YOU'VE heard of the urban cowboy, and you've probably heard of the urban spaceman. Now meet another late 20th-century character: the urban forester. Kevin Collins, soft-spoken, yet articulate and persuasive - and only 27 years old - is Ireland's first urban forester. It sounds so romantic. But what does it mean?
"It's a term which confuses people," admits Kevin. "It conjures up the image of the hustle and bustle of urban life on the one hand, and then the rural, tranquil image of woodland on the other." And in fact the urban forester must wear a number of different hats - some rural, some city - for he is a modern hybrid of tree manager crossed with liaison officer, teacher and gentle diplomat.
The urban forester doesn't just go around planting trees in cities and towns. It is his job to help local authorities and other bodies who request advice on planting new trees, or rejuvenating woodlands. He provides expertise on tree species, on planting for the future, on security, and most importantly, on how the local community can be involved.
Encouraging people in urban areas to take responsibility for local trees and woodlands is crucial, says Kevin. Not only does, this create employment, usually through FAS schemes, but it also discourages vandalism. "If someone has been involved in a tree-planting initiative, they'll be less likely to come back and break the tree," he says. "It's more a case of `It's my tree, and no one's going to touch it'."
One of the best experiences in Kevin's career so far was when he helped out on the Fettercairn Horse Project in Tallaght. "It was a scheme developed by local people trying to get the kids to look after the horses which they kept in the open spaces there," he says. "They got together a ranch and made a stable area. They planted over 150 trees around the area where they were looking after the horses. It was a great time. You get a buzz out of a bunch of kids like that - and they'll remember it for the rest of their lives?"
The trees planted in Fettercairn were birch and alder - what are known as pioneer species. "In the natural world they grow on sites which are very, very harsh and if they get broken, they coppice again. They are very sturdy and robust, they keep coming," he explains. "It's like sending in the marines, they establish a foothold so that later you can come in and plant more fragile species."
In the next seven days, plenty of pioneer species - and other types too - will be planted all over Ireland in celebration of the Tree Council's National Tree Week, which starts tomorrow. This year's theme is "Releaf Our Towns" and events kick off with a ceremonial planting of eight oaks in Oranmore, Co Galway. But the real fun, according to Kevin, starts immediately after the launch when "we're going to take all the local kids down to the woods and we'll give them each a couple of trees to plant." There are 250 trees waiting to be homed in this children's wood: beech, birch and ash.
In all, at least 10,000 trees will be planted during the next week in Ireland: that's the number Coillte is distributing to schools, hospitals, residents' associations and local authorities. But that doesn't take into account all the other maverick tree-planters who have been germinating acorns and conkers in their back gardens in preparation for this week.
Wrestling with scrawny saplings in the mud is not everybody's idea of fun. But then again, very few people are immune to the majesty and beauty of a mature tree - so somebody has to plant them. This becomes all the more urgent when you learn that trees are providing us with a free air-cleansing service by hoovering up carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases and pollutants, then pumping out vast amounts of oxygen in return. They also screen eyesores, block off noise and provide a home for throngs of things that buzz, fly and scurry.
So next week the message is: trees are good. Go and plant one.