Barna Wood, a fairytale amenity on the outskirts of Galway, may be facing major change if proposals in a Coillte report on view in Galway City Hall are carried out.
The report, commissioned as part of other developments planned for Barna, proposes severe management of the woods in the name of safety and regeneration which, if carried out, could destroy the essence of these ancient woods which Galwegians know and love and which have been called "the last trees on the road west".
Much of the rest of the planned development has been highly praised. Galway Corporation has purchased a further seven acres of woodland at the back of Barna Wood and over 35 acres alongside, which are to be developed into a desperately needed recreational area for nearby Knocknacarra, the population of which has burgeoned in recent years and which is starved of facilities.
The plan for this area includes four playing pitches, children's play areas, picnic areas, streamside walks and extensive planting of parkland and native trees. The initial development will cost in the region of £1.2 million. The development has been welcomed as part of an overall plan to encourage woods and parkland within the city. Executive planner Gus McCarthy, formerly of Galway Corporation and now with Galway County Council, developed it in association with Kevin Collins of the Tree Council and environmentalist Gordon D'Arcy. It also includes Terryland River Valley and the 82-acre Merlin Woods.
McCarthy and his colleagues made great efforts in recent years to acquire further woodland and introduce more trees and parkland to the city. As Tom Kenny of Kenny's Bookshop and Art Gallery says, such "vital breathing spaces" are urgently needed before the city becomes "one big lump of concrete".
The report and full plans for the proposed parkland and pitches have been on view at Galway's City Hall until today. Observations and submissions are welcome until 5 p.m. on January 18th, the corporation says.
Barna is a fairytale wood; leafy pathways wind by knobbly beech trees; tiny brooks trickle (this year they gushed) past holly and oak, crab, hawthorn and alder trees; mosses, lichens and ferns lace the rocky undulations of this 16-acre wood less than four miles from Galway city-centre.
"As close as I've ever been to heaven," says Micheal Keaney, senior engineer with Galway Corporation, describing his first encounter with Barna Wood, for which he has been responsible since it opened to the public in 1986.
"These are not the type of trees foresters value," says nurseryman Joe Quilty, leading a walk there recently. "These are trees of character."
Galwegians in their thousands appreciate the magic of this wood which - thanks to the vigilance of Tom Kenny and other locals, the vision of Brian Callagy, then senior planner with the county council, and the co-operation of Seamus Keating, who was county manager at the time - was saved from development in the 1980s.
Since then, Micheal Keaney has endeavoured to keep human interference to a minimum so the woods could evolve naturally. He sees dead and dying trees as part of the cycle of life. Coillte it seems does not share his view and now proposes a major overhaul of the woods.