On Saturday 4th March, the Newtownmountkennedy Tidy Towns launched a new Wildflower Walk around the town. The 5km looped walk passes a corridor of planted and natural wildflower areas sowed and managed by the Tidy Towns and local resident committees.
A map of the walk was created by vice-chairperson Danny Alvey and designed by Ann Glynn who also lives in Newtown. Signs showing this map have been erected all around the town and an interactive, online version of the map is also available on Google Maps here.
Beautiful timber signs, personalised to each estate, were made by the Newcastle and Newtown Men’s Shed and D V Signs of Bray and can be seen all along the route.
Speaking at the launch, vice-chairperson Danny Alvey said: “Thank you to everyone who helped bring this idea to life, it was a real cross-community effort!
Thank you to everyone in the Tidy Towns, Newtown GAA, local resident committees and local community who helped sow the patches last October. Thank you to the Newcastle and Newtown Men’s Shed and DV Signs of Bray for the lovely timber signs. Thank you also to Deirdre Burns in the Heritage Office of Wicklow County Council for the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan signs and her general advice, and thank you also to the Council for funding this project through their Community Awards Scheme.”
“Biodiversity in Ireland is in a state of grave decline, particularly our critically important pollinator species. One third of our bee species are threatened with extinction from Ireland because we have drastically reduced the amount of food and safe nesting sites in our landscapes.
Our wildflower corridor across the town is a simple way to support these pollinators at a local level and draw everyone’s attention this issue. It’s also been a great community initiative bringing all of the different estates and local groups together and come summer it will add great colour throughout the town. We hope its well received by local people and visitors to the town alike and everyone is inspired to get out and walk the route and think more about wildflowers and how important they are for our bees!”
