The Community Foundaton for Ireland Biodiversity Grant

Collinstown Tidy Towns group are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a grant from the Community Foundation for Ireland to support us in carrying out an ecological study of the village and local area, with the intention of developing a Community Biodiversity Action Plan.  The grant scheme has been devised to ‘enhance biodiversity in communities throughout the country by combining expertise of qualified ecologists with the skills, experience and enthusiasm of local community groups.’

Heather Bothwell is the ecologist who will be working with Collinstown and the timeline for carrying out the study is from February until November 2022. We welcomed Heather to our village in March where she conducted the first day of the survey and met with members of the Tidy Town group. A progress report will be submitted by the group in December 2022, and we will aim to submit the Biodiversity Action Plan to The community Foundation for Ireland by March 2023.

Part of the grant and survey involves engaging and facilitating the findings with the local community by means of a public talk or event and we hope to decide on the format over the coming months, with perhaps other events such as nature walks in the locality. An objective of the grant fund is to involve the community in data collection, engaging in species ID and citizen science methods to collate and share data with the National Biodiversity Data Centre ( NBDC). We encourage and welcome any individuals living in the area as well as local groups, organizations or businesses in Collinstown that have an interest in any aspect of biodiversity, local heritage and history to please get in touch and be involved. Local knowledge, input and collaboration would be greatly valued. Gathering information and cultivating awareness on local plants, trees, wildlife, habitats and heritage in the village and surrounding area is of great importance to conserve what we have and continue to work on enriching our environment.

We would like to thank The Community Foundation of Ireland and the National Parks and Wildlife Service for awarding the village with this grant. To get involved or for further information get in touch with the Collinstown Tidy Towns Group, we meet on Saturday mornings at 10am and new members are always welcomed. Alternatively contact Joe Potter 086 81 76 966 or Gráinne Flannery 087 95 64 920

Heather Bothwell