Gone with the wind – Virginia College

Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition

An investigation on storm damage and its impact on forestry and flora formed the basis of ‘Gone With The Wind’ a project by three students from Virginia College.

Conor Sheehan, Odhrán Agasse and Caelán Macken were the trio behind the study.

Conor explained their motivation: “We chose this project because our school was recently very affected by Storm Éowyn as a tree fell on the canteen.”

Giving the length of time it took to fix the roof, the cost involved and the fact that Deerpark is a nearby forest in the community, the students thought the project worthwhile.

Odhrán was positive about their YSTE journey. “It’s definitely been interesting. We’ve had people come up to us that weren’t guests or judges interested in our project. It’s nice to see that we’re not the only ones interested in this topic and want to help promote our native plants.”

Caelán discussed the project’s findings: “What we found was that the tree species Sitka Spruce and Norway Spruce were so much more prone to storm damage because they were non-native. They’re not used to the Irish ecosystem... but, because of how quick and easy they are to grow, they’ve been planted all over the country for commercial timber use.”

He feels they have taken over Irish forestry, but not for the better. “All it takes is one big storm and the forest is gone. That forest could have been protected if they had planted even just a border of Oak or Scots Pine.”

The students paid tribute to their teachers Mr Hynes and Mr Ryan for their assistance.