Nature and Biodiversity in Our Locality
1. Bird Houses with Wi-Fi Camera
We added bird houses in the Park and throughout Adare to allow our natives birds to have a place to stay and bring more life Adare. These have a Wi-Fi powered camera in each bird house to allow us to check on the birds and ensure everything is okay and to observe their behaviour and progress as well as checking that biodiversity in Adare is good condition.
2. Informative Talks
Attended an informative meeting on biodiversity & sustainability. A big thanks to Limerick City and County Council for helping to host this very informative meeting.
3. No Mow May
Right now, bees are struggling to survive because there are not enough wild flowers to give them the food they need.
Adare Tidy Towns is actively participating in the No Mow May initiative to support local pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Their efforts include:
- Encouraging the community: They have called on residents to join them in aiding Ireland’s bees by refraining from mowing lawns during May. This allows native wildflowers like dandelions, daisies, and cowslips to bloom, providing essential food sources for pollinators.
- Promoting rewilding: Adare Tidy Towns suggests that leaving patches of grass to grow or rewilding small garden areas can enhance the village’s biodiversity.
Through these initiatives, Adare Tidy Towns aims to create a more pollinator-friendly environment and raise awareness about the importance of biodiversity in the community.
Please let your garden do its own great thing and lock away your lawnmower for the month of May.
4. Green Flag 2024/2025
Adare Town Park has proudly raised its first Green Flag, a symbol of excellence in the management of public parks and green spaces.
This prestigious award is part of the Green Flag for Parks Award Scheme, an international standard recognising best practices in sustainable park management.
An Taisce Environmental Education awarded Green Flags to 120 parks, gardens, greenways, and wildlife sanctuaries across Ireland, including Adare Town Park and two more parks managed by Limerick City and County Council.
The Green Flag for Parks Award Scheme evaluates parks based on eight criteria:
- A Welcoming Place
- Healthy, Safe and Secure
- Well Maintained and Clean
- Environmental Management
- Biodiversity, Landscape and Heritage
- Community Involvement
- Marketing and Communication
- Management
5. Adare Biodiversity Action Plan 2025-2030
The Adare Tidy Towns committee commissioned this Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) in 2023. The BAP
was funded by the Community Foundation for Ireland Environment and Nature- Biodiversity Grants This grant aims to support community-led initiatives that enhance and protect biodiversity. Adare Tidy Towns engaged local ecologist Elizabeth Gabbett to work with them to produce this BAP.
The Adare Biodiversity Action Plan 2025–2030 is part of Limerick’s wider biodiversity strategy, aiming to protect and enhance local ecosystems over five years. It supports Ireland’s national biodiversity goals and global targets like conserving 30% of land and seas by 2030.
Key Goals:
- Engage the whole community in biodiversity efforts.
- Take urgent action to restore habitats.
- Protect nature’s benefits for future generations.
- Improve data to guide conservation.
- Align with national and regional biodiversity initiatives.
View more below.
6. Reducing Household Waste
Running workshops and event on how to reduce household waste. We also displayed handouts and posters of. We got out members to follow this imitative too.
Here are five simple steps you can take to reduce your waste production.
7. All Ireland Pollinator Plan
Adare Tidy Towns is actively contributing to the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan (AIPP) through a series of community-driven biodiversity initiatives aimed at creating a pollinator-friendly environment in Adare.
Key Actions by Adare Tidy Towns
- Planting Native Wildflowers: The group has distributed native wildflower seed packets to residents, encouraging the planting of pollinator-friendly flora. This initiative has the potential to add approximately 500 square meters of native wildflowers throughout the community, providing essential food sources and habitats for pollinators.
- Promoting Biodiversity Education: Adare Tidy Towns emphasizes the importance of native wildflowers, highlighting their role in improving air and water quality, preventing soil erosion, and supporting local wildlife. Educational efforts focus on how these plants are adapted to local conditions and their significance in the ecosystem.
- Community Engagement: Through initiatives like “The Nature of Adare,” the group fosters community involvement and awareness about biodiversity and pollinator conservation
8. Wildflowers for All
We worked with Greensource to create 500 packs of wildflower seeds to deliver to every household in Adare this March. We are looking forward to seeing these blooming in gardens across the town.
Each packet provided will cover 1 square metre. That is potentially 500 square meters of native wildflowers planted, growing and providing food for our pollinators and supporting biodiversity. You don’t need a large garden to contribute to supporting biodiversity, and you don’t even need to actively garden. Just leave nature to do its thing!
Why plant native wildflowers?
Wildflowers improve air and water quality They prevent soil erosion by spreading their roots and stabilising the surrounding soil. If the soil in your garden is not stabilised, nutrients in the soils may get washed into rivers, streams or other water systems.
Native wildflowers are perfectly adapted to local weather conditions, you don’t need to protect them for temperatures, rain or lack of rain.
Native wildflowers have evolved to live in harmony with other native species such as insects and animals – they rely on these species for pollination and in turn they are a food source for these other species.
Many species of insects, birds and animals will only eat certain plants, or in the case of insects such as butterflies, will only lay their eggs on wildflowers as they are a source of food for their larvae.
They are easy to care for as they are less prone to disease and do not need fertilisers.
When there is less food available during wintertime, wildflower seeds are an important food source for birds and small animals.
