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10/03/2006

Archived item. This item is published here for historical reasons. The information below may be out of date.

National Tree Week will take place from 5-11 March this year. Tree Week is sponsored by Coillte and O2.
The aim of National Tree Week is to raise awareness about trees and encourage local communities and local authorities to participate in over 300 events which will take place around the country during the week. Events include forest walks, tree planting ceremonies, workshops, talks, competitions and even tree plantathons! An events guide is available from our sponsors O2 and Coillte. You may pick up a copy at any Coillte office or O2 outlet around the country. (Click here to download word document of events). The events are free and everyone is welcome to attend.
This year 15,000 trees sponsored by Coillte will be distributed to community groups all over the country by the local authorities all over Ireland – contact your local authority for a supply of trees.
Every year a poster competition is held, among the third level art colleges, based on the theme for the year. This year’s winner is Stephen Mc Carthy who is a 4th year student at the Dublin Institute of Technology, Mountjoy Square. Prizes for the competition will be presented on Wednesday 1 March at ENFO, St Andrew’s Street by Eanna Ni Lamhna
National Tree Week is now in its 22nd year. With the theme ‘Trees - our lifeline’ we hope to highlight the importance of trees in our everyday life. By doing something as simple as planting a tree, everyone can play his or her part in helping the environment. By thinking locally, we can act globally!
Trees are recognised as one of the most essential parts of our environment for the role they play in cleaning air, preventing the build-up of greenhouse gases, providing renewable energy and materials for building, furniture and all the wooden items that form part of our everyday life, including the paper we read. Trees also play an essential role in providing habitats for thousands of plants and animals and stabilising soil. They are a major contributor to our economy - the forestry industry is now worth over €450m and provides jobs for over 10,000 people, mainly in rural Ireland.
Despite the great advances in the afforestation programme in the past 100 years Ireland remains one of the least wooded countries in Europe with only 10% of our land planted with trees compared to the European average of 36%. Ireland has agreed a target to increase our forest cover to 17% by 2035. This initiative will provide thousands of new jobs, build our forestry industry and help improve our environment.
Trees are an essential part of our environment and we ask everyone to either take part in a local event or even take five minutes to think about the important role trees play in all of our lives. Trees play a pivotal role in holding soil together and they prevent water run-off, thereby reducing soil erosion. This is particularly important in developing countries. Tree removal can cause severe erosion and there are many examples of this throughout the world. The increasing area of deserts has been attributed to tree clearances. Trees beautify our cities and generally the more leafy suburbs of cities are more expensive. They beautify our gardens also and help in screening views, and they filter noise and pollutants.
The Tree Council of Ireland is a voluntary organisation formed to promote the planting, care and conservation of trees. It represents almost 50 professional, voluntary and public service bodies that share a common interest in trees.