School pupils see Slane forest amenity re-opened

The Earl of Mount Charles was joined by members of the public and a class of children from St Patrick's National School to re-launch Coillte's Littlewood Forest outside Slane last week. The woodland amenity was relaunched following the introduction of new biodiversity signage funded by the Department of the Environment. The signage was developed as part of a partnership programme between Coillte, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Meath Tourism. The work of the local CSS community group in maintaining the area was acknowledged by the speakers on the day.The ribbon-cutting was followed by an informative biodiversity walk led by Maurice Eakin from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, as he created an exciting outdoor learning experience for pupils and adults alike. Following the walk, participants were given saplings by Coillte to mark National Tree Week 2010, the theme of which is 'Twenty Ten - Plant Again'. The new signage will provide walkers with information about the biodiversity present in the forest as they make their way around the trail. Coillte welcomes the public to make use of this amenity, which is located one mile from Slane on the N2 Collon Road. Coillte is a commercial company operating in forestry, land based businesses, renewable energy and panel products. It employs approximately 1,100 people and owns over 445,000 hectares of land, about seven per cent of the land cover in Ireland.