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At the biodiversity training event in The Rose Hotel were Anne Marie Fuller, Dr Lynda Weekes of MTU, Cllr Deirdre Ferris, Colm Nagle of Kerry County Council, Cllr Cathal Foley and Mary Kiernan of Transition Kerry. Photo by Dermot Crean
HAVING undertaken many actions for pollinators and biodiversity over the last year, Tralee Tidy Towns and the From the Ground Up network, supported by the Kerry PPN held a biodiversity training event, followed by a workshop at The Rose Hotel on Wednesday last.
Part-funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development, it was well attended by elected members and relevant staff of the Kerry County Council Tralee MD and also by the Tralee Tidy Towns CE Scheme team and their supervisor.
A presentation on the current biodiversity crisis, the importance of the areas managed for biodiversity in urban settings and the cutting regimes that could help enhance biodiversity, was delivered by Dr Lynda Weekes, lecturer in Wildlife Biology at MTU Kerry.
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This was followed by an engaging workshop which was facilitated by members of Tralee Tidy Towns and From the Ground Up and focused on the challenges associated with managing areas for biodiversity and it highlighted potential projects that could be delivered by the stakeholders involved.
Brendan O’Brien of Tralee Tidy Towns said: “We are truly fortunate to have an academic of the calibre of MTU’s Dr Linda Weekes working here in Kerry.
“Her insights and advice resonated with all of us. We are also delighted with the level of engagement shown by our elected members and by the staff involved in managing areas for biodiversity in Tralee.
“It shows the importance being placed on this important issue by our local authority and our CE scheme. It was acknowledged that it will be a difficult task to win public opinion on the need to allow the wildflower and grass species to grow but there is a growing recognition that we all have to play our part in protecting nature – and that might mean tolerating grasslands that are not so neat and tidy all of the time,” added Brendan.
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