New 'Tiny Forest' planted in Naas

A NEW ‘Tiny Forest’ was planted in Monread Park, Naas last Thursday (9 January) in conjunction with Kildare County Council, Irish Dog Foods and local group Naas Biodiversity Group in partnership with environmental charity Earthwatch Europe.

Group representatives joined by members of the community got their hands dirty planting native Irish trees, which will bring the benefits of woodlands into urban spaces, and help to reduce the impacts of climate change while providing essential habitats for wildlife. Joining them throughout the day were community members and a large group of TY students from Naas Community College.

Each Tiny Forest consists of native trees, densely planted in an area the size of a tennis court. These micro-forests not only enhance biodiversity but also provide communities with accessible green spaces.

Director of fundraising and communications of Earthwatch Europe Neil Bailey said: “We have a Tiny Forest programme and have planted 200 of these across the UK and Ireland. It’s a great way of connecting people in nature and it’s a great way to do something locally for the environment.

“We are also a Citizen Science organisation, so we monitor them (the trees). 100 of the 600 are tagged, and will be monitored by the community to see how well the trees grow and what biodiversity gets attracted.

“There's two sides to this; there’s the seed you plant in people’s heads is as important as what goes in the ground. There will be a lot of the community members coming along and it’s kind of what they take away. They will get a greater appreciation of how important trees are."

A number of volunteers from Irish Dog Foods and Naas Biodiversity group worked hard in high spirits, filling the soil with saplings from 9am to 4pm on the day.

Joining them was Fran Dunne, head of sustainability at Irish Dog Foods. Speaking about Irish Dog Food’s involvement with the project, he said: 

“We were looking for a project where we could bring environmental into helping the community as well, so came across this and thought it was a great way of combining the two things.

“What we like about this project is that we can get people involved in it, and I’m a great believer that small changes accumulate into big improvements."

Speaking to Liz Denieffe and Nathan Flaherty from Naas Biodiversity Group about the project, they said: “It’s a really nice initiative, the fact that there’s so many people in the community planting it. The idea of this would be that it will be monitored going forward, so it’s not just a once-off event.

“What’s really great about this scheme is that the monitoring set up is different. They (Earthwatch) should be able to give us really good measures on the carbon capture of this forest. It should help with flood mitigation, all kinds of good stuff like that, things that we wouldn’t necessarily have the skills to measure. 

“Our understanding is that the community can continue to be involved in that. Some of us, both from our group and Irish Dog Foods will form a team to keep an eye on the forest as it develops”.