Looking Back
It’s been a while since we have posted on our website, we are taking some time to reflect on the journey so far and ask?
“How Are we ‘Nature-Proofing our Future”?
Over a quarter of a century since started the project to plant over 12 acres of Native Woodland. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time – It was the eve of a new millennium. Things were going to be different, but how?
Environmentalism seemed to be centred on repairing the Ozone Layer and what would we do when the oil ran out, when we hit ‘Peak Oil’!
The new Native Woodland Scheme (NWS) offered a welcome change to the Sitka Spruce monoculture system that had dominated forestry policy and the Irish Landscape for too many decades. The NWS prioritised ‘conservation and biodiversity’ and ‘close-to-nature’ or ‘Silviculture’.
The New millennium brought new adventures, family, a home, children, teenagers. As our children grew, so did the 36,000 or so trees that we had planted to compliment the very old woodland, where we ourselves played as children.
Environmentalism found a new and more urgent focuses: :”Climate Change”, “Biodiversity Loss”. We are often reminded of the proverb
“The Best Time to Plant a Tree was Twenty Years ago – The Next Best Time is Now”!
By conserving our old native woodlands, we were conserving the millennia’s-old flora which was contributing to already rich biodiversity of the woods. The woodlands were also performing an important role in sequestering carbon and protecting the rivers and streams which is bordered, serving as a nature based solution to mitigate, and adapt to climate change.
Looking ahead
Lessons Learned
We need ‘woodlands’ all around us, not just for their environmental credentials, but for our own physical health and well being! And! Woodlands also need us, and especially, they need our children, to tell their story, to unravel the ancient mysteries of the ancient woods. Over the years, our woods here have become both an adventure playground and an outdoor classroom.
Even when a local active age group came to us for a walk, they found themselves transported back in time to their own childhood of the sounds of the murmuring stream, the chirp of the Chiffchaff , the colours of the woodland wildflowers, the scent of wild garlic. The Woodlands become a Nature School where we can all experience “Learning Naturally”