Habitat Mapping

Back in Autumn 2019, Castleknock Tidy Towns (C.T.T.) applied for funding to run a biodiversity project in Castleknock. We hoped to better understand the various species of animals, birds and insects who also call Castleknock home.

 

We were successful in our application and hired Wild Work (a biodiversity company) to carry out a survey of the village and to present the findings. The plan in March 2020 was to present, an interactive, educational presentation to class representatives and teachers from the three local primary schools. And then to plant a wild flower space in each one of the schools.

 

Unfortunately, due to the ‘Covid-19 lockdown’ these plans had to be shelved and once lockdown lifted we chose to use the medium of video and written report to share the message instead. With this goal, William O’Halloran of Wild Work visited Castleknock in June and made a video of the areas of importance for biodiversity. 

 

We are delighted to finally get this video link to you for sharing and dissemination. The video is just under 40 minutes long and shows William exploring Castleknock and pointing out the main areas of interest. Some parts of the video are slightly shaky / out of focus. William is not a professional cameraman but hopefully you can forgive that, given that it was made in difficult times. There is a natural charm and appeal to the video as a result.

 

Each of the three Castleknock primary schools assigned a teacher to co-ordinate the viewings and communicate back to us. The pupils were asked to identify their favourite places/buildings, discuss habitats they have spotted themselves or talk about plants they have grown. The assigned teacher in each school then fed back the reactions / questions to CTT.

 

A small area within each school’s grounds has been identified and planted up with wild flowers, with the support of CTT.

 

We have plans to extend this project further in 2021. We will be running a photographic competition (EyeSpy Castleknock), which will be a biodiversity species identification and logging exercise.  But more about that later…

 

For now we hope you can watch the video below - just click play. We would welcome any suggestions regarding the further promotion of / possibilities for this video. You can also download the full written report at the button below.