Pollinator Group hears of threats to bees
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| Images of bumble bees by Steven Falk, taken from the presentation. |
Kilcullen is one of ten communities in County Kildare taking part in the initiative, and those in the Zoom meeting also heard that two bee species here have already become extinct, and a third of the 98 bee species in Ireland are threatened with extinction.
The number of bee species in the country would have been a surprise to many, and in itself is an example of biodiversity even within one group of living things.
There are 21 different types of bumble bees, for instance, as well as 77 different solitary bees. The remaining one is the honeybee.
The presentation included the lifecycle of the different bee types, and the kind of habitat and food they need through the year to survive.
The economic and environmental importance of pollinators was also discussed in the training event, conducted by Green Pine Consultants.
The session also looked at Kildare's Wetlands, a planting guide for Tidy Towns Groups, and how to create and manage habitats in community spaces.
The next part of the training will be a 'virtual walk' around each town or village over Zoom to replace the session that was originally planned to take place outside. These will include lots of photos and Google map screenshots of different spaces and features within each community to identify opportunities and actions for the Local Biodiversity Action Plans.
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