Community environmental group ReWild Wicklow is the latest organisation to be granted full charity status in Wicklow. The volunteer group was established in early 2022 and, after a rigourous process of screening, it was added to the register of charities last week. The mission of the new charity is to monitor, protect, enhance and increase native habitats in Wicklow so that it can support a vast, biodiverse, balanced ecosystem of historical flora and fauna. They put a strong emphasis on citizen science and people power, by educating the public and encouraging volunteers to get involved with their work.
“It was a long and thorough process but we were delighted to get the news from the Charities Regulator,” said secretary Enya Alvey who has a background in law. “Already our group has partnered with 14 other public, private and NGO conservation organisations working in Wicklow. We have recruited over 1,000 volunteers onto our database using social media and local news outlets. With these volunteers we have organised 50 activity days throughout 2022 and 2023. These volunteer days have included tree planting (over 5,000 trees now planted), peatland restoration (over 200 small timber and stone dams now built), vegetation management, seed sowing, erecting deer fencing, nest box building, litter cleanups and setting up camera traps. Now getting this full registered charity status will open up even more doors for us and avenues of support, particularly from company CSR programmes.”
As well as Enya, the charity trustees include brothers Danny of Newtown and Simon of Rathdrum, Jeremy Casey of Enniskerry, Andrew Stringer of Newcastle, Catherine Devitt of Glendalough, Aoife Connaughton of Bray and Maria O’Loughlin of Laragh. In addition to these trustees there are many more core members working on projects in support of the organisation’s objectives and they have plenty more initiatives planned for the future. To find out more about Wicklow’s newest environmental charity, or to join their volunteer list, visit rewildwicklow.ie
