On Friday 18th November 2022, as part of the Ballymun Summit, the Ballymun Biodiversity Action Plan 2022 was launched by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Caroline Conroy.
Guest speakers included, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Caroline Conroy, Dr. Mary Tubridy, the ecologist who conducted the survey work for the Ballymun Biodiversity Action Plan, Dr. Áine O Connor, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Dr. Rob Gandola, the Herpetological Society of Ireland and Dr. Darach Lupton, Office of Public Works and curator of the Botanic Gardens, Dublin.
Background: Ballymun Tidy Towns received funding in 2019 from The Community Foundation of Ireland to employ ecologists to survey and work with the community to produce an updated Ballymun Biodiversity Action Plan. This was delayed due to Covid restrictions. As part of this process, the Ballymun Biodiversity Focus Group was set up to give community input and receive training via educational Zoom classes and webinars from the ecologists. This group is made up of members from Ballymun Tidy Towns, the City Farm, Ballymun, DCC Biodiversity officer, DCC councillor, local wildlife photographer, local amateur ornithologists, and horticulturists.
In May 2021, they were awarded a grant from National Parks and Wildlife Service for survey equipment so the Ballymun Biodiversity Focus Group can conduct their own surveys once the Ballymun Biodiversity Action Plan is complete and feed into the National Biodiversity Data Centre database. This library of equipment will also be available to other local community groups and schools in Ballymun.
This equipment covers Bird, Bat, Moth, Insect, Plant, and Water Surveys.
Ballymun Tree Trail. As part of the Ballymun Biodiversity Action Plan we would like to have a tree trail covering the whole of Ballymun. To achieve this we are currently surveying all the trees in Ballymun using the Curio xyz app. Below is the Tree Trail produced for Poppintree Park.
Previous Ballymun Biodiversity Action Plans
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