Our Mission
The Feeding Tree is a community-rooted, non-profit initiative dedicated to fostering meaningful connection with the natural world through inclusive, accessible, and creative nature-based experiences for all ages in Co. Clare. We aim to empower individuals, nurture wellbeing, and inspire stewardship of the earth through Forest School practices and other nature-centred activities.
Our Vision
We envision a future where all people feel a deep sense of belonging in nature and live in respectful relationship with the earth. In response to today’s ecological and social challenges, The Feeding Tree exists to rekindle empathy, care, joy and collective responsibility for our environment and each other—through lifelong learning, play, and community connection in the wild.
The Feeding Tree is the umbrella organisation of Dreoilín Forest school for adults & The Friendly Fox Forest School for children 0-10 years old & Madra Crainn for youth Aged 11-17 years old. Most Sessions take place at Lees Road Park, ennis, Co. Clare.
Our Guiding values - the 3 R’s
Respect for each other - Listening, co-operating, playing and learning together through friendship.
Respect for ourselves - Being the best version of ourselves and understanding our own limits. Listening to our bodies.
Respect for the environment - Caring for the woodland, leaving no trace, and exploring how we can support nature.
Meet the Team
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With over forty years of experience across the print, packaging, contracting, and science industries, Eoin has worked at every level — from the shop floor to senior management to running his own business. His professional focus has always been on business development and supporting small to medium enterprises.
Alongside this, Eoin has spent much of his life working with children, young people, and adults through coaching and community initiatives in environmental education, youth leadership, and sport. He is also involved in the Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Programme and serves as a Director of the Clare Immigrant Support Centre.
Eoin holds qualifications in print, engineering, youth and forest school leadership, and a Train the Trainer certificate, as well as a REC3 Outdoor First Aid certification. He is passionate about weaving these skills together to enrich the forest school experience for people of all ages.
For Eoin, forest school is a foundational education that nurtures resilience, confidence, self-esteem, and responsibility — helping each person unlock their potential. By deepening our relationship with nature, he believes we rediscover curiosity and wonder, and grow the confidence to contribute meaningfully to community-led efforts for a better world.
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Originally from Mexico City, Naya’s path has been guided by creativity, curiosity, and a deep desire for connection. She studied cinema and went on to complete a master’s degree in Arts and Cultural Management in Melbourne, before spending four years in France — first in the city of Lyon, and later in the Basque countryside.
There, she and her husband David made the decision to step away from the rush of city life, seeking a slower and more mindful way of living closer to nature. That experience deepened Naya’s awareness of the climate crisis and the importance of community-led change. Eventually, the call of family and belonging brought them to East Clare, where David has roots and where they’ve built a home together.
During the pandemic, while raising their daughter, Lucía, and renovating their cottage, Naya returned to study Early Childhood Care and Education and Forest School Leadership. It was during her forest school training that she met Eoin, and together they discovered a shared vision: to create spaces that nurture connection between people and the natural world.
Naya now holds a Forest School Leadership qualification and REC3 Outdoor First Aid certification. Her work with The Feeding Tree grows from her belief that reawakening our relationship with nature can inspire the empathy, creativity, and collective care our world so deeply needs.
Our sessions are take place in County Clare and are rooted in participant-led learning, exploration, and connection to the natural world.
Want to be part of what we're building? Find out how to join the team.
A Brief History of Forest School
The roots of Forest School reach back to 19th-century Europe, where educators and naturalists began exploring how learning in nature could nurture wellbeing and creativity.
In the 1950s, this approach took shape in Scandinavia as a way to support children’s connection with the natural world. The idea spread to the UK in the 1990s and soon flourished, inspiring many schools to bring learning outdoors.
Forest School arrived in Ireland in 2012, introduced by Joan Whelan, former Chair of the Irish Forest School Association (IFSA). Soon after, Ciara Hinksman led the first Irish Forest School Leadership training, and in 2017 the IFSA was formally launched. A national milestone followed in 2023, with the creation of the first Irish-accredited QQI Level 6 Forest School Training at Brigit’s Garden.
Today, Forest School continues to grow across Ireland, offering people of all ages the joy and belonging that come from learning in and with nature.
six principles of forest school
At The Feeding Tree, we follow the six core Forest School principles, guided by joy, empathy, and a deep respect for the living world.
Principle 1- Regular sessions:
Forest school is a long-term process of regular sessions, rather than a one-off or infrequent visits. Each one builds on the last through planning, observation, adaptation and reflection.
Principle 2- Woodland setting:
Forest School takes place in a woodland or natural environment, where learners build a lasting, hands-on relationship with the living world around them.
Principle 3- Building community:
Forest School nurtures a community where everyone can learn, grow, and simply be — through learner-centred experiences that encourage belonging and connection.
Principle 4- Holistic Development:
Forest School supports holistic growth — fostering resilience, confidence, creativity, independence, and joy in learning.
Principle 5- Risk taking:
Forest School offers learners the chance to take supported, meaningful risks that are appropriate to them and their environment.
Principle 6- Qualified Practitioners:
Forest School sessions are led by qualified practitioners who are committed to ongoing learning and reflective practice.
These principles guide our practice and reflect our belief that connection, care, and joy in nature are essential for lifelong learning and wellbeing.
Together, we create welcoming Forest School spaces where participants can grow in confidence, creativity, and care. In a time of ecological uncertainty, we believe that helping people connect with the Earth — and with each other — is one of the most important things we can do.
