\n The Department of Education says it has no control over the\u00a0texts used in schools after a book endorsing the Sitka Spruce\u00a0was sent to all primary schools last week.<\/p>\n
\n Copies of the book, titled Sitka Spruce the Amazing Timber Tree,\u00a0were distributed to the schools last week.\n <\/p>\n
While the tree is one of the most prominent in Ireland, it is non-native, hailing from North America and first introduced in the 1830s.\u00a0It has faced significant criticism for its effect on Ireland\u2019s native ecology, notably in its tendency to overly acidify the soil in which it grows \u2014 thus negatively affecting waterways \u2014 and its inability to support native wildlife.<\/p>\n
\n The book features a foreword by former forestry minister Michael Healy-Rae expressing \u201chope\u201d that the story will help the reader \u201csee forests in a new way\u201d.<\/p>\n
The book itself was jointly funded by the Society of Irish Foresters, the Irish Timber Council, and the Social Economic Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland (SEEFA).<\/p>\n
\n A letter to schools accompanying the book from those groups said timber processors regard the spruce as \u201cthe most adaptable tree species growing in Ireland, capable of producing outstanding yields\u201d, albeit with the caveat that “other stakeholders regard it as a species that Irish forestry has become too reliant on\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n A spokesperson for SEEFA said the groups had, in publishing the book, \u201cfollowed the example recently used in Scotland and Wales, where stakeholders took the initiative and paid to distribute a book for children across all schools in both countries\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe book is designed to allow children of various ages to consider wood in their built environment. This is the amazing tree which provides a roof over each and every one of our heads. It also has huge potential to replace carbon-intensive building materials such as steel and concrete in future building projects,\u201d the spokesperson said.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
\n They added that, although not funded by the Department of Education, the foreword by Mr Healy-Rae for the book \u201cwas agreed before the book\u2019s publication\u201d.\u00a0Mr Healy-Rae had not replied to a request for comment at the time of publication.<\/p>\n
\n A spokesperson for the Department of Education said that its current policy \u201cis not to endorse or promote any particular programme, product or publication to support teaching and learning\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere is no obligation for a school to use any particular textbook or programme in their delivery of the curriculum,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIn terms of content, the Department of Education does not have a role in approving, commissioning, sponsoring or endorsing any content in any publication or product.\u00a0External companies and organisations are free to make direct contact with schools with regard to their own resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Dr Eoin Lettice, a lecturer in plant science at UCC, said the main issue with the Sitka Spruce is that it \u201cdoes not support biodiversity in the same way that native or mixed forests do\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere is a need to shift our commercial forestry towards more mixed planting, which doesn’t rely on just one non-native species which has been demonstrated to have negative impacts on the environment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Department of Education says it has no control over the\u00a0texts used in schools after a book endorsing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18896,835,246,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-412155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-sustainability-biodiversity","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}