PRESS RELEASE
Thursday 4th April, 2019
The easy treesie project is delighted to mark the planting of its 10,000th tree today to mark National Tree Week. Dublin City Council is the newest local authority taking the lead in supporting this UN-backed global project where children “Plant for the Planet” in their nearest park with support from the charity Crann. Earlier this week Dublin City school, Gaelscoil Bhaile Munna did a “Walk on Wednesday WOW Day” to neighbouring county Fingal’s Santry Demesne where they planted a tree for every child in their school. Their local park had insufficient space for this exercise and Fingal provided space for the children who are one of the nearest schools to ring the iconic estate which contains trees dating back to the 1700s. Fingal was the first council to support this million-tree project in 2017, when Ireland’s first “Tree Academy” planted 300 trees in Seagrange Park where they can be seen from Bayside Dart station. Since then almost 7,000 trees have been planted by over 1,000 school children in Fingal. With such co-operation the four Dublin councils are teaming up following their recent public consultation to tackle Climate Change. Crann and Crown Plaza Hotel Group got together earlier this week with the children’s initiative when the global hotel chain provided tree-themed apple juice and fruit snacks for the team of tree planters while Greenstar provided the cups made of recycled materials. Coillte who are Tree Week sponsors has donated 2,100 trees directly to this project.
Today’s event was visited by the RTÉ News2Day children’s news crew to see the planting of an outdoor classroom consisting of a ring of native Irish oaks. The plan is to underplant the large ring of new and existing oak trees – Ireland’s national tree – with bulbs in the autumn. St. Finian’s School, Finglas is sending its sixth class to round off this season’s planting at this wonderful ecologically managed park. Many of the children have enjoy attending the fishing competitions on the Tolka river, which boasts populations of salmon and trout, one boy having caught five fish in one day with assistance from his grandfather. Several of Thursday’s work party have spotted up to three kingfishers on the riverbanks. These birds, rarely seen in the city find sanctuary with a wide variety of now unusual species of wildlife; a pheasant was sighted during the recent St. Malachy’s school tree planting.
Michael Burke of Dublin City Council has worked with local schools in the area over several years and welcomed the news that St. Finian’s school at the edge of Tolka Valley Park is installing an organic garden with the help of educational ecologist Paddy Madden in the coming months. Michael and his team have been busy preparing the ground for the planting party using an augur he calls “Shrek” – children mistook the name augur for “ogre” at a recent event and the name has stuck. The easy treesie matching “ogre” is an electric zero-emission version known as “Fiona”; this American lady can dig 100 holes on a single charge in 40 minutes and is considerably quieter than the petrol versions with no fumes. There is considerable enthusiasm in Dublin City for this project with easy treesie planting parties this week with Gaelscoil Bhaile Munna and Belgrove Clontarf and around the country in Shankhill, Listowel, Kilkenny, Fermoy and Sligo. With such enthusiastic school children and their communities the future for parks such as Tolka Valley Park looks bright; watch out for plans for even bigger participation next year to adorn our public parks with help from our youngest citizens.
ENDS
Contact Orla Farrell at orla@easytreesie.com
Photographs available
More information on www.easytreesie.com
Orla Farrell / Project Leader, easy treesie / Web: www.easytreesie.com
Easy Treesie 