pedestrian and cycling Greenway connecting Terryland Castle to six other castles that has the potential to become a world-renowned amenity to be shared by tourist and local alike.

'Off the Beaten Track' Heritage Cycle tour group near Cloonacauneen Castle

Trees are mankind’s best friend. They provide us with the oxygen for sustaining life on Earth and by absorbing the man-made carbon emissions that are the main factor in global warming today. They also act as a haven for a myriad of wildlife. A single oak tree for instance can be home to up to 450 different types of species, from fungi to large mammals. 

Forests: Reclaiming Our Celtic Heritage
Ireland today has only 10% woodland cover, compared to an average of 40-45% in the rest of Europe. Yet before 16^th century British colonisation destroyed our native forests to provide the raw materials for the English ship-building, iron and pipe staves industries, these habitats were an integral part of Irish culture and religion as well as of the physical landscape. 
Our mythology shows that the ancient Celts revered nature; the druids used oak groves to hold religious ceremonies; many of the early Christian saints had a close affinity with creatures of the forest such as wolves and deer. The Ogham alphabet, that was our first form of writing, was based on different varieties of native trees. Under Brehon law, trees even had a honour price that had to be met if cut down. The English invaders referred to the Gaelic warriors as ‘wood kerne’ (soldiers of the woods).

'Leafless Tree Detective' tour with Matthew O'Toole

In the process of nurturing this developing forest park, young people and the general public will have the opportunity to become ‘Citizen Scientists’ through a programme of nature studies, climate change reduction projects, tree planting days, biodiversity enhancement and annual wildlife monitoring schemes such as the ‘National Wildlife Atlas’ survey of mammals.

Scientific studies by experts such as Richard Louv in his book ‘Last Child in the Woods’ has shown that alienation from nature has caused diminished uses of the senses, serious concentration problems and higher rates of emotional and physical illness in children.

By expanding the woodlands area and overcoming habitat fragmentation, caused by an infrastructure of fast roads, through developing a network of cyclist/walker friendly botharíns and the building of ‘Green bridges over motorways (such as those that exist in the Netherlands where presently 800 are located), we can restore via the Terryland Forest Park a better quality of life to urban dwellers whilst at the same time protecting endangered indigenous species. 

Ballindooley Lough

A Green and Pleasant Land
So we have the pleasure of involving children and adults in re-creating an ancient landscape that will introduce the joys of walking through woodlands; of experiencing the sights of meadows populated with a vibrant cornucopia of insects, animals and birds; of hearing the natural sounds of the countryside; of cycling along rural laneways; of drawing portraits of wildlife in their natural settings; of picnicking in a park with friends; of downloading an apps to journey along a local nature trail;  of planting trees and hedgerows as well as in repairing traditional stonewalls.

Spellman's Botharín, Castlegar

Much needs to be done on issues such as signposting of woodland trails, combating illegal drinking in public green spaces, litter dumping and habitat fragmentation by roads. 

Wetlands along Terryland Forest Park

But these challenges can be overcome by a unity of purpose from all sectors of the local population. The Park can finally become a Green Jewel and a vital Ecological Corridor for the wildlife of Galway City.

Draft Terryland Forest Calendar for 2013

February: Willow Planting and Harvesting (Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden)
 Commencement of weekly Clean-Ups of park

March: Community Tree Planting Day
            Classic Bikes Repair workshop

April: Drystone Wall Repair (with Cumann na bhFear); Schools’ Mammal Survey (with Dr. Colin Lawton NUIG); Inauguration of Cuairt Tree Planting Fest (with Galway City Arts Office)
The Big Spring Clean-Up Day

May: Dawn Chorus (with Birdwatch Galway); Classic Bikes Rental launch scheme for Terryland Forest Park (Cumann na bhFear); Mammal Detective trail (with Dr. Colin Lawton NUIG): Eco-Art Mural of park container by Galway schools(with Galway City Arts Office)

June: The Seven Castles Cycle Trail(Slí na gCaislean); Completion of Online 7 Castles Cycle Mapping

July:  The Seven Castles Cycle Trail(Slí na gCaislean) (with Cumann na bhFear)

Wildlife Pond Construction (Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden)

August: Drystone Wall Repair (Cumann na bhFear)

September: Harvest and Heritage Festival Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden
Scarecrow exhibition (by schools)

October: Leafless Tree Detective Walk (with Matthew O’Toole): Schools' Bulb Planting Day
November: Winter Wonderland Photographic and Arts challenge for Galway schools
December: Exhibition 'Poster Art of  Terryland Forest 2000-2005' by artist Lol Hardiman, City Hall 

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