Our Most Ambitious Simultaneous Celebration Yet!
The Northern Ireland Tree Campaign is a biodiversity campaign celebrating our trees, our natural heritage and our people. In order to meet this end, the Campaign works throughout the year delivering workshops, activities and events across Northern Ireland.
The Tree Council has designated the second Sunday in October each year as “Seed Gathering Sunday”, a time to collect seeds to grow the new trees of the future. This year, Sunday 9th October 2005, seed gathering walks were organised by the Campaign right across Northern Ireland. We had activities going on simultaneously in Moutsandel and Somerset Woods (Coleraine), Larne Borough Council’s Carnfunnock Country Park (Larne) and Crawfordsburn Country Park (North Down), a site managed by the Environment and Heritage Service.
One day in the year was just not enough! The Northern Ireland Tree Campaign also held events on the previous Friday in Gransha Woodland, L/Derry and on the following Wednesday in Omagh.
Seed Gathering Sunday itself was very cold and blustery, but, thanks to support from the local papers in the walk areas and Your Place and Mine (BBC Radio Ulster) advertising the events, the walks were well attended with many people wrapped up in their warm coats, gloves and scarves.
Staff and volunteers from Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland were on hand to enthuse the walks’ participants, stopping occasionally to explain a little of the cultural history of our native trees or the best method to use in trying to germinate the seed to grow Northern Ireland’s future trees.
Don’t fret if you missed this year’s Seed Gathering Sunday events, the team of volunteers and staff from the Northern Ireland Tree Campaign are busy organising a host of events throughout next year with dates already pencilled in for the autumn of 2006!