18th August 22- Supporting Nature on Louisburgh-Killeen Farmlands

Supporting Nature on Louisburgh-Killeen Farmlands- Biodiversity Project
Presentation with Louise Duignan, Professional Ecologist and Volunteer with Louisburgh-Killeen Heritage.

In Killeen Community Centre @3pm 18th August 22.

This presentation is part of our on-going biodiversity project where we are creating a data base of local native flora and fauna from the looped walks in Killeen. Come and learn how we as a farming community can support nature and biodiversity while growing or rearing crops or animals. We are all interconnected and interdependent so what can we do as individuals to contribute to positive biodiversity.

The looped walks in Killeen cover farmlands, bog lands, lake and wetlands, and seashore.

We hope to create an awareness of these plants and animals by recording them, archive the data on our website, erect a poster board with some of the biodiversity highlighted, create educational toolkits for use by the local schools and tourists, encourage conservation of these walking routes through education and preservation. We know this will not be a comprehensive database but will serve as a base to start from, we want the awareness to create a continued recording that can be expanded on over time. We really want the community benefit to be the lasting prosperity and contribute in a small way to climate action.

We were delighted to have Louise host a short talk in June ’22 on how to identify and record wildflowers and grasses. It was a fantastic evening of information and with Louise’s wealth of knowledge about native wildflowers and grass species, she answered many questions, and we are thankful to have her as a volunteer in Louisburgh-Killeen Heritage.

We are grateful to Mayo County Heritage Officer for supporting us with this project through the already published Louisburgh Nature and Wildlife Plan 2014-2017, Louisburgh Habitat Survey & Management Plan 2020 and the County Mayo Heritage Plan 2020-2025.

We were extremely excited to have partnered with the Mayo College of Further Education and Training and welcomed three Erasmus + students from Estonia, in June ’22 who have been recording and photographing areas of interest in the Killeen looped walks.

Thanks to Eithne O’Malley for facilitating and Mayo College of Further Education and Training (MCFET) for supporting this initiative.

You can read more Here