2nd May Green Drinks - Raised Bog Conservation

On Tuesday 2nd May 2017 Green Drinks Dublin heard Dr Maurice Eakin, Senior Wetland Ecologist from the NPWS, talk about the ongoing efforts to maintain and restore raised bogs in Ireland. Finding a compromise between the obligations of the Habitats Directive and the rights of domestic turf-cutters was always going to be difficult, but considerable progress has been made in recent years.

Maurice is also working with Bord na Mona who are engaged in a programme of restoring some of their cutaway bogs to their previous state. This involves first and foremost blocking the drains and allowing the bogland to rewet itself, and then primarily allowing nature to take its course. Further details can be found on Bord na Mona's website:

http://www.bordnamona.ie/company/bord-na-mona-story/biodiversity/archive/

27th April - Booterstown Marsh Clean Up

What a Load of Old Rubbish 

(Booterstown Nature Reserve and Beach clean-up)

On 27 April, a sunny Sunday, the IWT Dublin Branch teamed up with An Taisce for their National Spring clean at Booterstown Nature Reserve, an event that was also registered as one of Surfriders’ Ocean Initiatives 2014. Approximately 18 hardy volunteers (men, women and children) turned up to tackle the waste at the coastline and the marsh area around the Bird Sanctuary. Some twenty giant rubbish bags were filled over a two-and-a-half hour period. The most notable item was a suitcase filled with stones - what crime had it committed!

Many thanks to all who showed such good humour and high spirits while carrying out this task. Thanks also to the providers of the lovely selection of buns, cakes, biscuits and refreshments. Photos courtesy of Barbara

Thirsty for tea

12 October - Royal Canal Day Clean up

The Dublin Branch of IWT helped out on October 12th, Royal Canal Day when there was a massive-scale clean-up along the length of the Royal Canal from the city centre all the way out to Blanchardstown – a distance of 10km! Dublin Branch members met at 9:45am at Broombridge railway station to begin the clean up which will took about two hours. In total we gathered seven large plastic sacks full of rubbish, plus several large pieces of wood, plastic, and of course a large trolley! The event was very well organised by the Dublin City North Volunteer Centre who supplied us with gloves, plastic sacks and litter pickers. They even had the Civil Defence out on boats along the canal to pick up that hard-to-reach rubbish out in the water.

Afterwards, we all headed to the Brian Boru pub in Phibsboro for some welcome tea, coffee and finger food where we were entertained by a local choir. The Dublin Branch also had a stand there where €46 worth of merchantise was sold, a new member was signed on, and the badger petition received about twnety signatures.

In the afternoon there was a Family Friendly Walk with Botanist Doogue, a Walking Tour with historian Pat Liddy and a Social Cycle along the Canal w/ Dublin Cycling Campaign.

Lastly it would be wrong to forget to mention that all who took part in the clean up got goodie bags, with a cool Irish Waterways water bottle, a Mars bar and lots of interesting info - including about the IWT!

Niall & Roisin with furry helper

Barbara and Roisin beside our trolley packed with rubbish bags

Kate and Sarah at the Dublin Branch stand

May 7th Green Drinks - Green Divers

On Tuesday May 7th the Irish Wildlife Trust Dublin Branch gathered in the top floor of J.W. Sweetman (formerly Messrs Maguires) to hear Seamus Heffernan talk about the Green Divers initiative. Green Divers aim is to encourage the protection of coastal areas and raise awareness of Irish marine life, and to organise monthly underwater and shoreline clean ups in the Dublin area. Most people may not realise that as well as litter on land, there is also a lot of litter underwater, both from boats and litter washed out to sea, and  that marine litter is a major problem along our coasts. The Green Divers initiative aims to do something about this by encouraging divers to do a bit of litter picking when they dive and take some litter ashore with them. This involves a monthly shoreline and underwater clean up in a scenic coastal area, with a barbeque afterwards where the hard working volunteers can unwind. The litter that is removed is recorded so that the kinds of litter can be better known and the impact of marine debris better understood.

Seamus went through all the different types of litter that can be found on the sea floor, and also talked about the amazing diversity of Irish marine life found in the Irish sea.  As well as the usual problems from glass and plastic bottles and drink cans, a major source of littering comes from old car tyres, which are used by boats to prevent damage from bumping into harbour walls and each other. Inevitably many become detached and are lost overboard. It was once thought that dumping old car tyres would help to create underwater reefs, but this idea didn't work and now in places like Florida, millions of old car tyres litter the sea floor and have to be expensively removed. Old fishing lines and nets are also a major problem as they become a major problem for wildlife. 

To save us all from getting too depressed, Seamus interspersed his pictures of litter with some of the amazing and colourful wildlife to be seen around our coastline. As well as unusual fish like the butterfish and common dragonet, Seamus' passion for wildlife made us see the beauty in creatures like sponges, worms and echinderms (starfish, sea-urchins etc). And who knew that the octupus was a kind of mollusc! Everyone was much better informed about our marine wildlife, and those of you familiar with IWT will know that the Green Diver initiative fits wonderfully into ourSustainable Seas and Pretty Litter Campaigns

Some litter from 40 foot clean up

Double spiral worm

Seamus explains Green Divers to RTE

28th July - Bray Beach Clean-up

On 28th July the national SEA LIFE Centre and IWT Dublin Branch held a Beach Clean on Bray Beach to raise awareness of marine pollution and the detrimental effects it can have on marine animals and raise awareness for OCEAN 2012. There was a good turnout of least 40 people and a lot of good work was done cleaning the beach - at least judging by the many plastic sacks that were collected afterwards. Important work was done too in recording the type of material washed up on the beach, which will help conservationists to understand the problem of pollution better.   After the beach clean, volunteers were invited into SEA LIFE for a tour of the aquarium for a small donation to our conservation fund and then gathered on the beach to make another FISH SHAPE for OCEAN2012 Fish Weeks. A fun packed day was had by all!

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28th April River Dodder Clean Up

River Dodder Clean Up 

Date:Saturday 28th April, meeting point at The Dropping Well Pub Car Park at 10am.

The IWT Dublin Branch Conservation Team got their feet wet to celebrate National Spring Clean Month this April by putting our words into action and taking to the bankside to clean up a section of Dublin's River Dodder, making it a friendlier place for man and wildlife alike. Many sections of this river have been dramatically affected by the floods last year, so this effort was well needed and sorely overdue. As the picture shows some unusual helpers also came along to join the IWT volunteers!