Hometree
@hometree__
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To establish and conserve permanent native woodland, encouraging land regeneration and biodiversity through afforestation, restoration and education 🇮🇪
Clare, Ireland
Joined September 2020
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Pinned Tweet
We are really happy to introduce The Wild Atlantic Rainforest Project.
It's a scaling up of the work we already do; creating native woodland and working with farmer to support them doing the same.
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Bit of news
We have purchased our second site.
16 acres of improved agricultural land, between Lahinch and Ennistymon.
The plan is to create a woodland creation and information hub where landowners and the public can learn and see different afforestation approaches implemented
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Rockforest
Scots pine was believed to have gone extinct in Ireland.
Around 15 years ago a research project looking at pollen records in mud cores from a lake in the Burren discovered that this small populations had clung on through the ages.
#burrenpine
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Many will tell you trees won't grow in the uplands.
That's nonsense.
Just look at the island compared to the "mainland".
The only difference is sheep/deer/goats can't get to the island.
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🤘🤙👊✊
An ambitious plan to plant 4,000 acres of native forest on the west coast was launched today. The first stretch of land to be replanted as part of the Wild Atlantic Rainforest Project is 280 acres in the Maam Valley in Co Galway | Read more:
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Farmland reverts to woodland.
Nobody planted these trees or decided what spacing to put them at or mantained them as they grew.
Given enough time, they sort that stuff out for themselves.
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Deep summer in west of Ireland woodlands.
Something to look forward to!
Verdant and lush
Overhead, canopy gnarled by the wind.
Where in the world would you get it?
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Alexa, show me landscape scale native woodland restoration in an Irish context...
🧵
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Four out of Irelands five indigenous evergreen tree species seen growing on the limestone pavement of the Burren.
Holly, yew, juniper & scots pine.
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High rainfall in the west of Ireland coupled with the atlantics moderating impact on temperatures results in these lush temperate woodlands, just BURSTING with life.
Every stone, twig and branch is covered in mosses, liverworts and ferns.
We are so lucky to have these places!
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This was a sitka clearfell site in 2001.
Pond dug and walk away.
Nothing planted.
#naturalregeneration
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A letter and a cheque for €100 from an 84 year old man from Tipperary.
He talks of his gratitude of having seen the Amazon in his lifetime, and his recent interest in nature literature, including Wilding by Isobella Tree
Lads!
❤❤❤
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Mitch reckon there's about 50 kilos of acorns here, from a sessile oak down at the Falls Hotel woods.
A leafblower is the easist way to blow off the 'chaff'
We'll be growing 500k organic Irish provenance (certified) trees this season.
#hateleafblowers
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We are excited to say we have expanded our Illuan site by 11 acres.
We will be restoring wetlands, and creating new native woodlands here in the coming year.
The medium term plan is for Illaun to function as a mini nature reserve, accessible to the people of the locality.
❤
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High Nature Value Forestry?
We are transitioning this spruce forest from a single-age, single-species plantation to a diverse woodland with wetlands and open spaces.
We have added hundreds of tonnes of deadwood, created wildlife ponds, and reintroduced missing woodland flora.
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Thanks to
@RTECountryWide
for featuring the Rainforest Project this morning.
We have launched phase one using the charities own resources. To realise the projects full potential we will need the support of government, business and the Irish public.
Reach out!
hello
@hometree
.ie
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Big moment.
The first thinning of our sitka spruce to semi-natural woodland conversion project has started.
The first step is to fell one in every six rows of conifers.
We will also free up any native trees we come across, by thining the spruce around them
@ManusCrowley
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There is a major shortage of native provenance saplings in Ireland, resulting in a flood of European stock being imported.
Thos makes no sense, ecologically or economically.
We're on the case....
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1996
Sitting around a table one evening in the Galway suburb of Tirellan/Ballinfoyle, a group of friends hatched a plan - a linear urban forest, for the benifit of people and nature alike.
Here it is today, all 120 acres of it.
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We don't tend to do lush green forest touching white sand beaches and open ocean....but when we do!
Old head woods, County Mayo.
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Woodlands of ash, rowan, holly and hazel return to the northern slopes of Gleninagh mountain in North Clare
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Do you have an old woodland that needs protection?
Are you considering creating a new native woodland?
