After donating a few trees through a social media advertisement at the beginning of the year, part-time farmer from Co. Meath, Paddy Mangan, has since acquired the help of volunteers to donate 35,000 native trees nationwide.
Mangan’s first donation has since grown into a non-profit organisation, Free Trees Ireland, which has a group of 40 volunteers that he hopes to further expand.
The group recently held an online application day to give away 40,000 trees. In a total of 26 hours, applications were in for just over 45,000 trees.
In the time, the organisation ran two types of giveaways, including a general tree giveaway offering a mixed variety of native trees with a maximum allocation of 30 trees per group or individual.
The second application included a red squirrel habitat establishment, which was aimed for people to fence off part of their holding up to a maximum of 900m2.
The areas are required to be stock-proof fenced, with a maximum of 100 trees allocated to the scheme.
The red squirrel habitat has a mixed variety of tree species, including: Oak; Hazel; Scot’s pine; Wild Cherry; Rowan; Crab Apple; Alder; and Birch, which will in time provide food and shelter to encourage red squirrels into areas.
“The nature corridor will also provide a safe natural habitat for ground nesting birds such as Pheasants, Snipe, Red grouse, as well as shelter for hares, hedgehogs and many more mammals and insects,” Mangan said.
Mangan said he is “shocked” by how much interest there has been and that by the end of December, the group will have given away 80,000 free native Irish trees.
He said that the aim is to give away 120,000 trees per year with a 60,000 tree giveaway in early February 2025, along with eventually donating trees to every primary school in the country.
“All of this work is being done by volunteers and all trees have been bought without any external financial support or state funding.
“We are always open to getting support or find new volunteers and anyone who is interested should contact us,” Mangan added.
At the moment, the group is receiving the majority of the native trees from Coillte and None-So-Hardy in Shillelagh, Co. Wicklow. However, the volunteers are in the process of creating their own tree nursery, to eventually rely on their own planted trees.