Wildflower-rich habitats support a wide variety of insects and wildlife. A natural symbiosis occurs between insects that pollinate wildflowers, enabling them to develop seeds and to spread and grow in other places, and the wildflowers that provide food and shelter for insects and small animals.
What is the source?
Bee Facts
- There are 100 bee species in Ireland: the honeybee, 21 species of bumblebee, and 78 species of solitary bee.
- Bees are the most important pollinator of crops and native plant species in Ireland. They are a key component of our wildlife and one of the busiest, least appreciated work forces we have. A study from the Department of the Environment found that bees are worth €53m a year to the economy.
- In Ireland crops such as apples, strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, blackcurrants, peppers, courgettes and pumpkins are reliant on bees for pollination.
- It is estimated that almost three quarters of our wild plants rely on insect pollinators, of which bees are most important.
9. Reducing Food Waste in Adare
In honour of the United Nation’s International day of Zero Waste.
We also educate more detail about reducing food waste online.
Reducing Waste in Adare & Increasing Composting
The Tidy Towns Committee are working with Greensource, a renewable energy company based in the town. We are undertaking an ambitious project to firstly reduce food waste, and secondly, to ensure that any food and organic garden waste generated is segregated from household waste before it is presented for kerb-side collection.
Additional information
The Steps:
First things first, we needed to know how much food waste was being generated in the town and what was happening to it. There are two waste collection services available in Adare, one sends food waste to an Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Plant and the other sends food waste to be composted.
Food waste is a significant fraction of the waste stream collected annually. In 2020 a total of 8,270 tonnes of organic food waste was collected in County Limerick. This is 42kg for very person in County Limerick, and approximately 57,000kg (57t) of food and organic waste is generated in Adare town every year!
We contacted the waste collection companies and found out that approximately 27 tonnes per year is sent to the AD plant and the rest, about 30 tonnes, is composted.
However, it is estimated that only 60% of food waste is but into the correct bin with the rest going in with general waste. In March we created a leaflet to help people understand how and what to compost. We also included some easy to implement ways to reduce food waste. Buying and throwing out food hurts your pocket as well as the planet and depletes precious resources.
The Circular Economy and Industrial Ecology work off of this principal. In nature nothing is wasted, and it is not so long ago that people would never throw out anything that they could either repair, reuse or repurpose.
Composting food and organic garden waste is an example of converting a waste into a resource and completing natural cycle.
But how does that contribute to the work that Adare Tidy Towns do around the town? Well, food and garden waste are actually a much valued and precious resource. According to waste statistics published by the EPA every household in Ireland in responsible for producing 42kg of organic waste every year. For a town the size of Adare that is a whopping 57,000kg or 57 tonnes of organic waste, so should we say resource every year!!
So, we wondered, were does all of this resource go? What happens to it? If you already compost at home that is great, you are already benefitting from the wonderful fertiliser that composting produces – keep up the good work!
But if you have a brown bin collection your organic waste it is either taken to a Composting Facility or to an Anaerobic Digestion Plant.
The Adare Tidy Town Committee are working with Greensource on a long-term plan to raise awareness of avoidable food waste and to ensure this waste is put in the correct bin so that it can be properly dealt with. We want to show that small changes can make a difference. Over time we will track how much food waste is generated and how that is converted into a resource that reduces the need for imported chemical fertilisers on our other projects around the town such as planting up of flower boxes and flower beds along our beautiful public walkways.
10. Education Displays
Both in the village and online.
Adare village features informational displays highlighting local biodiversity, mainly found in Adare Town Park, along the River Maigue, and near walking trails. These signs showcase native plants, animals, and habitats like woodlands and riverbanks. They also promote conservation efforts, such as pollinator planting and habitat protection. Designed to be clear and visual, the displays aim to educate visitors and locals about Adare’s rich natural heritage.
Past Projects
Adare Riverwalk
The Adare riverbank walk is visited by nature journalist Albert Nolan
The river Maigue is home to many birds and waders. Here is a recent (2022) Winter Bird Assessment undertaken as part of the Adare Flood Relief Scheme Study.
Biodiversity education series
Here is a podcast on Spring Flowering plants issued by the National Biodiversity Center. Have a look and see what you can identify and log with the National Biodiversity Data Centre.
Everyone of us has a role to play, both as an individual and as part of a community to sustain our populations of native species in the area.
A report on the biodiversity of the village was produced by Will Hayes M.Sc., Limerick, Ireland in 2018. Images of the species he identified in the report can be seen in the following galleries.
Biodiversity related posts showing activity and progress in this area.
Wildflower Garden - A growing trend in gardening these days is towards a more natural look, which is both aesthetically pleasing and environmentally aware. A fine example of such a garden is that of Lucy Erridge’s cottage, so we asked Lucy how it is done. Garden Design Alison designed the structure of the garden – the paved areasRead More
Riverside Walk - Monday May20th – Fri May 24th 7:00-9:00pm The project that we were working on last week was the river bank where we mowed the grass fixed the fence and painted it every thing was strimmed and any fallen branches etc was cut up and removed. ( Thanks to Paddy Mulvihill of Irish Wire who donatedRead MoreIf you are interested in meeting like minded people in increasing the awareness and importance of our biodiversity please contact us at adaretidytowns@gmail.com.
The Facebook Feed of Biodiversity Ireland is shown below to allow you to see the latest activities of this fantastic organisation.
Our Projects
Access all our project here.
