Canoeing Ireland is committed to doing our part in reducing our impact on the planet and preserving and enhancing the natural environment that we enjoy every day in our sport. As part of this we are hoping carrying out an ambitious tree planting project this year. The Green Trees Green Rivers campaign is aimed at raising awareness of the amount of CO2 that can be produced through travelling. We are asking our members to fill out the number of kilometres travelled, and by what method, for their normal paddle and using this information to plant the number of trees to capture the amount of carbon produced. Trees are of great benefit to the ecosystem they’re planted in, so to help our river environments around the country we are asking our clubs to take delivery of a sapling, or a number of saplings, to plant at their club or in their locality. Help us preserve our rivers and the planet by taking part and being aware of the impact we are having on the environment.

Earlier this year we teamed up with the “Easy Treesie” Project to plant 100 native species – Alder/Willow – at our Training Centre on the Strawberry Beds along the Liffey. The species was specially chosen for this riparian site, grown in Ireland and donated by Coillte nurseries. We are indebted to Conor Ryan, Training Centre Manager who took this initiative and to Orla Farrell, Project Manager of this childrens’ million-tree challenge for organising this Climate Action, a symbolic and practical action to show our commitment to nature. The project is part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021 – 2030 trillion tree global challenge. While restoring this number of trees to the planet will not solve global heating, it will buy 17 years while other de-carbonising solutions are found. The project is working with Crann, Trees for Ireland and the Tree Council of Ireland on this ambitious million-tree challenge and they have planted 205k trees countrywide since 2017, on public/sports/school lands for the most part. More information on easytreesie.com

If you or your club are interested in taking a sapling to plant and support this initiative please contact press@canoe.ie