Pat Dinan, Cluain Ri; Brian Heffernan, president of TrimTidy Towns; Anne Whelan, St. Patrick’s Park; Tomas Novak, Biodiversity Ambassador and Pat Whelan, St Patrick’s Park.
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Pat Dinan, Cluain Ri; Brian Heffernan, president of TrimTidy Towns; Anne Whelan, St. Patrick’s Park; Tomas Novak, Biodiversity Ambassador and Pat Whelan, St Patrick’s Park.
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“Pollinator Friendly Planting” with Area Foreman Anthony Conlon; and Michael Sherrock and Robert Bradley of outside board staff.
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Trim Tidy Towns Biodiversity Ambassador Tomas Novak in Porchfield Wildflower Meadow.
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One of the signs that were made by recycling old road signs.
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The wildflower meadow in the Porchfields in full bloom.
Trim has led the way in encouraging biodiversity with local residents and associations, Tidy Towns, businesses, schools, community groups and Meath County Council all playing their part.
Trim Tidy Towns recently launched its three-year Biodiversity Plan and as part of it has appointed Biodiversity Volunteer Tomas Novak who will engage with local residents associations on the steps they can take to promote biodiversity.
Tomas who is already an active Tidy Towns volunteer will also be working on the Eco Estates project, another goal of the Biodiversity Plan. The Eco Estates project will see Trim Tidy Towns work with up to eight residents associations on a pilot project to make estates more pollinator and biodiversity friendly.
Estates will share their successes and we hope that some concerted actions can be tailored to each participating estate. These could include changing mowing regimes, planting trees, and installing certain created habitats, including bee banks and bat nesting boxes.
Over the past year there have been a number of initiatives across the city to increase biodiversity, from the pollinator highway created by the council and the wildflower meadow through the Porchfields which is now in full bloom, to increasing pollinator-friendly flowers and shrubs planted by both council and local tidy towns.
There are biodiversity corners popping up in local housing estates as well as wildlife-managed reduced mowing spots, which are identified by signs the Council has recycled from old road signs.
An effort has also been made to encourage landlords, community groups, businesses, housing estates and schools to map work already done in private gardens or outside businesses, schools, etc. by connecting them to the interactive map contained on www. pollinators.com
Trim Tidy Towns Chairman Brian Heffernan said: “Biodiversity has long been a key part of what our Tidy Towns Committee does and I believe this year we have seen another big step forward for us, particularly in the development of our new local biodiversity action plan which will be used to guide Trim’s biodiversity work for the next three years. We are also very happy to have Tomas as our first volunteer biodiversity ambassador, which I think is a first in Meath, and we are looking forward to having someone to help us. advancing a number of these projects on the ground.”
Lcoal councilor Ronan Moore, who is also chairman of Trim Sustainable Energy Community, said: “The biodiversity crisis is something that as a society we all have to deal with with recent reports showing that the nature is declining globally at a rate unprecedented in human history.To do this we all have to play our part and I believe that is what we are seeing at Trim.
“From local town council actions to tidy towns, from schools to housing estates, we can see how Trim, like many cities and towns across the country, is making a concerted effort to do its part. And there’s always more what we can do and I encourage anyone interested in this area to log on to the All Ireland Pollinator Plan on pollinators.ie for advice and to find out what else we can do to increase our local biodiversity.
