SOME 500 native trees, including ash, oak, alder and holly, were planted by a group of volunteers in a two-century-old bluebell woodland in Galway this week.
Conservation Volunteers Ireland said it was “delighted” with the number of participants who turned up for the planting, and who assisted with fencing, hedge-laying and removal of invasive species.
Among the 30 to 40 volunteers who spent a number of hours in the city’s “green lung” were students and working professionals including a vet, several teachers and information technology experts.
Conservation Volunteers Ireland hosted the event to mark the initiation of its first Galway branch, working in partnership with Stephen Walsh of Galway City Council’s parks department.
Barna Woods is a mixed-broadleaf woodland owned by the local authority. It was formerly part of Barna demesne. The woods are claimed to have the last naturally growing oaks in the west, and appear on an Ordnance Survey map of the 1830s.
Non-native species such as sycamore and beech also proliferate, and the woodland’s archaeology includes a Mass rock and holy well, with undocumented reports of shell middens and a fulacht fiadh or Bronze Age cooking site.
The woods are open to the public and are managed as part of the Galway Bay complex special area of conservation, which protects a diverse range of marine, coastal and terrestrial habitats.
Apart from planting, the volunteers used willow to fence around young trees, under the tutelage of local arborist Rob Steed.
Dr Amanda Browne, chief author of the Barna Woods biodiversity action plan, said it was important to plant and protect young trees to keep the woodland alive and allow it to regenerate.
Conservation Volunteers Galway chairwoman Caitríona Cunningham of An Taisce said the group would meet once a month to undertake practical projects aimed at protecting and developing Galway’s green spaces.
Participation would be open to adult volunteers of all ages and all walks of life, with or without experience. Similar groups are also being set up to work with local authorities in Clare and Limerick, she said.
More information is available at conservationvolunteers.ie