Inspired by Totnes’s “Nut Tree Capital of Britain” project, Kilkenny is setting itself the goal of becoming the “Apple Tree City of Ireland” – next year! Conceived at a Future Proof Kilkenny meeting in the back of Cleere’s pub the project to plant apple trees in the city has been widened to include other fruit trees and scores on the following points:

• promotes a local food culture
• honours our heritage as a famous apple growing region in times past
• celebrates 400 years of the city charter
• shows children where our food comes from
• provides food for wildlife and encourages biodiversity
• involves the community and promotes the idea of using urban spaces for food production
• encourages local seasonal food consumption and the concept of reducing food miles
• raises awareness of the urgent need to keep CO2 concentration below 400 parts per million (there now saying 350ppm) to avoid runaway climate change
• advocates using trees and soils to remove excess carbon from the atmoshere (the only proven method)
• beautifies the city and environs

Cllr Malcolm Noonan is very supportive and below is an interview with him published recently in the Kilkenny Voice. If you are interested in this food initiative or any other projects contact brian[at]click2go.ie

What greater legacy can we leave future generations than that of trees? That’s the opinion of Councillor Malcolm Noonan, who is promoting an imaginative project to plant 400 native fruit trees around the city and environs in2009 to celebrate Kilkenny’s 400th Anniversary of the City Charter.

“It ticks all the right boxes”, Cllr Noonan told the Voice: “urban wildlife, an acknowledgement of past settlement, food for communities and wildlife, community involvement. It’s all there.”

Cllr Noonan is proposing that the trees be planted by communities throughout the city in conjunction with the city and council local authorities, Keep Kilkenny Beautiful, Transition Towns Committee and other agencies.

“So far I have received a positive response from the Environment Section of Kilkenny County Council and Kilkenny Borough Council, subject to funding”, he says, “I believe we can raise the necessary funds through sponsorship and donations. The planting could be done for free, involving local communities and voluntary input in civic public spaces.”

“Following on from the work I have been doing on allotments, I think this is a lovely idea that I hope will capture the imagination of the people of Kilkenny”, he enthused.

“One of the forthcoming actions in our County Biodiversity Plan will be to focus on urban wildlife and with so many marks up for grabs in the wildlife category of Tidy Towns, this project could give us the magic numbers we need to win the competition outright.
“What an achievement that would be on the 400th anniversary of our City Charter”.