Donal Hickey: From Yeats to city parks and wetlands — funds for local biodiversity action plans

More than 70 communities are to benefit and grants totalling €325,000 are being offered through a partnership between The Community Foundation for Ireland and the National Parks and Wildlife Service

Left: Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society Volunteers at the end of a busy day. Right: Cork Nature Network has been working with the City Council and local communities plus including the Kinship project to develop a Biodiversity Action plan for Tramore Valley Park. The action plan has been drawn up and will be finalised in March 2023

Important work, such as tackling invasive alien species, providing more roosting sites for birds, and better foraging areas for bats and owls, is being supported in a new programme to implement local biodiversity action plans.

All of this is a way of further encouraging communities to become involved in their own environment, helping plants and wildlife — a trend which is becoming more evident countrywide with each passing year: and all for local people themselves to enjoy.