Impacts

The Skerries Sustainability Ripple Effect

Our Impact in Numbers

Ripple Effect- Top Impacts in more detail. See our history for the what, why and more!

1. ECO Education & Awareness

Extensive educational and awareness initiatives, including courses, workshops, talks, via a range of media: online, in person and with social media, to both local community and beyond. All captured on our website, serving as a rich source of enduring reference materials.

2. Outdoor Community Initiatives

Our 12 mini open orchards, allotments and community garden provide a wonderful outdoor and collaborative setting in nature. Working together enhances our local biodiversity and town and positively impacts climate change. These initiatives often draw people in who would not normally be so environmentally aware. Ripple effects are created that are beneficial both for the health of our people and its environment. See Infographics document and History of Sustainable Skerries on website.

3. Biodiversity Corridor- Pollinator/ Large Carder Bee Action Plan

This pollinator action plan includes a wildflower meadow at the Educate together school, strengthening local biodiversity and green space, encouraging involvement of school children.

4 sites where the rare Large Carder Bee has been found: Educate together school area, Ballast pit, South beach, allotments. Wildflower corridors have been made to connect the 4 sites

FCC have been collaborating very well, with reduction in mowing of verges along Barnageeragh road and elsewhere

A ~5km biodiversity corridor has been established, linking key pollinator sites.

4. Festivals

Our annual festivals – The wild Bee festivals, Scarecrow festivals and ECO festivals are a powerful way to engage with the community and beyond to spread the word, often inspiring other communities to have their own festivals. These are fun family events and have resulted in many positive ripple effects. For example our Water project arose from a talk by a water management expert at ECO Festival 2023.

5. Water projects

Our water based projects are developing very well and will be a focus in the future. These include citizen science projects testing water samples from the Mill stream/ponds for nitrates/phosphates, a very high engagement by our community with annual Coastwatch survey (95% coverage), an initiative covering the Lower stretch of Millstream Project (between Townparks & steam) and new water project based on nature-based solutions for town & community

6. Environmental Waste management

Tremendous work has been achieved by many local volunteers, in clearing waste from our stream, seashore and town. Tonnes of rubbish have been removed from the Mill stream & area by “the stream huggers”. They are now removing invasive species from the stream. Our currach group rowed out to the 3 coastal islands over 100 times, and have removed a staggering 20,000 pieces of waste. The tidy towns team run a successful Adopt-a-patch scheme giving personal responsibility for environmental waste control, as well as their weekly Monday litter picks. All of these efforts contributed in no small way to Skerries winning the National Tidy Towns competition in 2016.