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

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.

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.

Funding is being provided under two strands. Firstly, 47 areas, which have yet to draw up action plans, will be supported to engage experts like ecologists who will advise and examine what work needs to be done. The second strand is for 24 communities to implement existing biodiversity plans.

Unsurprisingly, one of our most picturesque villages, Adare, County Limerick, which has a lovely park at its heart, is on the list. Adare Tidy Towns plans a full biodiversity audit of the village and wants to increase local awareness of such matters.

Cork Nature Network is drawing up an action plan for the estuary and inter-tidal zone in Ballydehob.

Cork Nature Network Ballydehob. Picture: M.McColgan CNN

There are plans to restore wetlands on the banks of the Shannon, north of Limerick.

School children are being involved in biodiversity in Ogonnelloe, County Clare.

A project in County Galway brings to mind a few apt lines from WB Yeats’ poem, The Stolen Child: “Come away O human child/ To the Waters and Wild". The Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society wishes to reflect the poetry of Yeats and his love of nature by creating a suitable local attraction.

Yeats Thoor Ballylee Society volunteers replacing fallen trees with native varieties

Currow, a modest village in the heart of County Kerry, is best known for producing rugby legends with names such as Doyle, Keane, Galwey and Hanrahan, but it also had a proud record for creating a lake area with public walks. Currow’s rural development group now plans to remove invasive pigmy weed from the lake.

Given the decline of peatlands, it would be astounding if some community didn’t focus on the subject. Ballyhoura Heritage and Environment Company, Kilfinnane, County Limerick, wants expert help to gain a deep understanding of Gristen Bog so as to guide its future management.

Commenting on the overall programme, Minister of State Malcolm Noonan said communities are getting the chance to work closely with ecologists and learn more about biodiversity in their local area: “It’s an enormously valuable model, and one that I’d encourage everyone to consider when the next round of applications opens in 2023."