Thursday, October 12, 2006

Ireland’s First Local Biodiversity Plan

In May 2006 Clare County Council became the first local authority in Ireland to produce a Local Biodiversity Action Plan. The Plan was produced by the Clare Biodiversity Group, a voluntary group, whose members include Clare County Council, Irish Seed Savers Association, Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation, National Parks and Wildlife Service, IFA, and the Forest Service. According to the Group farmers have a very important role in the success of the Biodiversity Plan. Most farmers know what plants and animals are on their land and how best to maintain habitats on their land. A crucial source of information, their involvement is valued. All local authorities in Ireland are required to develop such a strategy, under the Government’s National Biodiversity Plan 2002.

Sonairte - Ireland's National Ecology Centre

Sonairte, Ireland's National Ecology Centre in Laytown, Co Meath, is an environmental visitor centre comprising an organic garden, riverside nature trail, renewable energy interactive park, wind, rain and solar exhibits. Ireland's only ecology centre, it aims to show schools, the public and business, practical and economic ways of adopting lifestyles that avoid damaging to the environment. This is achieved through the promotion of ecological awareness and education in areas such as sustainable living, organics, conservation, and alternative technology.
Find out more at http://community.meath.ie/sonairte/

The island of ireland

Once upon a time, and for 15000 years, ice a mile high blanketed Ireland. When the lingering Ice Age finally released and the Irish ice departed it left a landscape scoured. Across land bridges linking Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe plants and animals arrived to colonise the new lowlands, mountains and valleys. The world’s ice continued to melt, the sea levels to rise, and some 8000 years ago Ireland became the island we now know, accounting for just 0.01% of the world's total land area and the most westerly point of Europe.

Though at Alaskan latitudes, the country's climate is tempered, due partly to the neighbouring waters of the Gulf Stream and partly the prevailing southwesterlies that veering and backing make landfall on our sodden coast. These offerings from the Atlantic mean it is never too hot, never too cold. But without doubt it is wet. Rain lingers year round, never far away, though is most frequent in winter, the western counties and, inevitably, on the day of your parade.