Articles

Spending a long time alone in a Canadian forest helped Patrick McCusker understand it Some years ago, I worked as a naturalist in Ontario, Canada. One of the tasks I was asked to provide was to undertake a survey of plants and animals in a particular woodland. The purpose of this survey was that Ontario Parks needed a clearer understanding of the potential of the entire area for development into a provincial park. I collected together mist-nets, small-animal traps; butterfly …

By Sean McGinnisTthe Giants Grove project is a partnership between Crann – Trees for Ireland, and Birr Castle Estate. On the surface it’s basically an eight hectare (20 acre) green-field afforestation project in the heart of Ireland that was launched by President Higgins in 2017, who also planted it’s first tree. But the Giants Grove is so much more than just your average forest, it’s a lot more special than you might think. The Trees The Giants Grove is a …

Joe Barry sees that little changes to land use can help accommodate the return of wildlife One autumn afternoon, I heard one of our terriers barking in a very agitated manner. Hurrying to see what was wrong, I found the cause of her alarm was a hedgehog with five babies, about the size of my fist, all curled up tightly in defensive balls. They were in a small shelter belt close to the farmyard and not having seen a hedgehog …