This document summarizes Aidan J. ffrench MILI's presentation on urban forestry in Ireland. It discusses 1) the personal connection people have to trees and nature, 2) the critical challenges facing Ireland's urban forests due to modern development priorities that have led to a lack of green spaces, and 3) the hope for increased collaboration between non-profits, professionals, and academics to address these challenges through initiatives like blue-green infrastructure, climate change adaptation, and promoting health and well-being. The presentation highlights Ireland's growing recognition of the importance of urban nature but also the need for professionals to work across disciplines and with communities to better care for and manage existing urban forests.

1. A Personal + Professional
Perspective on Progress …against the odds
Aidan J. ffrench MILI
BCRPA 40th. Annual Spring Training Event
1.3.17, Langley, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Urban Forestry in Ireland
Co-habitation > Challenges > Collaborations

2. A Tree - Place Menu
1. Trees and Human Belonging: it’s Personal!
2. Ireland: Not-so ‘Green Isle’: Critical Challenges
4. Hope: Collaborations: NGOs, Professions, Academia
5. Conclusion: Feedback & Qs
3. Break: Feedback & Qs

3. Garden County to City - my ‘Doorstep Forest’

4. 4
The Anthropocene: ethics and practice
Liveability: Nature + People = cohabitation and collaboration

5. CO-HABITATION IN NATURE: SOLIDARITY THRU CARE
Pope Francis’ LOVE POEM TO MOTHER EARTH
151. Protect common areas, visual landmarks,
urban landscapes “… which increase our sense of
belonging, of rootedness, of ‘feeling at home”
within a city which includes us and brings us
together”.
PLACEMAKING - PROFESSIONAL
PRACTICE
150. Design buildings, neighbourhoods, public
spaces, cities, ought to draw on the various
disciplines …”It is not enough to seek the beauty of
design. More precious still is the service we offer to
another kind of beauty: people’s quality of life,
adaptation to environment, encounter and mutual
assistance”

6. Not-so ‘Green’: Context of Challenges
• Modernity : priorities, complacency,
business,
• Governance: gaps, rhetoric, realities
• Development | Infrastructure: contested
space
• Silos: ‘big leaves and small leaves’

7. Critical Challenges - key drivers
 BLUE-GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE: resilient QoLife – social |
communal | economic |ecology
 NATURE, HEALTH & WELL-BEING: Play, Green Exercise
 CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: SuDS >> Green Streets?
Saturday, 14th. January 2017 Weekend Review: Environment
The Caring of the Green:
Sylvia Thompson
Ireland wakes up to the value of public parks
New scheme awards Open Spaces that balance
Sustainability with Human Activity

8. 8
“Extreme weather will be the 'new normal', Irish scientists
warn
• Ireland can expect hotter and drier summers, and stormier and
wetter winters, climate researchers say”
Monday, 7 March 2016, 13:40
Vulnerable Places & People: planning ?!
Tuesday, 27th. December 2016
Cities to be focus of growth under Simon Coveney plan
Development of Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway
needed as population expands

9. 9
Urban Places: cultural contradictions:
* Post-boom irony * | # Myth and Rhetoric meet Reality! # 1
Friday, 10 February 2017
Ballaghaderreen builds ‘welcome wall’ for Syrian refugees
Playgrounds built as Welcome to Roscommon group prepares centre for 37 children
Ballaghaderreen = Bealach an Doirín - "the way of the little Oak grove"

10. Trees: Rus-in-Urbs? Aesthetic objects,
settings … sales… dreams

11. > sales…: promise + reality: ignorance prevails?

12. Progressive Developments : 2005 – 2017A.D
2000 A.D
2005 A.D
2009 A.D

13. • Research for Strategising: U.C.D, local govt, state agency
• Local Govt: Tree Management >ArborCare, Ezytree
• Civil Society: bridging gaps - a big reach to the canopy?!
• Cross-disciplinary Collaboration – A Rain Story: the Power of 3s!
Collaborations: urban forestry – strategic to operations

14. 14
ArbPLACES : trees, affluence, Climate Change

15. Collaboration: engineering-landscape-ecology

16. Collaboration: engineering-placemaking-movement

17. GI Spatial
Framework

18. Conclusion: emerging zeitgeist –silos to solidarity?
• Community Placemaking: Hort., Tidy Towns
Greenspace: citizenship – local activism
• Professions up-skilling (CPD) – G.I.S, SuDS,NBS
• Urban Trees|Forestry – growing interest and action
• Health & Well-being: research, social enterprise:
addressing obesity,,,………
Sunday Independent 6 March 2016
Loss of innocence as third of children never climbed a tree
Obesity Study shows almost 50% of Our Children spend more time in front
of a screen than outside

19. G.I Pilots: retrofit - RainGardens