This year's Bord Bia Bloom festival aimed to inspire its 100,000 + visitors to take positive actions towards a healthier, more environmentally conscious world. With this theme and the perfect sunny weather, the Irish Tree Explorers Network (ITEN) picked the ideal stage to kick-start their new project.

The ITEN stand welcomed a significant number of distinguished visitors over the weekend, including the Lord Mayor and Tánaiste Micheál Martin. It was a pleasure to observe them actively engage with the stand, examine the pine tree specimen under the microscope, and cast their votes for their preferred tree species. The overwhelming success of this event makes it abundantly clear that there is a strong and growing appetite within the Cork community for expanding knowledge and appreciation of trees. The level of engagement and the overwhelmingly enthusiastic responses to our surveys clearly demonstrate the public's keen interest in learning more about trees.

The conference featured a range of topics, from optimising seed banking to mitigating plant diseases in cereal grains, highlighting the importance of plants in tackling environmental issues. One researcher presented an exciting solution to the growing issue of water quality in Ireland - the use of a particular oat species (Azola) plant for cleaning wastewater, potentially improving water quality and ensuring a healthier environment.