We have a fund to support landowners on the west coast of Ireland.
Contact ray
@hometree
.ie for details
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Willow and Scots pine "alleys" set at ten metre spacings.
We'll crop native saplings between these permanent tree features. Lots of benifits, but around here the main one is SHELTER!
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Habitat restoration can be rapid (and thrilling).
Pictures 1 & 2 from 2016
Pictures 3 & 4 from today
This project aims for a combination of open space, wooded pockets, and restored wetlands.
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Trees will grow by the sea!
Two small woods right at the beach in County Clare. Although treeless today the next village to the south is Quilty/Coillte...which speaks for itself
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Notices went up yesterday for ten Native Woodland Scheme applications on farms adjacent to our site at Illaun, Co Clare.
These forestry premiums will inject almost a million euro into the local economy in the years to come.
#EIP
Participant Noel Curtin here with
@boucherhayes
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High rainfall + moderate temperatures = South Kerry rainforest
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We started off as a tree planting charity. Tree planting is an amazingly inclusive and fulfilling activity...but its not always the right solution.
Now, guided by professional ecologists, we aim to restore sites to their optimum ecological function, whatever form that takes.
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An old birch woods comes into leaf high in the mountains of the west of Ireland.
The site is grazed year round, preventing any tree regeneration.
Without intervention it will soon dissappear.
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Dilemma - a patch of wet grassland in the west of Ireland. It has marsh orchids, ragged robin and wild mint.
All around it hazel & willow scrub encroaches. This will eventually become a rich oceanic woodland habitat in its own right.
Leave it alone, or manage?
#norightanswer
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"Rewilding" is a provocative term.
For some it's intoxicatingly positive. For others its very challenging, even upsetting.
Either way, allowing nature dictate the course of *some* land is a good thing, with beautiful & unpredictable results.
We should find a place for it.
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A few years back there was just a handful of scraggly birch & oak clinging onto this hillside.
Step one to protecting our old woodlands - take control of the grazing situation.
It's pretty straightforward!
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Our first site is Galway. A full ecological assessment by
@NimbosaEcology
will begin in December. This will be the first step on each and every site.
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On Saturday Jeremy planted a sapling from the mighty Brian Boru oak.
It was planted in memory of his friend, and champion of Irelands native woodlands, Andrew St Ledger.
Long may it keep watch over the Inagh as it flows into Liscannor bay.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.
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We have half a million seeds going into beds here in the coming days.
Another few thousand trees growing on from last year - all native with known provenance.
We will be in a good position to supply many of our own trees next year, and maybe all the year after that😀
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Game on!
3000 native trees going in at Peadar Clearys farm today.
We will plant a diverse hedgerow, and a beautiful riparian woodland of alder, willow and sessile oak
Farm-forest EIP
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High rainfall in the west of Ireland allow mosses to thrive. Trees give them a place to do.
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Farmers/landowners!
Are you living in north or west Clare and have space to plant native trees?
We have 10,000 saplings to give away. Collection days are this Friday and Saturday (4th & 5th Feb) at Hometree, Ennistymon
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We took ownership of one of our first sites last week.
It may strike some as an unusual one.
17 acres of neglected sitka spruce /ash
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Same day
Same parish
Same woodland type
Different management-cattle with limited access v sheep with permanent access.
Both are long established, or even ancient sessile oak woodlands, a priority habitat under EU law.
Unfortunately most examples nationally resemble picture 2.
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An aerial photo alongside a Lidar image of the same west Clare glen. Lidar can shoot lasers through the canopy to define the underlying topography.
So many of our remaining native woods owe their existence to inaccessible ground, too difficult to cultivate.
#FarmForestEIP
.
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The project will be mostly based on natural regeneration, with some planting, where appropriate.
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Planting trees isn't always the answer.
In so many instances, protecting existing woodlands or fencing off areas for natural regeneration to occur can be just as important.
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Irish whitebeam (Sorbus hibernica) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) in our tree nursery.
A study in 2010 suggested there may be as few as 250 wild whitebeam in Ireland
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To more places like this here in Ireland!
Ireland has less than two percent of its native woodlands remaining.
We hope to work with local communities and experts in woodlands and ecology to turn the tides on this decline.
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Illaun, West Clare
We're converting this abandoned spruce woodlands to a seminatureal woodland & nature reserve.
