Published in the WOW! supplement of the Evening Echo 12/09/2007
Original title: If you go down to the woods today….
The phone rang on Sunday afternoon.
As is her habit at present, the four-year-old ran and answered it before anyone else could get there, and promptly started chatting away. Whoever was on the other end got to hear all about that morning’s activities in one endless sentence. It was riveting stuff.
With her lungs finally empty the little one stopped to draw breath, and I stepped in to intercept before she could resume her tirade. On the other end of the line I could hear someone chuckling.
It was friends of ours. They were heading out to an open day at the Manch Estate – the Irish Natural Forestry Foundation’s (INFF) project to demonstrate sustainable forestry in action – and were ringing to invite us along.
I quickly weighed up my options. With a lot of work on at the moment I had planned to spend the afternoon in the home-office catching up with a few things. Never one to miss an opportunity to put off work, I jumped at the chance to spend some time out in the fresh air.
Manch is a 137 hectare estate about 40 miles west of Cork, just beyond the village of Ballineen on the main Bandon to Dunmanway road. On the first Sunday of every month from March to November the Manch project opens its gates to the general public. There’s a guided walk at 2pm, taking in a different part of the estate each month, and educational activities for children throughout the day.
As we drove the brooding skies that had been threatening rain all morning started to break up. We pulled into the car park at Manch just as the sun broke through. It was glorious weather for a walk in the woods.
By the time we arrived we’d missed the guided walk – but went off for our own ramble through the woods instead. The kids were in their element running along the criss-crossing woodland tracks, stopping now and again to look at a toadstool, a spider, a beetle or a butterfly.
One of the first things you notice when you step into a mixed broadleaf woodland like this is how alive it all is. It’s a stark contrast with the dark, oppressive, lifeless sensation you experience when you step under the sterile canopy of a Sitka spruce plantation – the mainstay of Irish forestry.
Here, where dappled shadows danced beneath the trees, there was an abundance of life. From the dragonflies wheeling in spectacular fashion around the woodland margins, to the myriad species of fungi clustered in the deeper shadow, and the chorus of birdsong from the lush green canopy overhead: this was a thriving woodland ecosystem. More to the point it demonstrated what can be achieved when man chooses to work in harmony with nature, rather than striving against her. Everybody (and everything) wins.
When we arrived back at the visitor and education centre we browsed through the information on sustainable sylviculture, while the kids enjoyed colouring leaves, making woodland wildlife masks and other activities with the project’s education officer. Watching the children playing under the trees, seeing them connect with nature and engaging in woodland related activities, I couldn’t help feeling a sense of hope for the future.
More information
You can find out more about the INFF, the Manch Project, their open days and their Primary, Secondary and Adult education courses by visiting the INFF website or by calling them on 023 22823.
