As The Nature Trust Acorn Gathering events 2024 come to a close, The Nature Trust would like to say a heartfelt thank you to all who attended this year and helped to collect acorns.

The Nature Trust welcomed almost 300 volunteers who helped to gather acorns across Coillte woodlands at Ballygannon, Co. Wicklow, Rahin, Co. Kildare, Brackloon, Co. Mayo and Hazelwood in Co. Sligo. All these woods feature old oak trees and ancient woodland fragments, and the acorns gathered allows us to grow new oaks from these exceptional woodlands.

This has been a more challenging year for acorns, and indeed other seeds such as Hazel, due to the cool spring weather amongst other factors. Nonetheless the dedicated volunteers managed to collect over five thousand acorns.

We also really enjoyed sharing our knowledge about the work of The Nature Trust, and the importance of creating new native Irish woodlands during our educational workshops. It was inspirational to hear from the volunteers as they shared their local biodiversity management action suggestions. A particular shout out to those who travelled long distances to attend the events; we were particularly impressed with your dedication, and to the youngest volunteer at Rahin Wood who was just one year old!

We were also thrilled to welcome Deric Haritgan from Virgin Media One’s Ireland AM television show who dedicated a morning slot to showcase The Nature Trust, and the acorn gathering events. Similarly, Mooney Goes Wild featured us on their RTE Radio 1 show, as well as many national and regional press articles this year. St. Saviour’s National School were enormously helpful to us, and a big thank you to their amazing Head Mistress Ms. Antoinnette Doyle. A thank you too to the team at Native Events who contributed to the success of the 2024 Acorn Gathering.

This year’s acorns are now at the Coillte nursery at Ballintemple, in Co. Carlow. They will be sorted, and most will be planted out immediately, while some will be put into cold storage over winter and planted out next Spring.

We are delighted that last year’s acorn collection yielded an average germination rate of 70% which is wonderful, and these saplings are now approximately 30cm high. They will continue to grow on at Ballintemple Nursery and will be planted out by The Nature Trust on new sites during the Spring 2026.

Ciaran Fallon, Director, The Nature Trust said:

‘Without the help of our acorn gathering volunteers, it would not be possible for The Nature Trust to gather the thousands of acorns that are now being prepared for planting. We greatly appreciate your interest in the work of The Nature Trust, and we thoroughly enjoyed the fun and collaboration that you brought to these events.’

The Nature Trust plans to hold further events and activities throughout the year. If you are interested in hearing about these please do add your contact details to our mailing list.

Many thanks again to all who showed interest in and support to The Nature Trust acorn gatherings, and we look forward to many more exciting events ahead.

The Nature Trust’s 2024 Acorn Gathering project is supported by the The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine under its Forestry Promotion Project 2023/2024.