Free event but booking essential. Contact John F Kennedy Arboretum:

jfkarboretum@opw.ie  +353 46 942 3490

Conifers are of major importance worldwide. 34% of all conifer species are threatened with extinction. The International Conifer Conservation Project promotes in-situ and ex-situ conservation. John F Kennedy Arboretum are one of the Irish sites taking part in this vital project to safeguard international biodiversity.

 In a world in which extinction and loss of plants and animals is a recurrent and depressing theme there are occasional glimmers of hope and examples of extraordinary survival. One such was the Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis) of Australia, discovered alive in a remote sandstone gorge of Wollemi National Park and previously only known from 20 million year old fossils.

Twelve of these precious trees were recently planted within two of Ireland’s most important botanical collections, with six trees at the John F. Kennedy Arboretum in Co. Wexford, and six at the National Botanic Gardens, Kilmacurragh in Co. Wicklow.

Find out more about this project at John F Kennedy Arboretum with Dr Hannah Wilson, Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, and Dr Darach Lupton, Curator at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin