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Sailchearnach

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Commenced:	01/01/1995
Submitted:	24/05/2012
Last updated:	15/10/2021
Location:	Clogher, Kilfenora, Co. Clare, IE
Climate zone:	Cool Temperate

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Sailchearnach

Kilfenora, IE

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... and another "before and later" (photos)

Project: Sailchearnach

Posted by Ute Bohnsack almost 12 years ago

Found an old photo from 14 or 15 years ago...

I found an old photo taken 14 or 15 years ago - looking over our neighbours field southwards at parts of our smallholding - and took a shot from the same location.

The property is now nicely sheltered from the West (prevailing winds are W-SW), East and North. Another nice thing is that our neighbour has also planted a whole line of ash trees alongside his silage field (in the foreground), creating a habitat corridor from our land towards a small stream, which is likely to be beneficial for bees, bats, and birds.

The old hayshed was dismantled - otherwise it would probably just about be visible.

I hope this will encourage folks to get out and plant food forests, shelterbelts, hedges, specimen trees and shrubs, woodlots, silvopasture or silvoarable systems - whatever suits your site, your climate, yourself. At first progress seems painfully slow but it is exponential; at some point the system 'pops' as Toby Hemenway likes to say and everything seems to explode into growth.

Comments (3)

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Alexandra Berendt : Wow, what a change! The rest of the landscape does not look overly changed, at least as far as I can see from such a distance, which make sit all the more amazing that your property has such an amount of tall vegetation on it now! Keep those before and after photos coming, please, it really helps to see what other people have achieved over time to get motivated and start doing things, no matter how small!

Posted almost 12 years ago

harald wedig : I was there with the bycicle end of the seventies, landscape without trees at all. Strange sight for a german. Asked an old shepherd why no trees, he sais: trees don gro hiir. He was obviously right but he was completely wrong at the same time. Thank you Ute, you are creating what i was hoping for.

Posted almost 12 years ago

Ute Bohnsack : Thank you, Alexandra and Harald, for your kind comments. I am heartened by the fact that our neighbour, a part-time conventional cattle farmer has planted some ash and alder trees on his field margins. Also, the Irish Rural Environment Protection Scheme (Irish version of the EU-funded agri-environmental scheme) has encouraged/funded tree and hedge planting on farms and it was good to be able to show participating farmers the range of species that can successfully be grown here. And while it looks like our whole place is under trees that is not so - we still have about 1.5 acres of grazing land for the goats (out of 2.5 acres total) which has become all the more productive for all the shelter it's getting. My next step will be to plant about 20 alder trees (our best N-fixers here) on the main 0.5 acre goat grazing field (that's a 100 trees/ha spacing). It's tricky because they will need very high tree tubes to stop the goats from eating them. The tallest tubes I have been able to find so far are 6' (1.83m) but goats quite comfortably stand on their hind legs if they want something... Alder (Alnus glutinosa) does not only fix N but compared to other tree species Alder leaves are still quite protein-rich when they fall in autumn and goats will eat freshly fallen leaves off the ground so I hope over the years this will pay off in reducing my feed bill too. Later still, Alder can be coppiced for firewood.

Posted almost 12 years ago

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