New hope for beach in danger of erosion
Councillor Cadogan Enright has been leading the beach restoration project in Ballyhornan for eight years.
Increasing sea levels, weather conditions and human activity have led to considerable impacts and erosion along one of County Down’s beautiful beaches and already efforts to plant marram grass are beginning to pay off.
The project is jointly sponsored by the Ballyhornan Development Association and the Lecale Conservation Association.
Cllr Enright said: “In addition to the acre of wild flowers in the public park we have created in front of the beach, we have been restoring the sand dunes that had been totally destroyed by quads and motorbikes.
“Each stage of the dunes restoration starts with planting three native beach grasses which raise the dunes between 2 and 5 feet in 18 months.
Marram, Lyme and Sand Couch grass are grown for us at the local charity True Harvest in Kilclief.
“Once the plants are ready for planting out, about 2 years later we follow up with other plants in the new dunes we have created to mirror the normal diversity found in an Irish beach.
“Today, volunteers were planting a wide variety of plants including Sea Mayweed, Sea Aster, Yarrow, Kidney Vetch, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Black Knapweed, Field Scabious, Wild Carrot and giant tree mallows.
This creates the diverse environment needed for birds, molluscs, small mammals, insects and pollinating bees and butterflies.
IF YOU WANT TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS PROJECT ON THIS AND OTHER BEACHES, PLEASE DONATE TO TRUE HARVEST TO HELP US GROW MORE RARE WILD IRISH PLANTS :
https://trueharvestseeds.org/donate/
Check out a previous article on Down News about the conservation planting at Ballyhornan:
