Read my blogOrla Farrell is leading our school project; school children planting trees. She is hugely grateful for all the help everybody and very optimistic we will plant 2m trees by 2020. Easy treesy. Go on to our new website, easytreesie.com for the blog people!
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With dismay we note the death of eminent doctor and statistician, Hans Rosling. In an interview for BBC World Service's "The Documentary" he castigated the journalist for referring to "Developing nations...", asking her if we were not all developing; but of course. Oh dear, the sad thing is that my daughter mentioned this to me before - she has experience of working in Uganda, where she pointed out that in very many ways they were more "developed" than Western Society. When I visited that country I was certainly struck by the contentment of so many of its citizens that was so apparent, frankly not as visible in our more rushed part of the world. A lover of positive news, I am so glad that Hans Rosling's message of progress is consistently one of the top-broadcasts on TED; his almost 12m viewers will need to tap into his optimistic spirit as we hear this week of the catastrophic bleaching of the Barrier Reef. Repetition, repetition; It's Global South or Emergent Economies, we all need to develop. And to repeat, trees are our solution, who doesn't love them? Looking forward to developing lots of Irish Tree Trails now the new leaves are out and we can identify them easily!
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Here's to the continued success of our million tree project!
Here is the programme for the film launch for those who couldn't make it! Welcome to the launch by Minister for Education and Skills Richard Bruton T.D.’s of the “Irish Tree Trail”. We are honoured to have you here today in St. Laurence School to mark the beginning of National Tree Week. We are so grateful to all who have worked so hard and provided us with so much support and such valuable sponsorship in this and all of our related tree projects. Go raibh mile maith agaibh go léir. We hope you enjoy learning from Éanna as much as we did; the background to this series is that we planted a Tiny Forest in the Senior School 18 years ago; the trees are now taller than the school. We love it so much we kept going and are now on our fifth plantation – we have run out of space; in January we planted 300 trees in our local park with UN-sponsored Plant-for-the-Planet , with help from delegations of children from the UK, the US and five local schools in Ireland’s first Tree Academy. We wanted to help other children plant Native Trees but first we needed to know what they were. So now we can get on with the work; the challenge from the 9-year old Felix was to plant a million trees by 2020 to address climate change. Germany did it in 3 years and matched them in Mexico, we think we can too. We are also sponsoring equivalent plantations in the Global South. Here is a little poem to explain what we are doing. Mother Earth is Like a Dolly, by the Green Committee, St. Laurence School Orla had a dolly who was sick, sick, sick. So she called for the doctor to be quick, quick, quick. The doctor came with his bag and his hat And he knocked at the door with a rat-a-tat-tat. He looked at the dolly and he shook his head He said “Take that heavy blanket off the bed!” Wet a sponge for her hair because she’s ill, ill, ill “When she’s cool, she’ll get better, yes she will, will, will.” Mother Earth is like a dolly who is sick, sick, sick, So we called the Consultants to be quick, quick, quick. The Team took the temperature, they checked the chart. They said “Our opinion is; Be Quick - Act Smart!” The sea is rising and there’s melting ice. There’s drought and flooding and it’s just not nice! Smoke traps the sunshine and the dirty air Is ruining all the atmosphere, it’s just not fair! It’s hot under blankets that are made of Gas But Tree technology is just First Class! Do we want to live in deserts or a pool, pool , pool? Forestry’s the sponge to make us cool, cool. cool! “But we’re the Emerald Isle we said, as green as green can be! Sure Ireland is the greenest place on earth, you see. “ Good news for us and bad news; to sing a different tune, “Irlande; First at growing! But for Forests; Wooden Spoon! “ So we all got planting in our little school. We measured out some playground with a metre rule. We each dug a hole for a native tree. Soon there was a little home for birds and bees. They need homes as well as us, it’s nice to share. Mother Nature minds it all, it’s in her care. Some people aren’t that lucky but they love trees too. They’re short of food and things and money, it is true. We knew they’d plant a WildAREness if they had trees. So we sent them off some money and said “Join us please.” They planted lovely flowers, plants and trees growing fruit. Soon the rains will come and they will need swimsuits. So every school around the world, first plant one tree Then a little Forest Are for you and me. A thousand billion trees! We’ll keep the score, score, score! We love our WildAREness, so we want more, more, more Our film guide to the 28 native trees of Ireland will be available from today from The Tree Council of Ireland’s website, treecouncil.ie and our Green Schools’ Tree Project website, easyas12tree.com. We're really excited to have the Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, coming to our school next week to launch our film. What a TREEt; we have elderflower cordial and crab-apple jelly sandwiches for the children. Of course we will be planting a tree on the day!
