Sad time for me this day 3 years ago!

 This time three years ago I had went back up to Narnia aka Mourne Mountains after the devastating fire that raged for days to find nearly all of my phantom planted trees burned.

I had hundreds dotted around this part of the mountain that were destroyed, it was such a sad and disheartened time for me.

I had a dream and vision back then to make a part of the mountain green with trees, environmental graffiti that would be seen from all around the country, that dream was up in smoke!

I dont go back near the place now to phantom plant, apparently its been common practice for hundreds years to burn mountains like this every 12 years or so to keep it for grazing animals.

We think our mountains our natural, far from it, all our mountain ranges on these islands at one time was covered in trees, man slashed and burned them all for grazing over years!

Now at this part of the mountain they dont only have sheep now trampling all over the trees but they have now introduced cattle as well.

No tree growing up there will ever stand a chance, then they say on their websites, please stick to the pathways when walking the mountains to prevent erosion but they have these giant beasts running all over it.

Every time I got back up these cattle have the mountain wrecked!

The sheep and cattle are doing more damage to the land and ecology up in Narnia than any human foot!

I got told off by an ecologist once for taking cuttings from the very rare native junipers in Narnia.

I want to grow them up and go back up and replant them in different places in the mountains.

Places where I know sheep and cattle cant get too and stamp all over them.

I was practically threatened with legal action for doing this as they are such an endangered species and my intentions was to spread the junipers.

Do these ecologists seem to think the sheep and cattle know what junipers are and they step over them with care, is that what they think?

If these are such an endangered plant species should these ecologists not be campaigning to keep the sheep and cattle off certain parts of the mountain as its the overgrazing animals that are wrecking the place!

But then do you know what they do, certain types of grass grows as a result of sheep and cattle grazing as they trample down every type of tree that tries to grow naturally.

If we leave the land alone and remove the cattle the land naturally reverts back to a forest. We had wolves here once keeping this in check. The wolves kept the balance of nature.

But then some butterfly comes in or a moth that likes these types of grasslands and they will say that all this maintaining of this man made zoo type landscape that its all to save certain grasses, moths and butterflies from going extinct and then they call the cattle conservation superheros!!

Its just farming, they are farming our mountains for profit. Its not about ecology or conservation its about money.

When you see signs saying area of outstanding natural beauty which is often in mountain areas. Whats natural about it? the sky maybe?

Even the trees are farmed trees, monocultured spruce trees for making toilet rolls. I understand we all need toilet roll, timber and food but disguising it as conservation is pure delusion.

You ever see that video circulating about the guy who broke the world record for planting the most about of trees and everyone is saying he's a superhero.

Guys he's a farmer, the trees he's planting will be getting the chop in 20-30 years time for profit. And the trees he's planting have no ecological benefit at all, in fact they are actually poisoning the land.

When I walk into these monocultured spruce forests It doesnt feel like a forest to me at all, they are dead and depressed and apparently the trees know they are being farmed. Some studies have shown the same tree grows very differently when planted alongside lots of other biodiversity.

Back at the start of my phantom planting journey when I knew nothing about trees, all I knew was to plant them the right way up. I got many messages from top ecologists, people with letters after they're names and can speak some fancy Latin.

They told me things with such authority, like they were so right and I was so wrong. Me being me I ignored the lot of them and did my thing. But all these years later some of the things they told me were complete lies. I've tried and tested, learned by doing and made so many mistakes, although they were more experiments rather than mistakes, but these so called top ecologists told me the biggest load of porkies!

Not all of them are like this though, there are many out there with a genuine love for nature and I've connected with so many of them who have helped me on in my journey. These are people who actually care for the land and not want to profit from the land.

Anyhow rant over but the more I look into all this world of ecology many of them for me are office pen pushers and have probably never touched the land with their bare feet before. We cant look at nature as something we are not part of. We are nature.

Rise of the paramili-trees - UTPP up the phantom planters!

#phantomplanter #paramilitrees

Peace and love!

I challenge you to phantom plant a tree! Anywhere, anytime, any place.....