Westport waste ground transformed into ‘food forest’
A new food forest in Westport’s Father Angelus Park has transformed a public space into a hub for climate education, biodiversity, and community engagement.
The project, led through a collaboration between Food Forests Ireland, Westport Tidy Towns and Trinity College Dublin, and funded by the EU LEVERS research initiative, has turned a piece of waste ground into a layered, productive ecosystem designed to mimic a natural forest.
“This is a community project,” says Caithriona McCarthy, the Programme Director with Food Forests Ireland, “Our whole aim is to engage with groups and communities. Engage, educate and empower.”
The food forest has layers of fruit trees, berry bushes, herbs and ground cover plants, that work together to support soil health and pollinators. “It looks like a garden, the style that we use is a really old-fashioned style called agroforestry,” Caithriona explains, “There are typically seven layers in a food forest, we have about five of them here.” The Father Angelus Food Forest was planted in March of this year, it is currently in the early stages of growth.
Food Forests Ireland design workshops and lesson plans to help educate the local community. They cover a range of topics from soil management, to water conservation, biodiversity protection and food miles.
Caithriona explains that the forest also provides a practical response to public anxiety around climate change: “People have become really terrified of climate change and they don’t know what to do. With this, it empowers people. We are addressing climate anxiety, a lot of people are learning concrete techniques on the ground through our workshops.”
The skills learnt through the Food Forest Project are transferable, and one of the aims of the project is to inspire people to build their own food forest at home. “Why are we bringing apples in from miles away when we can grow them here?” Caithriona asked.
While this project is rooted in the Westport community, it addresses national concerns over Ireland’s dependence on food imports.
“Food security and food system resilience is really important for us because we import a lot of our food into Ireland,” Caithriona explained, “The idea is people learn from this, and they take it away and they replicate it in their own homes.”
The success of the Father Angelus Park Food Forest has already inspired plans for expansion. Food Forests Ireland, working with Westport Tidy Towns and local groups, hopes to replicate the model along the Great Western Greenway in a project known as the Infrastructure Enabled Edible Landscape.
“The collaboration is what makes this,” said Caithriona, “In the climate space it is all about collaboration, we have all got to work together.”
She added: “We have done some great workshops through this, it has brought Trinity College into the town. We are hoping more projects will come out of this as well.”
One spin-off project that has come from Trinity College and Westport Tidy Towns working together was the Testing the Waters Project, which brought science and art together to explore what a healthy river can look like, and highlighted the key role that biodiversity plays in our waterways.
She said the food forest itself is designed to encourage public involvement: “It's a call to action, it's bringing people out to plant a food forest. People really want to have a bit of fun, and they are learning so much without even realising it.”
As the project develops, collaboration will remain at its core: “We have found that call to action, we know how successful it is but it has to be in collaboration with other groups. That is the key.”
With plans to expand along the Great Western Greenway, the project demonstrates how collaborative, community-based projects can provide real solutions to climate challenges, while educating and supporting people through hands-on learning.
Food Forests Ireland can be found on Facebook and Instagram or through their website foodforests.ie
This article has been funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.