This is our first big project. We want to show you what you can do in your own garden to help our native wildlife. Why are we using rocks? What is the soil sloped? What are the logpiles for? Is that a sink in the ground, what’s that for? Are those bamboo canes in the ground?
All these features are using science and evidence-based approaches to providing habitat for our native fauna.
Solitary bees comprise 77% of our bee species yet most people just recognize bumble bees. Where do our solitary bees live? In sloped soil facing south or east of course! It’s lovely and warm. Remember our solitary bees are tiny and their homes need to be very close to their food source so plant pollinator friendly plants in your sloped soil.
Why rocks? Have you ever seen butterflies basking in summer on stones? Did you know that they need to rest in between searching for food? Did you know that our native frogs and newts hibernate under rocks? Insects will crawl in under rocks to over winter. Did you know we have the Common Lizard in Carpenterstown? I saw one so yes they are there. They bask on rocks and hibernate under them for winter. Rocks in your garden provide important habitat for many native Irish animals and when your flowers die back in winter, your garden doesn’t look so bare.
Night scented flowers and cream coloured flowers? They attract moths and what eats moths? Yes, bats. There are 9 species of bats in Dublin and none flies into your hair! They are all insectivorous so will not suck your blood either. Our Irish bats are tiny and one bat eats up to 3,000 flying midges and mosquitos in one night so we need to what we can to hold onto these natural pest controllers. They are also strictly protected by law so if you find them roosting in your attic, call your local Conservation Ranger for advice before you disturb them. You might be lucky to have a ‘maternity roost’ in your attic where mums and babies all snuggle together in the summer time.
Go to ‘Resources’ to find everything you need to know about ‘How to’ and ‘What for’ in our detailed resource guides.
‘No Mow’ grass verges along Riverwood Distributor Road
Fingal County Council is working with RBG to allow nature take its course. The grass verges along Riverwood Distributor Road are not being mowed and will be managed for biodiversity this summer. Already, a number of plant species have popped up such as Cowslip, Clover, Black Medick.
Mini Woodland and Spring Bulb area
We all know the benefits of trees. Apart from providing us with a source of Oxygen and removing Carbon Dioxide from the air, they provide shelter and food to birds, bats, insects and form an important wildlife corridor through an urban environment.
It is the latter that we don’t often think of. We want to make sure that by planting native species hedgerows and trees, we can form a wildlife corridor throughout Riverwood so that our wildlife can move under cover and safely and have a safe place to ‘lie up’, ‘rest’ and feed.
We have planted pollinator friendly early flowering spring bulbs here also for our early emerging Queen bees looking for food in January and February.
This is just the start of our tree planting, we plan to do lots more. Want to join us?
Mini Woodland expansion
We have planted in more trees to our Mini Woodland in Riverwood Chase. Apple trees and more native species have been added. Our existing oaks, alder, birch and rowan are doing terrific. Thank you Fingal for the mulch to keep the weeds down!
Pollinator Patch
We are maintaining this little pollinator patch ourselves. It is between Riverwood Glebe and Riverwood Chase. This was our first project when we needed a place to meet, talk about all things wildlife and make ourselves busy doing wildlife kind of things. These pollinator planted areas are so important for wildlife connectivity. They provide a corridor of feeding and shelter areas for flying insects and terrestrial animals. See our ‘Resource Guide’ for guides on planting in shady areas, plants suitable for the base of trees, for small tubs etc. etc. No matter how small the space, you can provide a source of food for our pollinators and in turn, maintain an important link in the ecosystem chain.
Education
We have started giving Wildlife Gardening talks at the Castleknock Community College (CCC) Secondary School Plant Sale. These have proved very successful and indeed, the school management has been very receptive to including many pollinator plants in the flowers on sale on the day. See our Wildlife Gardening Presentation in our Resource Area here.
Winter Evening Talks
On the 25th of February and the 8th of April we hosted evening talks in Castleknock Community College by guests from other environmental groups. These provided very successful with members of the community, local FCC Councillors and other D15 Environmental Groups attending. Fingal County Council’s Environmental Awareness Officer Jennifer also came along and added to useful discussions after the talks. We made great contacts with nearby Tidy Towns groups and hopefully we can work together on projects in the future.
Ger O’Halloran of Connecting Cabra and formerly of Laurel Lodge Environment Group gave a passionate talk about the work undertaken by these groups and gave us plenty of food for thought. Ideas such as a Nature Trail and giving Pollinator Packs to the residents along that trail provided our group with a huge boost of enthusiasm.
Paul O’Flaherty, Biodiversity Officer with Balbriggan Tidy Towns (BTT) group gave a talk in April and again, this was very well attended. He stressed the importance of developing a good working relationship with local FCC Operations crew, drawing a habitat map and identifying gaps for nature. Paul also spoke about the benefit of including local youth groups for both BTT and the young people.
Inviting local politicians to see Riverwood’s biodiversity
We have been inviting local politicians to events and to meet with us to see the biodiversity that already exists in Riverwood and the work that we are undertaking to allow biodiversity recover and restore itself in the area.
Deputy Roderic OGorman attended one of our Winter Evening Talks and was very interested to hear about the issues faced by local environmental groups.
In April, Cllr. John Walsh met our members and we discussed issues with the gaps in funding for small groups like ours. He was very supportive and also very complementary of the week we are doing.
Cllr. Siobhán Shovlin and Cllr. Angela Donnelly came to our Winter Evening Talks and participated in the discussions with local environmental groups in relation to what has to be done in the area.
Cllr. Emer Curry has also liaised with us. It is by engaging with local politicians that we can highlight the issues affecting our wildlife and what small actions can achieve.
Riverwood Habitat Map December 2024:
One of the most important actions for any Biodiversity Group is to map the habitats in their area. This allows you to identify the gaps in the wildlife connectivity in the area. Riverwood Biodiversity Group mapped the habitats in the estate in December 2024. This has allowed us to identify priority areas for action in 2025.
Actions for hedgehogs
Sadly the last time RBG surveyed for hedgehogs in Riverwood, we came up with very few. So, we decided to use our Wildlife Gardening Exhibition Area to show some simple actions that you can do in your own garden.
Hedgehogs need to travel at night in search of worms and slugs so maybe you could provide a runway or pathway between gardens for hedgehogs. Could you and your next door neighbour cut a piece out of the bottom of your dividing fence?
You can use hedgehog friendly slug pellets like Sluggos. Any other kind will unfortunately kill the hedgehog when it eats the poisoned slug.
Creating a hedgehog ‘hibernaculum’ provides a safe hibernation place for your hedgehog. Either create a pile of branches and leaves in a quiet corner away from dogs or if you have space, dig down and build one in the ground! Check out our Resources for further guidance.
Remember, hedgehogs are lactose intolerant so never leave out milk for your neighbourhood hedgehog.
Getting winter ready for hibernating solitary bees
Solitary bees make up 77% of our national bee population. Where do they go in winter? They need to find safe places to hibernate. It’s not always that easy in our hard engineered environment. So we decided to make hibernation sites for these important pollinators. Following best practice guidance, we drilled up to 10cm depth in wooden blocks with drill bits measuring 4mm to 8mm making sure the insides of the holes were smooth. Let’s watch and wait and see what moves in…
