{"id":627394,"date":"2026-09-17T10:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T10:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627394\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T10:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T10:48:12","slug":"cork-councillor-seeks-pause-on-tree-removal-at-area-earmarked-as-possible-ecology-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627394\/","title":{"rendered":"Cork councillor seeks pause on tree removal at area earmarked as possible ecology park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"contextmenu internal_Body1st\">Trees and vegetation should not be removed from Skibbereen\u2019s marsh until nature-based alternatives have been examined, says a local councillor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The Social Democrats\u2019 Isobel Towse has called on the Office of Public Works (OPW) to give commitments about future work. She raised the issue at a recent meeting of Cork County Council\u2019s West Cork Municipal District.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Ms Towse said she had been contacted by local people concerned about planned works at the marsh.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">She said the area was species-rich and had been identified as a future \u2018marsh ecology park\u2019 in the Skibbereen Town Centre First Plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Ms Towse said residents were worried that trees and vegetation might be removed without sufficient consideration of alternatives that would protect the character and ecological value of the site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">She asked the municipal district to write to the OPW seeking a pause in any further clearance, while the need for the works \u2014 and options based on nature \u2014 was properly examined.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cThe marsh is a very species-rich area,\u201d Ms Towse told the meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">She said vegetation had already been removed earlier in the year, during the nesting period, and that local people were upset by the work. People wanted reassurance that any other work would be limited to take account of wildlife.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Ms Towse said the concern was not simply about individual trees, but about protecting a site that had been earmarked for an ecology park within the town-centre plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Ms Towse said the OPW should show that it had investigated nature-based solutions before any further vegetation was removed at the marsh.<\/p>\n<p>                    Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trees and vegetation should not be removed from Skibbereen\u2019s marsh until nature-based alternatives have been examined, says a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-627394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627394","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=627394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}