A special national education award has been won by a Tullamore, Co Offaly-based organisation, Just Forests, which this year marked its 10th anniversary.
The organisation produced its own "Know-Wood" board and CD-ROM to create a "wood culture" in Ireland.
The winning project was devised by Mr Tom Roche, director of Just Forests, which is based at Bury Quay in Tullamore, where the organisation was founded.
Few people in Ireland know or care more about wood and trees than Tom, who is from Chapel Street, Tullamore, and has devoted his life to the subject.
"I began my working life as an apprentice cabinetmaker and I enjoyed working with wood. When I qualified I took off and went to Australia," he said.
"While in Australia, I worked on a sheep farm where there were very few trees and the people who lived there looked after the trees very well.
"Myself and the other two lads on the sheep farm had to use the same bath water and then that water was poured on the trees to keep them alive.
"That was when I began to realise just how important trees and timber really were and I took that knowledge home with me when I returned to Ireland in the early 1970s," he said.
On his return he ran his own business in Tullamore until 1989 when he set up the Just Forests organisation to promote an awareness of forestry here and for the just development of the world's forests.
Part of the work of the organisation is to draw up certification of development standards for Irish forests, which the organisation overseas and Tom co-ordinates.
"We have lost a lot of our old forests and we are looking at a relatively new culture of growing softwoods here. We have a weak wood-culture here," he said.
"A lot of people are not able to look at a piece of wood and say what it is and I set out to address that problem as simply as I could."
Five years ago he designed the board, which could be used in schools, public libraries or in other areas of education to teach people about wood.
"The board I developed is wall mounted and carries six samples of Irish-grown hardwoods, six samples of Irishgrown softwoods, three samples of composite materials and three samples of tropical hardwoods from independently certified forests," he said.
The board carries samples of the ash, beech, sycamore, chestnut, oak and Spanish chestnut. The softwood samples include Sitka spruce, Scots pine, Douglas fir and Lodgepole pine. In addition to the tropical woods, he also included composite wood products such as chipboard and other materials made from residues of Irish forests.
He said making the board would not have been possible without the support of Coillte, the Irish Forestry Board, and the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources.
"They jointly contributed over £50,000 so the board could not only be manufactured but promoted as well, and this month it will be officially launched," he said.
The board is currently being manufactured in Co Tipperary and the hope is that not only schools and libraries will buy it, but it will also be taken up by local authority procurement officers, architects, building contractors and joineries.
Early last month, the product won the Irish Forestry award in the education and awareness category, a prize of £1,000 and a special RDS medal and perpetual trophy.
"I hope it will do a great deal to spread the knowledge of wood and wood products throughout the country and, indeed, abroad," said Tom.