Giving a New Lease of Life to a Fallen Tree

I was glad to recently join the students of the highly active Botany Society of the University of Galway who, under the chairpersonship of the dynamic Katie Hennessy, undertook in association with the University Buildings and Grounds section a large scale planting of trees in woods along the banks of the Corrib River.

Sadly, as was the case nationwide, many large mature trees on the campus were victims of Storm Éowyn and the tree planting was to replace some of those that had fallen.

But sometimes, from something bad comes something good.

The Buildings and Ground staff kindly donated to the Tuatha two large cross sections of tree trunks, one of which will be put on permanent display on the exterior of An Nead HQ to be used as a learning aid for school children and others visiting the park. The accompanying plaque will tell the story of Storm Éowyn and the Climate Crisis but also the counting of rings will reveal the age of the tree when it was alive. So the fallen tree will have a new lease of life as part of our Outdoor Classroom.

Photo shows Seanín and Katie from the University of Galway's Botany Society holding one of the donated tree cross sections.

Finally a reminder to join us next Saturday's (March 29th) for a Community Tree Plantathon to celebrate 25 years since the first planting took place in Terryland Forest Park.
Register at https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/1284820375329?aff=oddtdtcreator

Creating a Temperate Rainforest in the Heart of the City

 

May I use the opportunity of #WorldEnvironmentDay to thank the thousands upon thousands of volunteers of all ages who have since March 2000 planted multiple tens of thousands of native trees and flowers in Terryland Forest Park. All of these wonderful people have helped create a Temperate Rainforest in the heart of an Irish city and have left a unique legacy for future generations to benefit from. Their battle to tackle the Climate and Biodiversity Crises has been going on for a quarter of a century!

Next year we will be celebrating 25 years of Ireland's first urban community native woodland with its myriad of habitats providing home to an amazing array of flora, fungi and fauna.

In the lead up to this very important birthday, lots of great additions and improvements will be put in place to greatly enhance what has been referred to since its inception as the Green Lungs of the City.

 

After the Storm comes the Tree Planting!

Help Us ‘Rewild’ Galway on Saturday next with native tree and bulb planting at Lough Atalia. 

The frequency and severity of storms is becoming more characteristic of Ireland as a result of unstable destructive global warm weather caused by the burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of Nature’s ‘carbon sinks’ such as forests and bogs. ‘Barra’ is the latest in a long list of storms to hit our shores over the last decade. 

But one key way to tackle Climate Change is to plant trees and lots of them. The Irish government wants to have 22 million trees planted annually. 

This planting also happens to tackle the other great global crisis of our modern era, namely Biodiversity Loss. One million out of five million known species on the planet are threatened with extinction. Global populations of fauna have declined by nearly 70% since 1970. A forest is probably Earth’s most diverse biodiversity rich mix of ecosystems with an oak tree being able to be home to over 400 species of flora, funga and fauna. So planting trees is a necessary action in helping to save the planet from humanity’s errors.

Galway city has a proud history in rewilding going back to the origins of Terryland Forest Park as a community campaign in the mid 1990s and with the first trees been planted on March 12th 2000 by c3000 volunteers. 

At 10am next Saturday (December 11), we are asking people to help in the rewilding of Lough Atalia by planting 400 trees and thousands of bulbs on lands owned by the Galway Community College. The necessary permission has been granted by the National Parks and Wildlife Service on lands that lie within a Special Area of Conservation, the trees have been funded by Aerogen. 

Rendezvous: Gate entrance opposite Áras an tSaile (Dept of Defence) Renmore. https://goo.gl/maps/6Z9dCfxhj5wmmSGp7 

Register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rewilding-galway-tree-bulb-planting-at-lough-atalia-tickets-224261611517 

Requirements: Bring Spade and wear suitable clothing. 

Please note that as area is part of a Special Area of Conservation, permission had to be granted by the National Parks Wildlife Service for the planting to take place. A big thank you/Bualadh Bos to all that that have made this happen, namely to Galway Community College, Conservation Volunteers Galway, Terryland Forest Park Alliance, Self Help Africa, Lets Get Galway Growing, Scoil Chaitríona Senior, the Galway Science and Technology Festival and Aerogen- all champions of the Galway National Park City initiative.

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