Planting a tree or hedgefor every person in Trim

A community project in Trim that aims to plant over 10,000 native trees and hedging in the Trim area for every member of the population over the next ten years will leave "a legacy of positive biodiversity and climate action that will span many decades."

Originally inspired by the ForestaMi project of Milan, “the Elder Project” is an ambitious Trim Tidy Towns led project that aims for the local community to do its part for climate change.

Trim Tidy Towns is working with residents’ associations, community groups and landowners to identify sites for the planting of a new population of living things. The group will predominantly use native species of local provenance. However, if near native species that are beneficial for pollinators are suitable and appropriate, these will be considered.

Meath County Council's latest podcast "Local Lens" reported on the project and told how the group has already planted around 4000 in more than 20 locations.

Trim Tidy Towns volunteer Thomas Tomas Novak is central to the project and speaking from Granville Court one of the areas used in the initiative explained how it works:

" The aim of the project is to plant one tree per resident, so around 10,000 plus trees," he said.

"It was inspired by the project in Milan where they want to plant the same but they have much bigger scale of trees," added Thomas.

"We want to improve the biodiversity in the town, making the corridors for wildlife and so on."

Speaking about his role, the Tidy Town's volunteer said:

"My role basically involving planting the trees and deciding what kind of trees are planted and surveying the sites, which we usually get from the residents.

"It's a residential estate, and this what we planted, is called Pocket forest. So it's a very small area which is densely planted by trees and shrubs. And it's very biodiverse rich, usually around eight to ten species. And it consists of large trees, a medium trees, and kind of shrubary underneath.

"And it's always species that provide flowers for pollinators in the spring, berries in the in the winter. So it's a very biodiverse, rich habitat in a very small space."

Thomas believes that this initiative gives the community an opportunity to make a difference to combat the the biodiversity crisis in Ireland.

"It's important because there is lots of anxiety about climate change and it's one of those things that people can do as well as connecting to nature. And it's very easy it's not like you don't need large spaces for that.

"You can fit them in a selective small spaces. And if they're planted properly, with two good species they can be those micro habitats connecting corridors for wildlife.

"It's nice to have something happening on your doorstep that you can be part of. There are always some residents involved in the planting as well, so they can see the trees growing over the years and say that I planted those trees."