Jennifer Horgan: The Irishman saving the Amazon and why we need our native trees

Martin von Hildebrand is following in the footsteps of his hero Roger Casement. His work shows the importance of protecting our native woodlands 

It’s hard to imagine that Ireland was once 80% forest. By 1600, less than 20% was covered, a process accelerated by the 17th-century plantations. By the end of the 19th century, Ireland’s cover was about 1%.

Last Saturday, poet Róisín Leggett Bohan’s voice went just as she was due to read at Cork’s International Poetry Festival. Bad luck, I thought initially.

I soon thought of something else. I thought about trees: trees and forests. More specifically, I thought about mycelium, the vast network of fungal threads that share nutrients between trees underground, especially in times of hardship.