Native Woodland Expansion Field Trip

To celebrate National Heritage Week this year, environmental organisation ReWild Wicklow is organising a field trip to explore different examples and techniques of native woodland expansion in the Wicklow uplands. The field trip will be to the An Óige Knockree Nature Reserve in the Glencree Valley near Enniskerry. This beautiful 27 hectare reserve stretches from the hostel at Lackan House down to the Glencree River and offers incredible views of the surrounding mountains, including the Sugarloaf. A nature conservation and restoration plan was drawn up by ecologists for Knockree in 2016 and provided a framework of practical works to be carried out by a team of An Óige conservation volunteers. Since 2022, ReWild Wicklow has partnered with An Óige and provided resources and volunteers for a number of these projects.

This field trip will start and finish at the hostel and will take visitors to a number of different types of tree planting projects dotted across the reserve. We’ll cross through grassland, mature woodland, dense bracken and along the river’s edge and see some tree planting in tubes, cages, small exclosures, hedgerows and the main large fenced area. Please dress for any weather and good sturdy hiking boots are essential as we will be crossing uneven, steep and, at times, boggy land.