Tree Planting
This year we planted over 600 trees in the public amenity area of The Wetlands. We also helped The Green school in Tralee plant over 100 trees on their land as part of the school’s own initiative to increase environmental awareness amongst their students. We have planted a diverse range of trees like Oak, Alder, Birch, Holly, Hazel, Rowan, Spindle, Cherry and Whitehorn. All of which will sequester carbon in their structure, in the soil beneath them and they will provide pollen, fruits and shelters for birds and invertebrates.
Duck Diaries
This year our ducks managed to hatch seven ducklings which we are all very proud of. The seven have made it to adulthood and are a great source of joy and entertainment for all our visitors but especially our secondary and primary school students. This year we extended our duck enclosure and included a sheltered nesting area. This will provide a more comfortable and private area to hatch their eggs and is a 5 Star Duck House!!
The ducks made an appearance for all our Celebrations but especially for our new Halloween Scavenger Hunt.
Swans Hatched
This year a new pair of swans took over management of the Front Lake and even had 8 cygnets but as of December we are left with four. However sad this may sound the loss of some cygnets is natural as predators will take some when the parents aren’t looking. The parents have also fought off other invading swans looking for a new territory as well as dogs off the leash.
Wildflower Meadow
After the rush of Summer our efforts in Autumn turned towards the maintenance and improvement of our parkland. This is the first-year large sections of usually manicured lawns have been purposely allowed turn to meadow. These spaces promote biodiversity by allowing wildflowers the time to flower and set seed. Allowing lawns and other green spaces to grow into long flowering meadows is a fantastic way to help pollinators, providing both food and shelter.
In addition to this, we are now members of the All-Ireland pollinator plan’s Business Supporters initiative.
1st Place Award in St Patricks Virtual Parade
This year, instead of the traditional live St Patricks day parade, there was a digital parade which you can watch in the following link.
Big thanks to our ducks who eventually followed the script we received a wonderful prise which holds pride of place on our Front Desk.
