Don't forget your shovel on the 24th
People in Kilcullen are being asked to bring shovels, spades or even trowels to the planting of 2,000 native tree saplings scheduled for 24 February at the GAA grounds under development, writes Brian Byrne. The event was discussed at the recent February open meeting of Kilcullen Community Action, where Noel Clare said it should be a really good family day, adding that it will be an ideal event for children to be involved in.
The planting is a joint initiative of KCA and the GAA’s ‘Field of Dreams’ project, in association with the national 100 Million Trees Project, which aims to plant that number of native Irish trees across Ireland over the next ten years. Organised by brothers Richard and David Mulcahy, the project’s aim will be achieved through densely planting between 500 and 2,500 native Irish trees at a time across small areas of land using ‘the Miyawaki method’, which was explained at the meeting by KCA’s Derek Hoey. “The speed of their growth doesn’t allow for invasive species to take hold,” he noted of the system. “It’s great for biodiversity”
Named after Japanese botanist Professor Akira Miyawaki, the system of ‘overplanting’ trees has been successful in creating over 1,700 forests worldwide. Planting excess trees together means they grow 10 times faster, 30 times denser, and create an area 100 times more biodiverse than in normal planting.
Noel Clare said the areas on the GAA grounds for the planting had been selected, along the boundary between the new grounds with the Avondale estate. “The ground is bare, with fresh topsoil, so it will be easy to plant,” he added, hoping for a good turnout “if the weather on the day is anyway half decent.”
Responding to a query about how long it will take to plant 2,000 trees, Noel recalled that planting the 700 saplings for Kilcullen 700 in 2019 had taken just two hours because of the numbers from the community who had turned out. He suggested that a book be provided on the day to record the names of individuals and families who had helped, as was done for the Kilcullen 700 event.
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