Cork City Council 'stunned' as hundreds queue to snap up 2,500 free trees in an hour

People queuing for the tree giveaway in Tramore Valley Park. City Hall estimates that more than 500 people came through the park gates and went home with a few free trees. Picture: Eoin English

They couldn’t be-leaf the response — hundreds of people queued in a Cork City park on Tuesday to snap up 2,500 free trees in just over an hour.

City officials admitted they were stunned at the phenomenal response to their great tree giveaway at Tramore Valley Park, run in association with Coillte and the Tree Council of Ireland to celebrate Tree Week.

The city council had 2,500 native whips or saplings, including alder, oak, hazel, spindle, blackthorn, birch, pine and rowan, to give away for free between 10am and 1pm on a first come, first served basis. Most of the whips would cost up to €50 at a local garden centre, putting the potential value of the giveaway at over €125,000.

The council’s recently appointed tree officer, Thomas Kane, was on hand to give advice on how and where to plant the trees, and on how to maintain them. But there was a long queue at the giveaway point even before the event kicked off, and by 11.30am, all the trees were gone.

City Hall estimates that more than 500 people came through the park gates and went home with a few free trees.

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Cork City Council is on target to plant 4,000 trees itself this year, which means that Tuesday’s giveaway will add another 2,500 trees to that overall planting figure.

Stephen Scully of the council’s parks department said staff were both stunned and delighted at the response.

“Cork City Council owns 20% of the available land in the city for planting which means there is 80% in private ownership — either in homes, housing estates or institutions — and we thought this would be a great way to ensure that more trees are planted on that land,” he said.

“At one stage, there was even a mild sense of panic at the size of the queue. I think we could have given away double the number of trees.”  He confirmed that the council plans to run the event again next year.

Cork City has a tree canopy cover of 13%, made up of more than 310,000 trees — just above the countrywide average of 12% — with more trees in the city than in the hinterland. The city council owns and manages about 17% of the city's total tree canopy, and has since 2021 planted 8,000 trees in parks, open spaces, and greenways.

Plant scientist and lecturer at University College Cork (UCC), Dr Eoin Lettice, said it is pleasing but not surprising that there has been such a great reaction to this and other 'tree giveaways'.

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“In our work at the UCC Arboretum and the Irish Tree Explorers Project, we've noticed an increasing interest among the public in learning more about trees, the various benefits of trees in the environment and in planting more trees in their communities,” he said.

“A significant proportion of trees in Cork City are in people's front and back gardens. It's great to encourage more people to plant trees and to make these spaces havens for wildlife.

“Too many front and rear gardens are losing their biodiversity value through removal for parking and, or the use of ‘plastic grass' and hard landscaping. The local authority and the tree Officer are to be applauded for this initiative. Hopefully it can be repeated in the future. This and the upcoming tree strategy, will have positive impacts on the city for years to come.”