A silver bullet for Climate; ah, if only there were one! As they say, it’s complicated. “Silver Buckshot”, (a phrase from Prof. Phil Spector is his proposal on how we can change our lives to live longer in a podcast with Dan Buettner, championing the benefits of spending time gardening for longevity); now that’s a term that could equally work for effective Climate Action. Trees certainly form a part of the suite of solutions and establishing trees well is so important when one thinks of all the work carried out by our nurseries growing saplings for us, whether it’s schoolchildren in a classroom garden or the large-scale nurseries nurturing millions of saplings a year such as at Coillte’s in Carlow.
Our Easy Treesie project has relied on the advice of experienced Foresters, Arborists and allied professionals since its foundation. These were the instructions from our Plant-for-the-Planet H.Q.; work with the experts. We have been so delighted to receive the generous advice and support by so many tree professionals, too numerous to mention – always given freely, to our registered charity children’s project. Our way of doing things is planting of trees in the traditional method with a 1.5 meter spacing – or more – between the trees, suppression of grass and weeds carried out by children and their communities trampling on the grass and watering by rain barrels or the sky for the most part, except during dry spells when we ask our young volunteers to stop by their local tree project and donate some grey water. Apart from digging holes we tend to disturb the soil very little, we apply mulch when we can get it and use spades or our electric augur for the most part rather than heavy machinery.
I really enjoyed hearing the great Dr. Mark Johnston talk at the Society of Irish Foresters’ Annual lecture at the National Botanic Gardens during National Tree Week. I was very intrigued with his mention of issues around the need for fuller evaluation of the Miyawaki method of tree planting as I’ve enjoyed the great public engagement in this movement and had the pleasure of joining in the planting of one such project at my old Alma Mater, University College Dublin.
Why has this method been so very popular in Ireland? Well certainly the red tape around getting permissions and licenses to plant even a traditional garden-sized space seem to have put off all but the wealthiest or most persistent of landowners. So the word “Tiny” at least gives hope that some action – even one small step – can be taken without getting foresters’ reports and the typical wait of two years or so for a go-ahead to plant from the authorities.
Mark was kind enough to share this thought-provoking article from the current issue of the Arbocultural Association ‘s ARB magazine. We’ve certainly more than 100 such Tiny Forest projects in Ireland and I do applaud so much of what these groups are doing, promoting an interest and an enthusiasm around tree planting and involving local communities.
The article, by Jon Heuch and Peter Thurman is most thought provoking.
We ourselves at @EasyTreesie are planting at the traditional 1.5m spacing or so – so directed by Plant-for-the-Planet whose templates we use and the trees are springing up nicely. Could that comparison be correct; Approx €1.25m per hectare for Miyawake forest and 50 times less for our conventional-style planting at €23k or so per hectare? Tree Council of Ireland who advise us and our Tree Officers including at Fingal County Council , Dublin and Cork Cities will be most interested. There are over 100 of these type of tiny forests in Ireland now and rising; with €1.2 billion euro in EU funding for improving our national canopy in Ireland it’s important we spend it wisely. What do you think?
Easy Treesie 