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A County Down voluntary group, dedicated to protecting our environment held a 'wake' in Belfast at the weekend to mark Earth Day 2023 on Saturday 22 April. Rostrevor Action Respecting the Environment (RARE) were protesting at the felling of 29,530 trees by the Department for Infrastructure in the past ten years. Thirty of these were cut down as part of a DfI flood alleviation scheme at Greenbank Industrial Estate in Newry.
The creative protest idea came from artist Joanne McCrum who was moved and saddened by the destruction that was going on around her. McCrum came up with a design for a memorial to the lost trees. The eight foot tall 'headstone' was taken to the Department for Infrastructure headquarters in Belfast on Saturday. Speaking about the protest Colum Sands of RARE said "We made our way to the DfI offices which were locked, but in many ways they're 'locked' all the time anyway because they don't respond to crucial questions like 'how can we help them to stop destroying the natural infrastructure' which is a huge question."
Sands added "We're trying to see how we can help them. We're not so much protesting as just pointing out a problem which has been pointed out by a government body as well. This is a very flawed approach what's going on there."
A paragraph from a March 2022 report by the Stormont Public Accounts Committee was read out "The Committee was disappointed to learn that one of the poorest performing statutory consultees, DfI Rivers, is part of the Department for Infrastructure. Such a failure within the Departmental boundary gives the Committee reason to question whether the Department fully grasps the consequences of its own actions or indeed the importance of the planning system. More generally, the Committee is concerned that, despite what it was told by the Department about the significant work ongoing with statutory consultees, there is no improvement in performance. The existence of a silo culture amongst consultees is also a significant concern, particularly the evidence that some consultees are protecting their own organisation's performance to the detriment of the overall system. This is not acceptable and urgent remedial action must be taken."
RARE were also joined by No Toxic Lough and Save our Lagan groups. The protestors started off at The MAC where an Earth Day event was taking place and then walked to Belfast City Hall before reaching the DfI headquarters.
The Rostrevor visitors took the sign of the now famous 'Invisible Tree' at Rostrevor and outside the Department's HQ they hammered in a couple of tree tags that were placed on the condemned Newry oaks by the DfI's tree consultant 'literally to hammer home the message'. Sands explained that "we'll be hanging it up on the tree that he couldn't see."
A rendition of 'The old Oak Wood turns green again' was sung with a special verse written for the occasion.
"DfI strike in the dark
Chainsaws tearing through the bark
Our infrastructure you destroy
The time has come to tell us why.
Sands concluded "It's just the beginning of a journey because this is literally a moving sign and many people will want to stand beside it and just express their concerns and their hopes that they can encourage the DfI to stop destroying our natural infrastructure. We want to help them in in any way that we can to do that."
