The Swords Woodland Association event for National Tree Week 2019 took place in The Atrium of Fingal County Council Offices in Swords on Tuesday 2nd of April.
The event was opened by the chairman of Swords Woodland Association, Gerry White.
Our best known local archivist Ms. Bernadette Marks recounted how trees and parks have featured in Swords over the last decades.
Filip Jastrzebski from The Afforestation Project explained some social media tools being developed for community tree planting projects. The Afforestation Project aim to plant a large number in Ireland by 2021 in an attempt to inspire the world to carry out a massive tree plantation project to mitigate climate change. For more information visit the Facebook page.
Ciaran Burke and a number of students from St. Finians Community College gave a presentation on how they have developed a Horticulture Curriculum in their school and how they are also very excited about the prospect, in the next twelve months, of getting funding to setup they’re very own Polytunnel.
The school also received a Biodiversity Certificate from Gerry White to recognise the achievement of the teachers and pupils in completing the ‘Grow a Native Locally’ Project.
The ‘Grow a Native Tree Locally’ Initiative is supported by Fingal County Council and The Dublin Airport Authority Community Fund.
Orla Farrell from Easy Treesie – Plant for the Planet gave us a very interesting presentation. Easy Treesie want to help every schoolchild plant a tree to combat climate change. They organise tree planting days for children. They aim to plant a million trees by December 2023. EasyTreesie.com
Dominca McKevitt, Head Gardener at Ardgillan Castle and Demesne was there and very generously brought almost 100 trees with her and we held the inaugural Free Tree Day in Swords sponsored by Final County Council. A large number of these trees were provided to St. Finians Community College.