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.

 

Operation Blathánna - Reflowering the Forest - April 25th 2015

  Under the tutelage of flora enthusiast Padraig Keirns. Terryland Forest Park Conservation Volunteers & Conservation Volunteers Galway city during Spring and Autumn 2014 undertook a series of native wildflowers plantathons in the Terryland Forest Park, Ireland's largest community-initiated urban forest.
The aim of 'Operation Bláthanna' is to plant the wildflowers that will dramatically increase the biodiversity of this great natural resource.
Our first large scale flower planting for 2015 will take place on Saturday April 25th. 
Rendezvous: 10am in car park in front of Galway Bay FM.

The Terryland Forest Park area designated for the April event will be a woodland behind Riverside estate & Liosban business. will include Bluebells, Bugle, Cow Parsley, Crow Garlic, Ground Ivy, St. Patrick’s Cabbage, Pendulous Sedge, Sitchwort and Wood-rush.
There will also be a clearance of long grass and briers.

During June 2014, volunteers collected the seeds of Bluebells and Wild Garlic from mature forests in Galway and spread them across suitable areas of Terryland Forsest Park.
In September, hundreds of Primroses were planted in the forest.

Last year then represented the beginnings of a major biodiversity project to plant appropriate indigenous species in the meadows, woods and hedgerows of this unique urban natural heritage resource. The flowering of the forest with sanicle, foxglove, st. patrick's cabbage, cow parsley, raspberry, primrose, wild garlic, bluebells and many more indigenous varieties will dramatically increase its attractiveness to a wide variety of insects, birds and many other types of wildlife.

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

Refuse Gathered from a Galway City Woodland.

Yesterday was a very active and successful day for volunteers associated with both the Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden and in the Terryland Forest Park.

Campaigners for example continued their weekly clean up of the Terryland Forest Park. As with many public spaces and green zones across Ireland, anti social elements are destroying our city's woodlands by dumping huge amounts of refuse. In some cases it  comprises heavy duty domestic waste including fridges, televisions, sofas, paints, tyres etc particularly in the bogs. But from first hand experience, the majority of the refuse in the city  seems to consist of the detritus of nighttime drinking sessions including beverage cans, bottles, fast food wrapping, excrement, burnt palettes etc. The damage to biodiversity is huge and must cost the taxpayers millions of euros every year in Galway alone. But the presence of anti social aggressive drinkers can also turn our beautiful heritage areas into no-go zones for other peoples who want to enjoy going for a walk, a jog or a nature study.
Unfortunately, few if any of the culprits are ever apprehended or made repair the damage done. 
Neither  the Garda or the council's Community Wardens regularly patrol the woodlands. This policy must change if we are to end this modern characteristic that brings such shame to our country. 

Burnt Trees and 'bush drinkers' campfires and detritus in Terryland Forest Park

 There needs to be a better joined-up thinking between having stronger and existing litter government legislation implemented; having local authorities ensure wardens patrol the parks and working more closely with local communities and volunteers on an ongoing basis, having the Garda regularly arrest the culprits; having the courts ensure that meaningful fines and community service are served. I have been lobbying the council for months to bring all above parties to the table on this issue and to try and have amongst other things a volunteer Park Rangers corp set up. But no success so far.

On the principle that 'money talks'(!), I spearheaded the campaign a few years ago for the government to follow the example of other European countries and introduce a monetary refund payment scheme for all beverage cans and bottles. It works well overseas and used to exist in Ireland when I was a lad. I and other community activists, supported by Councillor Catherine Connolly, succeeded in getting Galway City Council to do so on a smaller scale in the city (the only Irish local authority to do so). But the then Minister for the Environment John Gormley (the Green Party leader)after months of lobbying ultimately refused our requests to do so nationally.