https://www.tipperarylive.ie/news/home/366255/tipperary-town-biodiversity-project-on-river-ara-shortlisted-for-national-award.htm
Tipperary town biodiversity project on River Ara shortlisted for national award
PUPILS FROM EIGHT SCHOOLS INVOLVED
At the first ever National Biodiversity Conference held in Dublin Castle on February 20 and 21, Albert Nolan represented Tipperary Tidy Towns in Dublin Castle for the presentation of Together for Biodiversity Awards by Ms Josepha Madigan, Minister of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
During 2018, Tipperary Tidy Towns undertook an initiative in conjunction with Albert Nolan, wildlife enthusiast, to raise awareness about the River Ara which flows through Tipperary Town.
As part of their project “Discovering the wildlife of the River Ara”, Albert worked with eight schools in Tipperary Town by hosting workshops which introduced the children to the wildlife and biodiversity found in the river.
The children got involved by doing kick samples with nets whereby they filled sampling trays with bugs from the river and identified the creatures they had uncovered with the help of pictorial identification charts.
The initiative was funded by the Local Authority Waters Programme ( www.lawaters.ie ) under the Community Water Development Fund 2018.
The project was a good fit for the Irish Wildlife Trust “Together for Biodiversity Awards” and it was nominated for an Award under the Small Community Group project category. It was selected to go through the public voting stage and the Tipperary community rallied around and voted online for the project to ensure that it was shortlisted to 1 of 3 projects put forward for a National Biodiversity Award.
As a finalist, Tipperary TidyTowns were awarded €500 towards biodiversity projects and got some great publicity from the initiative.
