Terryland Forest Park selected as Galway’s "Get Involved" project!

Galway City Tribune newspaper two page spread

Terryland Forest Park has been selected as the Galway City candidate for the Get Involved Sustainable Communities initiative 2016/17. Organised by 51 local Irish newspapers and sponsored by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, Get Involved selects those projects that promote local volunteerism, biodiversity, local food growing, ecotourism and developing markets for recyclables and renewable energies. 

The community and environmental projects organised through the Terryland Forest Park in 2016 were many and varied including wildflower planting, traditional hand-held scythe mowing of a meadow, scarecrow making, mapping out online walking trails, drystone wall restoration, castle heritage cycle trails,  organic gardening, food preservation courses, neighbourhood harvest festival, traditional crafts demonstrations, litter picking, bat walks, science surveys and production of a series of onsite biodiversity educational signage.

We sincerely thank the Galway City Tribune for choosing us and for the great two page piece that appears in the current edition of the newspaper which includes photos of Cumann na bhFhear members forging and an image of the  Seven Galway Castles trail (art by Helen Caird). 

Such a prestigious accolade has come at a most opportune time just as activists have commenced battle to save the forest park from a road construction that will destroy its development as a key Ecological Corridor for wildlife and as an Outdoor Classroom for local schools and colleges.

This recognition has resulted from the dozens of hardworking visionary community, educational and environmental volunteers who are regularly involved through a series of ambitious programmes within the park that are transforming this green urban network of habitats into a learning and cultural environment for the children, students, scientists and communities of Galway city. 

These groups include Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden, Cumann na bhFear, Conservation Volunteers, Galway Bat Group, Ballinfoile Mór Walking group, School of Science GMIT, Zoology Martin Ryan Institute NUI Galway, the Centre for Environmental Science NUI Galway, GMIT Science, the Galway Field Studies Centre and the overall coordinator-the Terryland Forest Park Alliance.