Work continues on restoring native woodland at Myross

THE people of West Cork were thanked for their support of Green Skibbereen at their first agm held at the Centre of Excellence for Climate Action and Sustainability (CECAS) at Myross Wood House, Leap.

Chairperson Trish Lavelle described  2021 as ‘challenging, exciting and ground breaking in equal measure for Green Skibbereen.’

At the recent agm she said they were ‘impressed, humbled and grateful for the contribution of the people of West Cork to our work.’

‘Through their ideas, offers of help, volunteering, donations and support for events and projects, they have helped to inspire, sustain and grow our work.

‘So, in publishing our annual report we pay tribute to the generosity, interest and support from our friends and neighbours,’ she said.

All the directors at Green Skibbereen serve in a voluntary capacity and without their significant contribution it is highly unlikely they would have managed to get as far as they have in a relatively short space of time, she said.

Among their achievements during the year was a successful application for woodland development funding from the Department for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

That’s for a 16 month project which will be completed at the end of this year.

This project, led by directors Trish Lavelle and Brendan McCormack and supported by Mark Robins, Nikki Keeling and Simon Ronan aims to restore and develop a native woodland at Myross through involving the community at all stages.

Director Ana Ospina has worked on behalf of Green Skibbereen with Sustainable Skibbereen, Skibbereen Tidy Towns and a number of local environmentally focused individuals and groups under the Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI) scheme to set up a Sustainable Energy Community (SEC) for Skibbereen.

Directors Jose Ospina and Noel Casserly have also been working with a wide range of partners and organisations at national and European level to develop detailed project proposals for specialist funding to support the group’s goals.

Funding was granted in 2021, via Clar, to create an outdoor covered space for community activities in the grounds of Myross Wood House.

It is expected that the event space will be launched this month and will provide a community resource from June to September each year.

The Myross Community Garden headed up by Trish Lavelle and Ana Ospina, is well on its way to being a productive garden with a greenhouse growing organic and chemical free vegetables and fruit throughout the summer.

‘This is a project for everyone in West Cork,’ said Ana.