How Many Trees Are There in Ireland?
Written by Liz on Mar 05, 2020 | 0 Comments
Many visitors and those living in Ireland, remark their love for the beauty of our natural landscapes. My Irish Jeweler is proud to support reforestation initiatives to “Keep Ireland Green”.
Why Doesn’t Ireland have Many Trees?
Despite our reputation as “forty shades of Green” Ireland has only 11% of forest. Scientists estimate that there are nearly 3 trillion trees on Earth but that 15 billion are cut down annually by humans. For emphasis, a “trillion” has twelve zeros!
In Europe, Ireland has the least amount of forest. This deforestation can be traced back to the Ice Age, but also accelerated by modern humans! In addition to the obvious benefits of trees, the native animals and flora of Ireland need more trees to thrive.
How Many Trees are Planted in Ireland Each Year?
In 2019 the Irish government launched a Climate Action Plan. One goal of the plan is to plant 22 million trees a year in Ireland. This is done through land owners partnering with organisations to coordinate reforestation efforts. Studies indicate that the effects of planting saplings can significantly help the environment.
What is My Irish Jeweler Doing to Help?
As a result of our partnership with Trees on the Land, over five thousand native Irish trees will be planted across Ireland in 2020. We began the partnership in July of 2019 with a goal of fundraising 5,000 trees for February 2020. We’re happy to announce that thanks to the support of our customers we were able to reach that!
Trees on the Land is an organisation which works with farmers, smallholders, community groups, councils, schools and landowners as a cross-border initiative which covers the 32 counties of the Republic and Northern Ireland. 75% of the trees which have been sponsored by the generosity of our customers will be planted in the Republic of Ireland, and 20% will be planted in Northern Ireland.
In February of 2020 the My Irish Jeweler team visited Ardeo Sport Horses in County Wicklow. Over the following weeks, 500 saplings were planted across Ardeo. The trees will help to increase shelter and shade as well as soil protection and habitat for local flora and fauna.
To see us in action, check out this short video about our day at Ardeo:
It was a happy day out for the team.
All of the trees which Trees on the Land organised for the planting are native, Irish trees. On the day we visited Ardeo we were warmly welcomed before getting stuck in to our task at hand—planting the saplings!
It was a “typical Irish day” but a few showers couldn’t dampen our spirits! Here’s Ciaran Vipond “happy out” as they say, showing what the tree saplings looked like before they found new homes in our well dug trenches!
We look forward to continuing the partnership and the project, bringing more trees back to Ireland. In the coming years we’ll keep in touch with Ardeo to visit the trees planted to see how they thrive. Thank you to our wonderful customers for supporting the initiative and sharing in our enthusiasm!
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Liz
My Irish Jeweler
I was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thanks to my Irish born father I was lucky enough to regularly visit Ireland -- and receive visitors from Ireland often, to my childhood home. This blending of cultures triggered my interest in Irish art and culture. My love for jewelry was nurtured by my American mom who is an artisan jeweler and dealer. I grew up loving Ireland and jewelry!
Now I happily reside in Dublin, having read Irish Literature and History at Trinity College Dublin. Having a passion for Irish literature, I am particularly interested in the work of poet W.B. Yeats. With the Celtic Revival in the 20th century, Yeats and his contemporaries did much for Irish arts and history. Many of our beautiful pieces at My Irish Jeweler are inspired by the myths and legends, as well as artwork, which gained permanence in Irish heritage as a result of the Celtic Revival.
I look forward to sharing the history and stories which influence the inspiration for our pieces with the My Irish Jeweler readers.
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