Richard Weyl of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, Dr Jim McGreevy of National Museums Northern Ireland and Catherine Bertrand from Butterfly Conservation Northern Ireland get ready for a Bioblitz at Colebrooke Estate in Fermanagh
AN ANNUAL competition to discover the extent of biodiversity across the country is coming to Fermanagh.
Colebrooke Estate near Fivemiletown, owned by Lord Brookeborough is one of the locations selected for this year’s Ireland BioBlitz 2013 competition, a race to count as many wild plants and animals as possible in 24 hours.
And this year organisers are calling on the public to get involved in helping experts discover the extent of biodiversity in this unique location.
The all-Ireland BioBlitz competition will take place over a 24 hour period this weekend – on May 24 and 24 – organised by the National Biodiversity Data Centre, and this year dedicated to the memory of Éamon de Buitléar who died earlier this year.
Bioblitz is being run by the Centre for Environmental Data and Recording (CEDaR), the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) and the National Biodiversity Data Centre (NBDC). CEDaR is a partnership between National Museums Northern Ireland and NIEA.
Dr Jim McGreevy, Director of Collections & Interpretation at National Museums Northern Ireland said, “We are pleased to be involved once again in this event which is designed to capture important information on biodiversity in Northern Ireland.
“We saw last year how the combined efforts between scientists and the public had outstanding results. I am confident this year will be just as successful and that this area of outstanding natural beauty will reveal some new species. We are grateful to Lord Brookeborough for allowing Bioblitz to take place at Colebrooke Estate.”
Helen Anderson, Director of Natural Heritage, in NIEA explained “A Bioblitz is a fantastic opportunity for members of the public to come along to meet a wide range of experts from which they can learn survey and identification skills”.
The first national BioBlitz event in Ireland, organised by the National Biodiversity Data Centre in Waterford, was held in 2010 with Connemara National Park coming out tops and beating four other parks with a final tally of 542 species.
The competition heated up in 2011, when scientists distributed themselves amongst five new parks with Killarney National Park coming top with 1088 species.
2012 saw Ireland’s BioBlitz become a cross border event. Last year, the Northern Ireland location was Crawfordsburn County Park where almost 1,000 species were recorded in a 24 hour period, making it the 2012 winning site.
For 2013, Colebrooke Estate will be in competition with three other sites at Wicklow Mountains National Park, Co. Wicklow, Burren National Park, Co. Clare, and Lough Key Forest Park, Co. Roscommon.
The event provides numerous ways to find out more about our biodiversity with planned events including a Nocturnal Nature talk and walk on Friday,May 24 and a dawn chorus event on Saturday, May 25. There will be guided and self-led activities throughout the Bioblitz.
For further information on events, the competition or how to get involved in Bioblitz 2013 at the Colebrooke estate, visit www.nmni.com/CEDaR/BioBlitz