Green Limerick: Biodiversity forest is growing at Limerick school

STUDIES have shown time and time again that trees can reduce stress levels - if this is the case the students at Coláiste Chiaráin in Croom are surely the most stress-free in the country.

American students and teachers are visiting Coláiste Chiaráin, where, on Monday, they planted over 100 maple trees at the school’s biodiversity park.

When Coláiste Chiaráin opened the doors to its new 22-acre campus in 2021, three acres were set aside for biodiversity according to principal Gerard O'Sullivan.

With support from the Tree Council of Ireland, this led to the school planting over 3,400 trees in the space provided - the maple trees bring this figure to 3,500.

A pollinator plan set up also saw the introduction of a mixed fruit orchard in the biodiversity section of the school.
“It’s really something for the future,” Mr O’Sullivan says during his commute home from work. It’ll be wonderful to see what these trees become in 20 or 30 years.”

Mr O’Sullivan said the students were more than happy to get involved in the project.

“Just this time last year, we had a major planting week, which involved the students and within that week we planted 2,500 trees. What we tried to do was get all of the children involved in some form of planting for tree week. Our transition years planted an awful lot of those,” Mr O’Sullivan mentioned.

Green Limerick: Students at Limerick school shoot for the moon

The school is “very lucky” to have the space that they have especially being able to put aside three acres solely for the purposes of biodiversity according to Mr O’Sullivan.

Coláiste Chiaráin is a “state of the art” school located just outside the town of Croom. For years the school was struggling for space in their old campus located on High Street in the town (now a College of Further Education and Training under Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board).

The old campus, which used prefabs to deal with the pressure of educating the local community never had sufficient space to undertake projects such as the biodiversity park which stands in the new Coláiste Chiaráin. This has been described as a “breath of fresh air”.

The planting of trees isn’t all Coláiste Chiaráin have going on in the biodiversity department, the recent introduction of a polytunnel will soon be educating students even more about gardening and biodiversity.

“We’ve just placed an order for timber for all of the raised beds in the tunnel. It should be up and running before Easter,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

Schools across Limerick have in recent times shown more and more interest in helping to educate students on the necessities of keeping our planet biodiverse, sustainable and pollution free. There is a long way to go before our planet is saved from the impending climate crisis (if it even will be) but the education of our youth on this vital topic can only be a welcome sight for the future.

For more Green news, follow the EcoLive section of our website.