CEO Cillian Lohan was one of the panel at the recent webinar organised by the Rediscovery Centre on the Circular Economy. You can view a condensed version here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foioZFD1Puw or the full version here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmA1lRPDKHU
The Irish Times acknowledges the work of Imogen Rabone and her accomplishment of organising and inspiring the planting of over 1,000,000 native trees throughout Ireland. It also details the new project in conjunction with Self Help Africa planting a further million trees in Africa.
Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, work in the woods has been suspended for the moment. In the meantime, the extensive planting that was carried out in early 2019 continues to thrive. Thanks to a surge in interest in planting trees as a nature-based solution to assist in combating climate change, we received some welcome donations and help from a number of volunteers. As a result, 1000’s of new saplings were planted into the old woodland to replace loss and damage caused by several bad storms in the recent past. All trees planted were native species – the mix was 60% Oak with 40% other species including Holly, Birch, Hazel, Rowan, Hawthorn, Scots Pine and Crab Apple. Further work by volunteers throughout the summer gave the saplings a good start by reducing the impact of competing vegetation particularly bracken and briars. This was trampled and reduced on a regular basis which resulted in much improved growing conditions for the saplings and a 99.9% survival rate to date. Considering the situation that we are in now, it is especially fortunate that this work was carried last year and that the trees can continue to grow with minimal human intervention or help this year.
We would like to thank the following for their donations, support and hard physical labour – Solamh Kelly, Barbara Merling, Maria Hingerty, Mary Quinlan, Frances Walsh, Olive Finn and Twig Refill, Clonakilty, Wild Design Cork & Killarney, BAM construction, Johnson Controls, Brookfield Renewables, Co-Orch Orchestra, Choral con-fusion, Dell EMC.
Applications for planting trees with Trees on the Land for next year will be open in August 2020.
Applications are open to farmers, smallholders, community groups, councils, schools, colleges and other landowners.
Tree packs for the establishment of small woodland areas, coppice, shelter-belts, hedgerows, orchards and agroforestry are available.
For all information and to make an application please see the website at www.treesontheland.com
The bare-root season has now come to an end – the team at Trees on the Land would like to thank everyone who took part planting trees on and around Saturday 15th February 2020.
After a very busy production and distribution phase early in the year, more than 225,000 trees were distributed for planting across the 32 counties of Ireland and Northern Ireland during February.
Just under 1000 landowners planted trees this year with farmers, smallholders, councils, community groups, sports clubs, schools, colleges and many other landowners accommodating trees. Many different projects were undertaken including the planting of small woodlands, hedges, coppices, shelter belts, orchards, agroforestry, reforestation and other landscape planting work.
Huge thanks to all of the collection points, nurseries, volunteers, drivers and other helpers who worked so hard to get trees out to everyone and special thanks, as always, to those who hosted the collection points.
Work is now starting for the 2021 planting project which will take place on Saturday 13th February. Applications will open in August.
For all project information please see www.treesontheland.com and all enquiries to info@treesontheland.com
Sunday 26th August
Heritage Week runs from the 18th-26th August 2018; this year the Heritage Week theme is ‘make a connection’
Connecting with Our Native Trees – The Green Economy Foundation are hosting a guided walk of the woodlands at Manch on Sunday 26th August 2.30 – 5pm.
Enjoy a guided walk through the beautiful wooded estate with over 300 acres of old broadleaf woodland, our recently established sustainable woodland establishment and management projects, rivers and historic walled orchard.
Gates open at 2.30pm, guided walk at 3.00pm sharp. All welcome but no dogs please.
We will take a route through the estate covering some of the older woodland, managed under the native woodland scheme, and some of our newly established woodlands & native hedgerows.
The event is open to all ages but we will cover a large area and some of the ground is steep (not suitable for push-chairs etc). Please bring a flask or picnic if you want to enjoy refreshments in the yard after the walk.
For more information please visit the Heritage Week website at the following link:
https://www.heritageweek.ie/whats-on/event/connecting-with-our-native-trees
30th April & 1st May 2018
The Green Economy Foundation team enjoyed a sunny couple of days out at the Native Woodlands Conference ’20 Years A-Growing’ in Co. Wicklow earlier this month.
Organised by Woodlands of Ireland, the conference was a celebration of Ireland’s native woodlands. A busy day with more than 20 speakers and then a field trip looking at native woodland managment and establishment projects in the area. The NWC provided in-depth analysis and discussion of many of the important issues surrounding native woodland establishment, management and education and a really great chance to catch up with friends and colleagues in the industry.
There were many good thoughts to take away and a huge amount of material for further discussion. Videos of all of the speakers will be available to view at the conference website soon, see www.nativewoodlandsconference.com
Many thanks to Declan Little and his team for organising such a useful and positive event.
We ran a productive volunteer work day at Manch earlier in March, clearing up after the snow and planting a few new apple trees. Many thanks to everyone who joined us and to Nikki for organising it all.
We planted ten Irish apple trees supplied by Future Forests (www.futureforests.ie), the first new trees in the walled garden for several decades. Hopefully they will grow on well and, in time, replace some of the magnificent but ageing apple trees there that won’t go on forever.
It’s a great time of year for assessing both the garden and the woodlands when all of the greenery has died back over the winter and the snow has flattened things down a bit. It is easy to see the progress of young trees and assess their condition and form, especially in areas that become quickly overgrown during the spring and summer.
There is evidence of spring after all the cold weather with brave daffodils starting to show their faces. The hazel and alder is in flower and the blackthorn flowers are coming.
We’ll be running another work day soon – details to follow on the website.
Daffodils at Manch – photograph by Nikki Keeling
– Sunday 4th March 2018
– Manch Estate, Ballineen, Co. Cork
– 11.30am – 4.30pm
– All Welcome
Come and see what’s going on at the Manch Project this spring. A guided woodland walk will start at 2pm but feel free to wander and explore our 25km of woodland and riparian paths from 11.30am.
The Manch Project is a unique woodland management and establishment project developed by the Green Economy Foundation at the beautiful 320 acre Manch Estate in Co. Cork. The woodlands at Manch are a working example of Continuous Cover and Sustainable Woodland Management principles; an alternative to the common system of even-aged plantation forestry designed for clearfell. Come along and see the difference.
This is a free event – donations are welcome on the day.
No dogs please – Sorry!
A short TEDx talk by our CEO Cillian Lohan – providing a simple explanation of The Circular Economy.