WATCH: 150 campaigners pull up Sitka spruce on Coillte plantation in Leitrim

Local campaigners from Save Leitrim were joined by climate activists from across Ireland on Sunday (August 13) as they pulled up sitka spruce saplings from Coillte peatland and demanded, ‘Trees for climate, not for profit’.

Straw Boys in traditional costumes were among 150 people who took part in the "direct action" targeting industrial conifer plantations and calling for "radical change in Ireland’s forestry policy", a statement to the Leitrim Observer said.

Straw boys are "mischievous disrupters who gatecrash weddings, their identities camouflaged by conical straw hats."

The statement continued: "The group, aged 5 to 75, used the uprooted saplings to block drains in the publicly-owned plantation near Manorhamilton, thereby beginning restoration of the degraded peatland. They also planted native broadleaf trees on a nearby farm at the site of this year’s Climate Camp."