Biodiversity

During the Spring of 2022 the horticulture students and staff developed a woodland path around the western perimeter of the campus. This was done using old logs from the site and bark mulch also from the site. In June 2022 a contractor was employed to install a gravel path around the rest of the college perimeter giving us a 1.1km walkway. The impact of this path has been massive as it has allowed students and staff from across the college to get out and experience the nature that the campus has to offer. 

Staff and students celebrate the opening of out Woodland path on 10th March 2022 

Establishing native tree and shrub planting has been a working goal on this campus for decades. Recent examples show below are of a strip of native woodland created at the south side of the college in 2018. In 2022 students created another native woodland on the bank adjacent to the playing fields. More than 30 different species of native plants were used. Many plants were grown in our own nursery for several years before planting out. 

In April 2023 students from the Horticulture level 6 class with the help of teacher Ella Daly created this habitat map of the campus in CAD. It details the 13 different habitats that are present on-site. Students used the Fossit Guide to Habitats in Ireland as a reference. This assignment formed part of student assessment for Ecology and The Environment and for the CAD components. 

In June 2023 we contacted Pat Deasy form the Irish Bee Conservation Project and asked him to install 3 bee boxes and 3 Bee posts. The boxes are a habitat for the native honeybee. These are not hives they are simply for conservation of the wild bees. The posts have holes drilled in them and these are to provide nesting space for the mining bees. The bee boxes we quickly populated by swarms of wild bees, and this was a great to be able to show students on nature walks. 

In the spring of 2023 staff and students created a wildflower meadow on the bank surrounding the sports pitches. We were careful to source native Irish wildflower seed from Sandro Cafolla in Carlow. In advance of preparing the ground we made a field trip the UCC were we met with Jack Murphy, the Head Gardener. Jack is a graduate of our Horticulture course. Jack showed us the wildflower meadow that they had established a few years earlier and talked about other methods for promoting wildflowers that had been successful for him including the no mow approach on summer lawns. Once we had selected the site and had the ground prepared, we put out an invitation to all students from across the college to help with the planting of seeds and plugs that we had germinated earlier. Music teacher, Chloe Nagle and her class came out and gave the horticulture students a hand with the planting. There was even some singing and guitar playing!! Below are some photos of the planting and of the meadow in its first two seasons. 

. Get all students and staff out to the perimeter walkway and show them what biodiversity we have. As mentioned earlier as part of our green campus student induction in 2023 all classes were taken on a tour of the campus by a member of the committee. This was a great opportunity to explain to students the importance of biodiversity and show them the steps we have taken to promote biodiversity at Tramore Road Campus. The photo below shows some of the students on a nature walk with our meadow and immature native woodland in the background. All students where then invited to sign-up to our Green Charter. In a change for 2024 the sign-up will be paperless as one of teachers Kate WoodburnMarions has created a Microsoft form that will be distributed to all students and they can sign-up.