Trim taking big steps forward in biodiversity

Trim has been leading the way in encouraging biodiversity with local residents and associations, Tidy Towns, businesses, schools, community groups and the Meath County Council all playing their part.

Trim Tidy Towns recently launched its three-year biodiversity plan and as part of this has appointed volunteer Biodiversity Volunteer Tomas Novak who will engage with local residents associations on steps they can take to promote biodiversity.

Tomas who is already an active Tidy Towns volunteer will also work on the Eco Estates project, another objective of the Biodiversity Plan. The Eco Estates project will see Trim Tidy Towns working with up to eight residents’ associations on a pilot project to make housing estates more pollinator-friendly and biodiverse.

Estates will share success stories and it is hoped that some concerted actions can be prepared that will be custom-made for each participating estate. These could include alteration of mowing regimes, tree-planting and the installation of some created habitats including bee-banks and bat roosting boxes.

Over the past year there have been a huge number of initiatives across the town to increase biodiversity from the council created pollinator highway and wildflower meadow down through the Porchfields which is now in full bloom, to the increase in pollintator friendly flowers and shrubs being planted by both the council and the local tidy towns.

There are corners of biodiversity cropping up in local housing estates as well as places of reduced mowing being managed for wildlife, which are identified by signs that the Council have recycled from old road signs.

There has also been an effort to encourage home-owners, community groups, businesses, residential estates and schools to map work that has been already done in people's gardens or outside businesses, schools, etc by logging these onto the interactive map contained on www.pollinators.ie

Trim Tidy Towns Chairman Brian Heffernan said: "Biodiversity has long been a key part of what our Tidy Towns committee does and I believe this year we have seen another big step forward for us, particularly in the development of our new Local Biodiversity Action Plan which will be be used to guide the biodiversity work of Trim for the next three years. We are also really excited to have Tomas as our first volunteer Biodiversity Ambassador, which I think is a first in Meath, and we look forward to having someone to help drive forward a number of these projects on the ground."

Lcoal councillor Ronan Moore, who is also chair of Trim Sustainable Energy Community said: "The biodiversity crisis is something that as a society we all have to face with recent reports showing that nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history. To do this we must all play our part and I believe that this is what we are seeing in Trim.

"From the actions of the local municipal council to the tidy towns, from schools to residential estates, we can see how Trim, like many towns and villages across the country, are making concerted efforts to do their bit. And there is always more we can do and I would encourage anyone who is interested in this area to log onto the All Ireland Pollinator Plan on pollinators.ie to get tips and learn what else we can do to increase our local biodiversity."