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Brendan Smith, TD, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and
Food attended a ceremony to mark the rejuvenation and upgrading
of the Coillte-owned Dún a Rí Forest Park, in
Kingscourt, Co Cavan.
The re-launch came about as the result of work funded under
the Forest Service NeighbourWood Scheme, to improve
the recreational facilities in the park - including footpaths,
nature trails, seats, signs, picnic tables and car park facilities.
In addition, there is a special path developed which will
enable access and use by people with particular needs - including
wheelchair users and parents with baby-buggies. The facilities
are suitable for use by people of all age groups and are particularly
important for use by families.
Referring to the NeighbourWood Scheme, the Minister commented
- “The NeighbourWood scheme is aimed specifically at realising
the recreational and wider social benefits that forests can
provide. Ideally, a NeighbourWood is a forested area or woodland
in or near a town or school, established for aesthetic, recreational,
ecological and educational purposes.
"Dún a Rí Forest Park was an ideal candidate.
While the forest park is located in my own county of Cavan,
the facilities here also cater for the wider population catchments
of our nearest neighbours in counties Meath and Louth and
further afield - in that sense, Dún a Rí is truly a ‘NeighbourWood’.”
The Minister also spoke briefly about the many returns from
forestry - including its recreational value, its contribution
to the climate change issue, to tourism and to the economy
generally.
"With reference to Dún a Rí Forest Park itself"
the Minister added - “the continued maintenance and recent
upgrading of this Forest Park is a testament to the contribution
of Coillte to the local environment and to the social well-being
of our local communities. The continuance of their ‘Open
Forest’ policy throughout the country is to be commended.
"The policy, established by the old Forest and Wildlife
Service in the ‘70s continues to form the backbone of recreational
facilities, which are accessible to all our citizens. All
of these forests are an enormous contribution to the provision
of public open space for many local communities.”
Speaking at the event, David Gunning, Chief
Executive of Coillte said - “In an increasingly urban society,
Coillte's forests - such as Dún a Rí - offer
people an alternative to urban, manicured gardens and parks
and are an important part of the social and environmental
services which Coillte provides. The improvement of recreation
facilities in Coillte’s Forest Parks is part of the company’s
move to encourage greater public use of its 1.1 million acres
of forest land.”
Coillte has approximately 18 million visits
to its recreation areas on an annual basis and has developed
a website which has details of trails and recreation facilities
– Click
Here
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