About the Trees
During my period in Sweden, I enjoyed nature, and especially trees, more and more. I made a series of photographs and thoroughly loved the beauty and scent of trees. Although most trees in Sweden belong to forestry, the endlessness is impressive..

It’s a completely different story in Ireland. In the last 4 century’s many trees have been taken down. Nowadays Ireland has comparatively the least forests in Europe. And there used to be many! There was an expression that a squirrel could jump from tree to tree, from the north coast to the south coast with out touching the ground. Many trees were cut to build the British navy and industry, in the years that Britain ruled over Ireland. On many hills in the bog-lands you can still find trunks of huge trees.

Replanting trees has not been done enough. Ireland is well-known for it’s green and desolate landscapes. This is beautiful, but knowing that there used to be ancient forests, makes it a tragic landscape.

In a small-scale project I want to plant a selection of young trees. Different kinds of trees strengthen each other. E.g. White beeches and silver birches grow fast and can form a wind-tunnel for oak and other slow growing trees. Trees that have always grown in the West of Ireland. Of coarse they have to be able to grow in heavy weather conditions and the influence of the ocean.

An important motivation for me to initiate this project, is that trees store CO2, as long as they are not cut down. So it is of great importance that the landowners support long-term growth of the trees. On the domain of  Dzogchen Beara is a lot of space to plant and they are happy to cooperate.

I have planted in the South West (West Cork), the Mid West (Westport) and the North West (Ardara).