Everyone can take a part in appreciating and conserving our extraordinary biodiversity in County Leitrim! We have rivers and lakes, mountains and bogs, pasture and woodland – an amazing variation of habitats and a paradise for many of our native species of plants and animals. To celebrate our biodiversity and to raise awareness of it, Good Energies Alliance Ireland (GEAI) has started the Ballinaglera Biodiversity Project which is funded by the Community Foundation for Ireland and will be in place until December 2022. This will include the production of an ecological report on some of our special areas in Ballinaglera and the Leitrim Way and the construction of information panels along the Leitrim Way. GEAI has engaged Heather Bothwell from Cavan to carry out this study of the area.
“We are very lucky to have engaged Heather Bothwell as our ecologist in this project,” said Carina Castanheta one of GEAI’s European volunteers. “She is going to look at the Leitrim Way from St. Hugh’s Well to Ballinaglera, including selected areas on the shores of Lough Allen. So if you see someone with a butterfly net in Ballinaglera, you will know who she is! We have many interesting species of plants and animals that are not widely known, and Heather’s studies will certainly raise our awareness of the unique biodiversity in County Leitrim. Heather looks forward to the opportunity of working with the Ballinaglera community in exploring this special area further.”
To start off the project, GEAI’s volunteers and Heather went to St. Hugh’s National School on 18th May to introduce the project to the students. To kickstart awareness of common plants and their uses, the classes were presented with a coloring book that included nine local plant species, whose uses in cooking and medicine were described by Heather.
“It was amazing to see that everyone already had some knowledge about these plants, and the eagerness to understand how important they are in various ways. For example, we learned that holly trees are conductors and can protect the land from lightning strikes,” said Carina.
We can expect more information and a lot of interesting results from this project later this year.