Identification of permanent pollinator areas will form part of an upcoming biodiversity plan for Shannon Town.
Members of the public will be invited to make submissions in February before the biodiversity plan for Shannon Town is finalised. Staff within the Shannon Municipal District are currently working on its preparation.
It is expected that the plan will be finalised in March before coming before elected representatives of the Shannon MD for adaptation.
Senior executive engineer, Tom Mellett confirmed one outcome would be “the identification of suitable pollinator areas”.
His comments came in response to a proposal from Cllr Donna McGettigan (SF) for a permanent pollinator area to be found “creating a meadow for long term conservation. Meadows when created with the right plants can attract a multitude of wildlife. They are ecologically important as they provide areas for bird nesting, food gathering and pollinating insects. While I feel Shannon is lucky enough to have conservation areas such as the wetlands and this will add to that,” she stated.
Choosing a permanent area would be better than picking a different site every year, Cllr McGettigan said. She was hopeful it would educate people. “It needs to have proper meadow flowers rather than letting an area grow wild. It would be great to have something like this for the Shannon area”.
Confusion has arose in the past with a number of different areas nominated for pollination, Cllr Gerry Flynn (IND) recalled. “A little bit of additional PR is needed for the areas identified. We have quite a big landscape to choose from,” he added.
As he voiced his support for the motion, Cllr Pat McMahon (FF) felt it underline a changing landscape as he remarked, “flies were a nuisance before”. The Cathaoirleach of the Shannon MD commented, “It just shows how times have changed, how we live and how we treat our planet”.