We have recently acquired a greenfield site next door, allowing us to expand the project to roughly thirty acres.
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We are thrilled to have been awarded €250,000 from
@CreativeIreland
for Dinnseanchas.
We hope this project will give voice to the communities of Irelands western uplands, as well as to the land itself.
This will be a sister project to the the Wild Atlantic Rainforest Project
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Beautiful piece of ancient woodland on an island off the coast of Mayo.
It would be very difficult for a landowner on the west coast to get support to recreate such a woodland.
Sometimes for good reason ie protection of ground nesting birds, but often the reasons are spurious.
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There is a threshold you cross heading up into the mountains in the west where the ecosystem shifts into a new gear altogether.
St Patrick's Cabbage grows in the ditches and filmy ferns and mosses form thick matts over trees and boulders.
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How are Ireland's upland trees doing?
A🧵about trees in our mountains...
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If you missed us on Ear to the Ground a few weeks back, here are some snippets from the episode.
Thanks so much to
@ellamcsweeney
@Richardstearn
and the team for coming down and covering our work.
#ettg
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Some beds and tunnels at our organic tree nursery.
We'll be expanding nursery operations significantly in 2024 using seeds collected on the west coast of Ireland in recent months.
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The Gearagh, near Macroom in County Cork
Up to sixty percent of this ancient alluvial woodland was lost (1957) through flooding relating to the Inniscarra hydropower dam.
However the woods have also seen significant expansion since the famine due to local depopulation.
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Hi all
We've been thrilled with the response to the project so far.
If you would like more information, or meet the Hometree team, do come along to Buswells Hotel next Thursday between 3-5pm
@pippa_hackett
@MichealMartinTD
@MHealyRae
@IFAmedia
@noonan_malcolm
@LeoVaradkar
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We recently launched the Wild Atlantic Rainforest Project.
Despite their high profile of late, it may not be clear to everyone what exactly these places are.
One of the Rainforest Project advisers
@roryhodd
wrote an essay on the topic last year.
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All the recent rain is leaching something (tannins?) out of these alder cones.
They're like colourful fairy lights!
Happy new year to all and thanks for your support❤
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Epic crew in Connemara today. So much work done.
A lady in a shop a few miles away asked one of them "are ye up with the Jehovah's Witnesses down at Cnocán Bán?"
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Handsome sparrowhawk at our Ennistymon site.
Restoring nature is often seen as an obligation, or a burden when really its an opportunity for us to experience great joy, and sublime beauty.
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Auld scrub😉
Hop over any wall on the road between Corofin and Gort and ya might find yourself here.
The Burren has some of the biggest and most freeranging hazelwoods in Ireland.
Aren't they beautiful!
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The most precarious and perfect colony of the rare Killarney Fern in a deep, dark, and wet gorge in west Clare.
What a pleasure to see it!
Many thanks to the prolific fern-finder
@CathainDonncha
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Some old Scots pine and a mountain gone wild.
Kells Bay, Iveragh
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It's safe to say most fields in Ireland have been under agriculture, rather than woodland for thousands of years.
That means woodland specialist plants have dissapeared.
We're bringing them back using soil plugs from ancient woodlands.
Its very exciting to see them thrive!
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There will be little if any trees planted at this site in Sligo, but lots of scope in the broader catchment of the Easkey river.
The focus at the site itself will be allowing the woodland naturally expand, and restoring the extensive peatlands
Charity plans to encourage farmers to plant native trees on 90 acre County Sligo site
#Sligo
@hometree__
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Great to finally be able to bring groups out to our site in Cnocán Bán.
Over the whole site (280 acres) there are just 10 wild trees. We collected willow cuttings & mulched them with sheep's wool.
If your organisation is interested in learning more -
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Planted five years ago, this 10 metre wide strip of native trees is already doing the business for nature!
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If we had this level of support from larger businesses, our job would be done!
For
@GoodDayDeli
's 5th birthday, we've donated €5k to
@hometree__
’s Wild Atlantic Rainforest Project, adopting 1 acre of land. Hometree have an ambitious aim to restore 4000 acres of temperate rainforest in the west of Ireland + we're delighted to be part of it 🌳🌲🌿
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A little strip of native woodland near Miltown Malbay. Oak coming into leaf. Hazel yet to bud
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Remnant stumps from the alluvial oak forest at the Gearagh. This part of the ancient woodland was felled in the 1950s to make way for a hydroelectric scheme.
