OPINION (AN COLÚN): Native Americans to lend expertise to Aughty Forest project

I HAVE often driven from Portumna to Gort across the beautiful and vast, open space that is the Slieve Aughty mountain region. There are very few houses in this enormous place and a great deal of indiscriminate sitka spruce planting.

My heart has often ached as I drove through as I could sense the lost potential and the lack of appropriate management of a special place.The lost potential relates to the tree cover and the lack of trails. If the people who manage this land changed the tree cover from the industrial mono-culture of the sitka spruce to deciduous trees (reasonably spaced out, like a natural forest) then the character of much of the region would be dramatically changed. Where once there had been conifer woodland which was impossible to walk through and which contained a barren floor, there would now be more light, more growth, more wildlife. A place which made you feel despair because you were thinking about people's lack of vision and lack of appropriate management, would be transformed into a remarkable, wonderful environment which would fill you with hope and healing.

The Devonian sandstone hills of Slieve Aughty are scarcely known and are terribly underappreciated. Several oak-woods that have a connection to the Great Forest of Aughty still exist in the region. When we walk through them we are reminded that we were once a forest people, but we have lost our forests and much of their ancient culture. Ireland's native forests covered about 80% of the land.

The famous botanist Robert Lloyd Praeger visited the oak-woods of the Aughty region at the turn of the 20th Century and talked enthusiastically about them and their notable botany. More recently, other botanists came here about 15 years ago and were similarly enthusiastic, pointing out they had come across many plants of interest. In their report they said it was likely that these isolated oak-woods were remnants of a much larger oak forest which covered much of the wider region (which is commonly referred to as the Great Forest of Aughty. It's also known as the Forest of Suidane). They added that the isolated woods were shown on maps made two centuries ago; therefore, allowing an additional century for establishment their age is a minimum of 300 years. “Such an age,” they say, “pre-dates the first largescale planting in Ireland. Even as late as 1920, several extensive oak-woods remained in Slieve Aughty. However, ill-considered conifer afforestation appears to have destroyed or damaged most of these sites during the 20th Century, including what was once the largest oak-wood in Ireland, near Woodford. A visionary project would be the re-establishment of natural forest over a wide area of the Owendalulleegh valley.”

The Great Forest of Aughty once stretched from Derrybrien near Gort, across to Tulla and down to Tuamgraney. It stretched across the Slieve Aughty hills to the shores of Lough Derg. This great oak forest was inhabited by Brian Boru and his people and was seen by the Gaelic people as being a refuge during times of war. The destruction of Suidane began during the 1500s. Ships were built with the felled oak. Iron smelting used huge amounts of charcoal made from the trees. The British also wanted to remove areas of shelter for rebels and confiscate land to pay officers after the Cromwellian and Williamite wars. Apart from the Owendalulleegh valley other identified oak-woods which probably have a connection to Suidane include Cahermurphy on the old road to Derrybrien, the Lough Graney area, and Raheen Oak-wood beside Tuamgraney. Raheen is the jewel in the crown of the Aughty oak-woods. It includes forty acres with a hundred foot canopy and it contains the famous Brian Boru oak tree, which is over a thousand years old and is still growing. The tree has long been associated with the last High King of Ireland, who was born nearby. It was possibly planted by Brian Boru himself, still bears fruit and thousands of its acorns have been planted throughout the country. People refer to the Raheen oaks as being like a green cathedral.

There has been talk for the last few years of creating “The Great Forest of Aughty project” which would link Clare and Galway in a partnership to create a long term sustainable plan to ensure the cultural and ecological richness of this region is harnessed under the umbrella of the oak-woods. The Slieve Aughty area map from Ger Madden's excellent book on the region could mark the boundary of this partnership.

This dream, this vision, is going to be focussed on at a forthcoming symposium on July 22nd and 23rd in the Cnoc na Gaoithe Culture Centre in Tulla, County Clare. The symposium is called, “Re-Imagining The Great Forest of Aughty” and will be drawing on the expertise and insight of Native Americans from the Menominee people, members of whom are coming all the way from Wisconsin for the event. The weekend has been organised by The Woodland League. Andrew St Ledger, Chairperson of the Woodland League, said the symposium will be “a cross-cultural exchange exploring the indigenous forest traditions of Ireland and North America. We are honoured to be hosting two Menominee Tribal Forest Managers, coming from Wisconsin, to give a presentation on their award winning sustainable forest management methodology, which will provide invaluable insight for our Great Forest of Aughty vision. Our vision, our plan is to restore and join remnant pockets of ancient oakwood rainforest in the Aughty mountain region of East Clare and South Galway. The Menominee will also be listing all of the wood products and crafts that their Great forest has gifted them over many centuries.

“Ron Waukau and Mc Kaylee Duquain of the Menominee Nation will share their extensive knowledge, wisdom and spiritual connection to their forest of 235,000 acres in Wisconsin, which is the most biodiverse and the most tree species-rich forest in North America. Menominee Tribal Enterprises have won numerous awards and recognition for their sustainable forest management.” He said the Woodland League wants to join the pockets of oak-wood via a matrix of riparian and hedgerow corridors. The plan will involve a combination of natural regeneration with targeted planting to create new native forest areas. On Sunday the 23rd there will be Field Trips to two Aughty oak-woods to look at their restoration potential.