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"Bonny Portmore" is an Irish traditional folk song which laments the demise of Ireland's old oak forests, specifically the Great Oak of Portmore or the Portmore Ornament Tree, which fell in a windstorm in 1760 and was subsequently used for shipbuilding and other purposes.
During the first 75 years of the 20th century, forestry in Ireland was almost exclusively carried out by the state. By 1985, forest and woodland cover was approximately 420,000 hectares. Upon the first arrival of humans in Ireland around 12,500 years ago, the entire island was predominantly covered in a blanket of thick woodland.
Today, the remaining fragments of Celtic rainforest are protected for conservation and research. [4] Since the 20th century, conservation efforts have resulted in the protection and management of many of these woodlands, to address problems such as invasive Rhododendron, excessive grazing from sheep and deer, and non-native plantation trees. [10]
The outcome is an ecoregion which has not only lost most of its pristine cover, but which has been heavily degraded by fragmentation. The forests today are in a critical status, with the majority of the land having become the rolling pasture-hills typically associated with England.
The colloquial and local terms in the song's monologue and lyrics include references to a 'spike' (a hostel or 'reception centre' sometimes used by Irish navvies who could not find or afford lodgings) and to 'shuttering' (a rapidly constructed wooden casing made to hold concrete while it sets).
The woods at Cratloe Hill are the subject of poems and stories going back to at least the seventeenth century. Notable writers who have mentioned the site include Elizabeth Bowen, who used the woodland at Garranone to symbolise the continuity of the Irish landscape and Samuel Ferguson, whose love poem "The Lapful of Nuts" describes his happy times in Cratloe collecting nuts with his sweetheart.
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Bolivia also has the seventh largest amount of tropical rainforest. Overall, forests made up 51.4 million hectares or 46.8% of the country's total area as of 2013. [143] Both primary forest and overall forest cover have been declining in recent decades. [143]