The forests we grow

Darndale Donut

Ireland

Darndale (D)

Urban forests are crucial to our well-being and can provide great environmental, social, and health benefits to the communities they serve. In an urban park in Dublin, we are growing a new forest as part of a European Union co-funded project that promotes urban reforestation across four member states.

Description

The urban forest will grow within Dublin’s Darndale Park, which is popular among students and sports clubs. The goal is to provide the community with a green space to spend time together, enjoying nature and learning more about it. The new forest will be a shelter from the wind to the adjacent fishing pond. To fully embrace this sense of inclusion and unity, the forest will be planted in the shape of a donut, where the trees will represent the outer ring.

The community will be involved in the tree planting activities and the follow up to ensure the maintenance of the forest. The goal is to raise awareness in local schools about the benefits of nature, while providing some basic skills to students to teach them how to plant and take care of the little trees. Creating a bond among Darndale’s community and its park and the new urban forest will be key to the success of the project in the long run.

This urban forestation project is part of the Uforest project, funded with support of the European Commission and promoted by Ersaf and Etifor. The Uforest project aims at promoting Europe’s innovation capacity among universities, cities and businesses to deliver a new approach to Urban Forestry.

The Darndale Doughnut project is becoming a reality thanks to the ongoing work of many local and international partners; the Dublin City Council and its parks department, the Darndale Community Centre and the Darndale implementation group, Trinity College Dublin and Trinity Business School, Etifor, and WOWnature.