CountryWide

Forest schools

Regan Hutchens visits a forest school Easter Camp near Donadea forest in Kildare to meet Forest School Leader Lucy Bell of Growing Wild, and an enthusiastic team of forest scholars.

Sitka Book Row

A book promoting the Sitka Spruce tree caused some controversy this week after it was distributed to primary schools. Philip visits St Patrick’s National School Curtlestown, which is surrounded by both commercial and native woodland high up in the Wicklow Hills, to see how the book was received by teachers there.

Boyne Rivers Trust

Philip visits members of the Boyne Rivers Trust who are planting trees on their river banks to provide shade and help keep temperatures down, thus protecting the fish inside. Featuring Muireann Kerrane, Rosaleen Finnegan Gibbons and zoologist Sarah Austin.

Gary Patterson – Agroforestry

Treasa Bhreathnach visits the farm of Gary Patterson in Granlahan in County Roscommon, where he has introduced trees into a little over half of the pasture, for animal health, soil health and farmer health.

Forest songs

Della Kilroy meets artists from a project called ‘Forest Songs’ — a collection of three love songs to the Dublin forests, written in collaboration with composer Tom Lane. The project creators are Cracking Light Productions, and the singer is Maeve Stone