Is Ireland really all that green? Ecologically speaking, the answer is no… Earlier this month, the country’s Environmental Protection Agency published a report that rated Ireland’s environmental health as “poor.” Thousands of years ago, 80 percent of Ireland was forested. Trees now cover just 11 percent of the country, one of the lowest rates in Europe, and are predominately nonnative Sitka spruce. Native trees cover just 1 percent of the land. Biodiversity is also suffering. Ireland may have millions of acres of brilliant green fields dotted with cows and sheep, but that land is largely grass monocultures… Eoghan Daltun rewilded his land in West Cork into a temperate rainforest and wants more of Ireland to do the same. [A subscription to the New York Times is required to access this full story]