“I would hope that my new Council colleagues would back a plan to hand out 10,000 native Irish trees free of charge to local groups and individuals who would then plant and care for the trees,” Cllr Codd said. “It’s critical that these are native plants such as Ash, Willow, Alder and Birch, as oppose to the quick grow conifers favoured by the commercial forestry industry. Only 2% of the state is currently covered with native trees.”
“The government's national strategic plan for forestry in Ireland is to expand from 11% to 18% of land area by 2046. According to EU targets, Ireland must reach a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 30% from 2005 figures by 2030. To do this, we will have to plant a minimum of 15,000 hectares per annum.”
“Most of this will be achieved by Coilltes commercial forestry and grants offers to farmers, but this will not be enough and will feature very little inclusion of native species which are more time consuming to grow. The answer is for the County Council to reach out to concerned individuals, especially those in rural Wexford who on average will live on half acre sites, and offer them these plants for free as well as guidance to grow them properly. Community and Tidy Towns groups already avail of an annual planting grant. This should now be altered to a strictly native tree planting grant.”
“This year Wexford County Council and Gorey Tidy Towns are teaming up with locals in a bid to plant 400 native trees for the Gorey 400 celebrations. This is proof of what can be achieved. I believe that there would be great take up from community groups, sports clubs and schools if our native tree project was rolled out countywide. 10,000 trees in five years might sound like a lot, but it’s very little when we realise the threat of fines we are facing from the EU if we don’t take action.”
No comments:
Post a Comment