Ted Cook visited the college on Tuesday and his presentation focused on the law in relation to the environment and particularly to trees, weeds and bees.
Outlining the features of the country’s oldest Brehon Law Code, he explained how these laws respected Nature, Trees and Equality of women rights in a very progressive way valuing Truth, Nature and Justice.
Key legal events of history, such as the coming of the Normans and the change from Brehon to Common Law were noted.
Moving to more recent times, he reminded us of the Noxious Weeds Act of 1936 as a control and a help to farmers and growers in preventing weed spread.
The increasing awareness of trees was supported by the Forestry Act of 1976 making it an offense to cut a tree over ten years old unless in exceptional circumstances and making the requirement for a felling license to control the cutting of trees.
The wild life act of 2000 was considered a very positive measure towards protecting hedges and wildlife corridors.
The legal presentation was followed by a practical workshop in the College Tree Nursery where the current stock of trees was reviewed. Root pruning, shaping and potting up of bare root stock was featured in this session.
The afternoon concluded with a tour of the Broadford Arboretum, which was initiated and part constructed some fifteen years ago as a result of Ted’s own vision.
Outlining the steps in the start-up of this community project, Ted urged students to engage where possible in their local areas. People in Ireland, he said, want and deserve good, sustainable facilities in their own towns and villages, With a clear vision and good communication projects like this are possible across the country. The key to success of this and other projects was to build a team, however small at the start and to involve young people and children to take ownership of the project from early on.
On touring the Arboretum, which is now a major eco tourist attraction in West Limerick, he noted the increased diversity of plants and wild life, particularly in recent years. Explaining how the pioneer species of Birch, Willow and Alder had been carefully selected to reclaim the soils of the quarry in the early years, he noted the succession to a healthy stock of the more demanding trees such as Ash and Oak which now flourish. As a Heritage Council listed speaker for schools and a frequent visitor to education centres around the country, Ted considered the Arboretum as one of the gem resources for education on the environment as well as a model project for community development.
The Arboretum will be featured again on RTE television, this time on TG4 programme Garrai Glas (The healing garden) in a new series starting next Spring.
The afternoon concluded with the planting of a sessile oak by students Thierry Gouaka, a student from the Congo and Deirdre O’Brien from Killarney.
