Storytelling: Bridging the Gap Between Community and Decision-Makers

The Situation: Galway’s residents are committed to fostering urban green and blue spaces. Toward this end, they are pursuing the steps required to become a National Park City, a concept pioneered in London.

The Complication: Many residents don’t know where the park is, have safety concerns, or aren’t sure where to go to connect to resources like trails or how to advocate for their needs.

The Resolution: My research team and I identified opportunities to advance the Galway National Park City initiative, using it as a north star for our research. We chose to focus on community engagement and surveyed residents on their concerns and priorities. We realized that even though urban forest advocates were doing incredible work and had a lot of supporters, many residents felt disconnected from this effort. We saw this as an opportunity to bridge the gap between longtime volunteers and others, including new university students. Mapping trails, interacting directly with community members, and presenting information about the forestation effort in clear, easily understandable graphics were key to increasing community support for urban rewilding.

Rewilding an urban forest.

I initially connected to this project as a graduate researcher. Terryland Forest Park is a series of segmented forest spaces across the city of Galway, Ireland. Today, it is a flourishing area of native trees and vegetation and features outdoor gyms, childrens’ artwork, outdoor educational spaces, and carved stone markers depicting historically significant icons.

In 2000, it was an untended field. This transformation was spearheaded by local activist Brendan Smith. During my time as a graduate student at the University of Galway, my research team and I connected with Brendan to support this rewilding effort as we worked to advance urban forests as part of the National Park City initiative.

At the time of this research, a grant application to the city council was under consideration that would supply funding for a volunteer hub in the forest. This hub would hold supplies and serve as a starting point for a key forest trail. I returned to Galway on sabbatical in the summer of 2025, during which time I volunteered with Brendan at the now-established volunteer hub, An Nead (The Nest), cleaning the park, mapping areas that need additional attention, and reviewing forest waterways with local government officials.

Role: Researcher and volunteer

Skill: Impactful Storytelling

Duration: Fall 2021, Summer 2025

Sites: Terryland Forest Park (Páirc Foraoise Thír Oileáin) in Galway, Ireland

Storytelling

Urban rewilding is a community effort. Connecting with residents across the city was critical to the ongoing support for Terryland. Because the park exists in a series of segmented areas, residents can have a hard time finding park entrances, understanding what amenities (such as outdoor gyms) are in which area, and feeling equally safe in all areas at night. This can be an issue for some segments that are along roadways and are more isolated than other portions of the park.

As such, effective communication and storytelling were key to reaching new residents and solidifying existing support.

By documenting walking trails, surveying residents, and photographing key elements of the park, my team and I were able to introduce community members to the park and strengthen support for new resources. Importantly, our work bolstered the National Park City concept of integrating nature spaces into urban areas and helped advance existing local efforts.

Bringing urban green and blue spaces into Galway City and advancing the National Park City initiative means better mental and physical health for residents and a healthier natural ecosystem.
I conducted a research project with my team to assess the community response to urban forests and identify key areas for improvement. We partnered with local activists to tie our research into existing efforts and ensure our work translated into impact.
Later, I returned to Galway as a forest volunteer, helping introduce residents to local forest spaces.
This work included using GIS to map walking trails, creating a community resource that had never before existed. My team surveyed residents and used SPSS to analyze the data, allowing us to prioritize park features for improvement and make appropriate recommendations to decision makers.
This research produced the first documentation of historic and current local walking trails, created supporting documentation to advocate with local government, and contributed to the body of research on the benefits of urban forests.

The gallery below displays some of the images created during this project. There is a GIS map of Terryland Forest Park with the trails depicted, followed by key walking routes highlighted in blue, red, green, and fuschia.