Adopt A Tree Project

As part of my project I went to visit my own hurley maker, Tom O’Donoghue, who kindly permitted me to film his work for the benefit of the project.

In the following videos he also outlines some salient points about the use of ash and how hurls are made. It makes for very interesting viewing, so have a look!

My work is progressing at speed and I had a greatly productive weekend working on the project. I went to visit the tree again, took lots of pictures that will form the body of my project, and I also recorded some video footage, some of which I’ll post on this site shortly. But more about that anon.

For now, I want to share with you a great little site that could help any teacher hoping to use this Adopt A Tree Project within their own classroom framework. The website is www.123certificates.com and is a free and easily-accessible mechanism by which people can produce certificates to reward children for classwork.

Something to keep in mind for after the project – but I’ll be reminding you about such resources later on.

I leave you with the first project video which I recorded at the entrance to the woodland where the tree is located. I hope you enjoy getting to know me a little bit better! 🙂

In preparation for further study of my tree tomorrow I’ve been doing some additional research on wooded areas and forestry in my local area. I’m constantly reminded how lucky I am to live in Kilkenny,  our local representatives and active community spirit ensures that we are well informed of the exciting and innovative activities taking place within the wider area.  Just recently Kilkenny City celebrated a very exciting and significant birthday, and marked the achievement in a very sustainable and significant way.

Kilkenny’s 400 Fruit Tree project marked the 400th Anniversary of the Signing of the City Charter by planting 400 native and heritage varieties of Apple, Pear, Plum and Cherry throughout the city and environs during 2009.
The project began at the hands of the Transition Towns project, consisting of community groups coming together with the Local Authority, Schools and Businesses to implement a practical project that ‘reduces carbon in the face of climate change, builds resilience in the face of peak oil and, as an added bonus and  strengthens community’.

Below is a video about the project, it includes some input from a local primary school student about how her school became involved in the challenge. It’s a very  interesting way to speculate how a class could participate in a similar project in their area. Food for thought!