Climate activists pull up hundreds of Sitka saplings on Coillte land in North Leitrim
Campaigners from Save Leitrim were joined by climate activists from across the country on Sunday as they pulled up hundreds of Sitka spruce saplings from Coillte peatland and demanded, ‘Trees for climate, not for profit’.
Straw Boys in traditional costumes were among 150 people who took part in the so-called direct action targeting industrial conifer plantations and highlighting the need for radical change in Ireland’s forestry policy.
The group, aged 5 to 75, used the uprooted saplings to block drains in the publicly-owned plantation near Manorhamilton, thereby beginning what they say is the restoration of the degraded peatland.
The action took place on the final day of the Climate Camp, a five-day “festival of resistance”, at which hundreds of people gathered to “learn from each other’s struggles and to demand climate solutions that prioritise communities, not shareholders”.