Hedgehogs and hedgerows: Probation Service widens net to help Kilkenny’s biodiversity

Kilkenny's probation service and Kilkenny County Council have teamed up in a new collaboration to promote the county's biodiversity.

The community service programme of the Probation Service provides support to many community organisations across Kilkenny. Their work includes maintaining public gardens, graveyards and other community venues, lending a hand to keep areas litter free and tidy. As a lot of the work is concentrated outdoors, they want to ensure their work practices are biodiversity friendly and are keen to take an extra step to learn more about the natural world. 

After meeting with Kilkenny County Council’s Biodiversity Officer and liaising with the National Biodiversity Data Centre, a list of potential actions were presented and three key areas were identified to assist Kilkenny’s biodiversity and which could be easily incorporated into existing projects without any alteration to their normal duties, on these sites.

There is huge potential of recording sites on a weekly basis, with the benefit of data collection and recording local wildlife to assist national monitoring schemes that are operated by the National Biodiversity Data Service.

The clients will be keeping an eye out for bumblebees and will explore FIT Counts - a simple survey where participants watch a patch of flowers for 10 minutes and count how many insects visit.  Over time, the diversity of insects may reflect the biodiversity actions incorporated as part of their maintenance regimes. 

The Probation Service has agreed to assist the Biodiversity Officer in completing a Kilkenny City hedgehog survey this year. Recent research suggests that the hedgehog population is in decline, so completing a city-wide survey over a week, will provide a greater understanding of how many hedgehogs live in Kilkenny and will establish baseline information for future annual surveys.   

“I am only delighted to be assisting the Community Service Programme in exploring local biodiversity," said Bernadette Moloney, Kilkenny County Council’s Biodiversity Officer.

"They provide a great service to many communities and to be able to assist in monitoring different species as part of their work brings great benefit to Kilkenny, as it allows to build baseline data which we can track over long periods of time to develop population trends of different species."

The project meets two objectives of Kilkenny’s Draft Biodiversity Action Plan; Providing Biodiversity Leadership at Local Level and Fostering Engagement and Fostering Engagement and promoting of Biodiversity Best Practice. 

The community service is also exploring what type of conservation works they could actively participate in, working to restore meadows, increasing the pollinator potential of the city and building nest boxes for a variety of bird species. To the core of their efforts remains education, building an awareness and an appreciation of nature with their clients and community service colleagues across the Probation Service Programme. Slowly building up identification skills by using identification swatches as they go about their work will build an understanding of the natural world and may spark a new hobby or interest for some Community Service participants.

"We had noted more recently while attending to our community service work sites that people are more biodiversity aware and were requesting if we could adapt our work to be more biodiversity friendly," said Derry Gahan of the Probation Service.

"Thankfully, we can build-in this capacity incrementally and collaboratively with the support of Kilkenny County Council and the guidance of their Biodiversity Officer. While also contributing in a small but significant way to the National Biodiversity Data Centre’s essential work over the coming years and contribute to the learning experience of our clients as they work through their community sanctions."

Fiona Deegan, Acting Director of Integration, Emergency Service and Culture (including Heritage) presented the biodiversity resources to Derry Gahan, Probation Assistant.

"It’s a wonderful opportunity for Kilkenny County Council to support the Probations Community Service Programme," she said.

"They have been assisting Kilkenny communities for decades in a very practical manner and it’s brilliant we can support them as they diverse their operations into biodiversity education."
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