Overseas visitors learn about dune restoration

Overseas visitors learn about dune restoration

11 September 2024

YOUNG environmentalists from Puerto Rico were in Kilclief recently to learn how dune restoration projects spearheaded by Lecale Conservation have helped transformed the landscape.

They were welcomed to the area by Downpatrick councillor, Cadogan Enright, with the visitors involved in the restoration of tropical Caribbean beaches with Mangrove plants in their own country.

Cllr Enright leads the local charity’s dune restoration projects along the Lecale Coast from Kilclief to Tyrella and he outlined to the visiting teenagers that the techniques used locally were surprisingly 

similar to theirs with tropical beach projects using four different types of Mangrove plant instead of the Sand Couch, Lyme and Marram grasses.

As part of the tour of beach projects, the group visited Kilclief charity True Harvest Seeds which grows and collects tens of thousands of plants needed for local beach restoration projects with the help of volunteers from the Lecale area.

The charity also collects seeds from native origin plants growing in the wild and preserves them in the Seed Bank with seeds made available for the restoration of plants back into the wild.

During last week’s visit by the international environmentalists, Cllr Enright presented chief executive Debbie Gillis with a cheque for £1,000 on behalf of Lecale Conservation and was joined by the group’s chairman John Peacocke.

Mr Peacocke said the group been campaigning for Newry, Mourne and Down Council to take a more active role in beaches it owns and controls locally.

“It is odd that our charity must do most of the heavy-duty work in remediating local beaches,” he said.

“Damage to local beaches from storms need prompt attention to keep them to the standards local people expect.”

Mr Peacocke said Kilclief beach was inaccessible to many people earlier this year after storm damage with the charity committed to continuing to campaign for its maintenance and highlighting the importance of local beaches for public access and wildlife protection. 

He also thanked Cllr Enright for his leadership roles in these various projects over the last 10 years. 

“This is one of our key long-term projects and I would encourage people who want to volunteer to contact Lecale Conservation or True Harvest where we always have something going on and needing help,” he added.

Bryan Otero, a spokesperson for the ‘Caras Can Causa’ youth group from Puerto Rico, said, it was “fascinating” to see how in both the tropical Caribbean and temperate Ireland, different species of plant with different levels of salinity in bands of planting protected from human footfall by fencing at the front edge are used.

Environmentalists Victor Figueroa and Jean Torres agreed.

Victor said in both areas, the main problem is in the education of local government officials and government departments in avoidance of chemicals, excess cutting and the need to run projects with planed and protected planting over several years to avoid temporary set-backs from storms, or in their case, massive hurricanes.