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New wetland at Illuan
Between 1990 and 2006 Ireland lost 10% of its wetlands, down from 18% of the country to 16%
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30,000 native trees heading for Farm-Forest EIP landowners in the coming weeks.
Hometree ecologist Meadhbh Costigan thinking about shelterbelt design.
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Great to see Carrifran Wild Wood
Whilst there is clearly a major role for natural colonisation of woodlands, it's limitations must also be acknowledged.
Carrifran is a great example of how thoughtful tree planting (alongside regen) can deliver diverse native woodlands at scale.
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Research trip to Scotland off to a great at Coille Phuiteachain in the Highlands
Scotland is very different to Ireland, particularly in relation to rural population and land-use dynamics.
The habitats though are very similar. Will keep this 🧵running over coming days.
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Giant tree ferns, originally from Australasia lend this south Kerry wood an exotic feel, but this coastal forest is in trouble....
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"Trees won't grow there, the soil isn't good enougn"
Hazel growing out of bare limestone
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Last year we enriched the flora at Illaun with plugs from an ancient woodland.
Before the spruce was planted here the site was likely under grass for thousands of years, so woodland specialists like wood anemone or bluebell wouldn't have hung on.
They're back now!
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We listened to a great podcast by
@RickyWhelan
& John Lusby over the weekend where they discussed the nesting habits of our smallest raptor, the merlin.
It turns out wooded islands in the west of Ireland are a real hotspot!
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Ivy seeds - critical late winter food.
Many see ivy as harmful to trees. This isn't the case. It may make an already weakened tree vulnerable to wind damage, but otherwise, its harmless.
Let it be!
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Shallee castle in the parish of Kilnamona, County Clare.
The land around it has reverted to a natural hazel/ash woodland since the second picture was taken in 1948
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Big beast
Root plate of a large oak.
In a healthy woods, this isn't a problem. Quite the opposite, it's death will kicksart a riot of insect and fungal life.
In time it will be naturally replaced.
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If we get to work now, our grandchildren can enjoy more places like this.
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15 year old naturally regenerated birch on the edge of an ancient woodland.
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Big changes at this once abandoned spruce plantation.
First thinning underway.
Light hitting the forest floor for the first time in twenty years! Will be fascinating to observe the resultant changes this summer.
#Illaun
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Illuan Continuous Cover demo site update.
The aim of this site it to show the multifunctional potential of conifer forestry.
Thinning complete✅
Bird & bat boxes installed throughout✅
Native underplanting of holly & hazel✅
Ring barking to create standing deadwood✅
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Most of our funding to date has come from grassroots supporters. The scale of this project will require new networks and relationships.
We are looking to businesses, philanthropic organisations, and government departments to consider becoming strategic partners.
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We're not all about trees!
We have a hay meadow at our ennistymon site which we are in the process of restoring.
For now, that will involve stripping nutrients through baling and removal of grass.
Green hay from nearby species-rich site to be added to diversify the seedbank.
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A nature reserve in every townland.
Now wouldn't that be sweet!
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Two river banks, directly opposite each other.
One is providing habitat, filtering out damaging nutrients and sediments water and preventing erosion.
The other, badly damaged by cattle access, is doing the exact opposite.
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This section of woodland was cleared around twenty years ago.
Unsurprisingly, pioneering rowans were the first to move in. They are tall and laden with fruit now.
Tiny oaks tree grow at their feet, biding their time.
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We're really proud of the small-scale tree features delivered through Illaun FarmForest.
This 400metre strip of thorns, oak & Scots pine is on an exposed coastal suckler farm in Clare
It will provide connectivity between existing woodlands, shelter for cattle &wildlife habitat
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A single gnarled crab apple tree on the edge of a wet woodland at Drumcullaun, Co Clare.
Once assessed, these apples will be processed, and the seeds grown on in our tree nursery.
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Inspired to go find some local scots pines after listening to a great podcast about Scotlands ambitious nature restoration projects with
@collbradan
&
@treesforlifeuk
It would be a dream of ours to see some wild upland pine forests reestablished in Éire
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