A rhyme by first class. Not bad, eh? In the New Year we will be back doing our "2-minute Park Clean", inspired by new Baldoyle resident who Erik. When Erik came to live here from abroad years ago, he was shocked by the amount of litter underfoot near where he lived with his wife in town. Instead of despairing, he decided to pick just three bits of rubbish a day and then he felt he had at least done something. I thought it was such a great idea. So if you haven't 2 minutes, why not try even picking 3 things. Nothing disgusting, obviously, children. Those plastic gloves are a good idea, or you could have a plastic bag and use it as a glove. And then you can arrange the rubbish to make art if you have time and post it on twitter at #2minparkclean. I usually just wash my hands as soon as I get home. Why? Well we are busy planting woodland which will attract lots of wildlife. We are respecting their homes and they won't want to be looking out of their lovely branches at old plastic bags. Plus they may eat rubbish and poison themselves! Brent Geese in Seagrange Park, Baldoyle, site of our first Plant-for-the-Planet tree-planting party...
Well not quite true...The challenge for me is too great; to stop talking and start planting I just about managed on Saturday at the superb event organised by the wonderful Rebecca and the Native Woodland Trust but the company was great and women and multitasking ? easy treesy. Once I've figured it out I can talk and plant at the same time. It's great to chat to so many people who have been at this all their lives but at the same time meet many on their first-ever visit who are delighted to be volunteering. Not only was there secure parking...unfortunately this is a factor when taking to the hills...all the tools and equipment one could wish for but also large flasks filled with properly hot tea and Christmas buns and biscuits as well as Dolly Mixtures for the children. I joined two of the best-behaved young boys you could meet, aged 5 and 7 and their Dad in our carpool up the steep hill. The boys put it so well; they were making homes for animals that had none, because it is not just people who are homeless, insects and other creatures also need a place to live. We had a few hours of fresh air, great views and the truly spooky feeling of planting oak trees that may live a thousand years, grown from seed lovingly collected from our ancient native forests and grown in the Trust nurseries to be just right for planting at this great spot, secured (or almost so because it has been discovered they can jump the 2m fence, there must be a touch of magic about those Christmas deer in our Dublin mountains) or as good as can be managed against intruding foragers. Orla Farrell always had a dream of growing a gigantic forest since she heard in school when she was 6 that Ireland was the worst in Europe for tree cover. She was hoping that some day, she would win the lotto and then buy an enormous bit of land, a few counties maybe and plant it there. But as she never bought a lotto ticket, that has not happened yet. In the meantime, she has been planting tiny forests with the children in her school.
The first one they planted was in the year 2,000 and while it is tiny the trees are now higher than the roof of the school and it is a home for lots of wildlife. They liked it so much they decided to plant another one at the Junior school last year; everybody loves it much more than plain ordinary old grass, (except for the caretaker, Pat, who loves cutting grass on the ride-on mower; he is starting to like it though because we planted him a special tree). Our tiny forest in Baldoyle is filled with birds, insects and every sort of creature but best of all lots of native trees including wild apple! We call it a badly-spelled name because our forests are one ARE in size, that is ten by ten metres, which is the sort of minimum-apartment-size for wildlife. Well okay there is no actual minimum but this is a great size because it does not need too much watering or minding as it creates a micro-climate and hey, you won't drive your buggy over it by accident or indeed a lawnmower. Lots of people love our idea and are helping us. We are quite worn out going to prize givings, we are thinking of not accepting any more prizes because we are too busy planting to be gadding off all the time eating free lunches. We are helping other schools to do the same as us this year and next Winter we are holding our first Tree Academy in our school with Plant for the Planet. Learn more about our Tiny Forest project here. PS. One last thing; for every tree we plant in Ireland we sponsor another one in schools who can't afford the one euro per sapling in poorer countries. |
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