Experts and wildlife rescue headline Biodiversity Week with free events at Leitrim's Organic Centre

National Biodiversity Week at the Organic Centre will offer free talks and events on algae blooms, wildlife rehabilitation, grasslands and community action.

There will be an array of free events taking place at the Organic Centre in Rossinver to celebrate National Biodiversity Week, which runs from Friday, May 15 to Sunday, May 24.

The week’s programme includes insights into new approaches to tackling algae blooms through a community-led project developed from the ground up. Algae blooms are a topical and concerning issue affecting some waterways in Leitrim and Fermanagh.

When algae blooms become widespread in waterways, they can pose a health risk through direct contact, potentially causing skin rashes, eye irritation, vomiting or diarrhoea, fever, and joint pain.

Blue-green algae has also been linked to the deaths of birds, fish, and livestock. In 2023, it made national news when the Northern Ireland Environment Agency confirmed that a number of dogs had died after ingesting the algae in Lough Melvin.

The extent of pollution in Lough Neagh has also become widely known and is regarded as an ecological and biodiversity crisis.

On Friday, May 15, as part of Biodiversity Week, Ollan Herr from Zero Waste Alliance Ireland will present on a pilot project in Dundalk where local communities are taking action to reduce the risk of toxic algae blooms in their waterways. The project involves separating human urine to remove phosphorus and prevent it entering local surface waters.

A potential further step, according to Ollan Herr, is the removal and treatment of separated urine to reduce phosphorus emissions entering groundwater from septic tanks and cattle slurry.

“I am starting to promote micro treatment systems to remove and to recycle phosphorus from separated urine. The application of the approach, if it were to be promoted on a very wide scale, would begin to reduce algal blooms in surface water such as lakes,” he said.

Herr also believes the system could provide alternatives in food production and may be highly relevant if Ireland faces a potential food security crisis linked to the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

“With the closing of the Gulf of Hormuz, governments around the world are realising just how dependent we all are on the burning of fossil fuels to produce fertilisers, in particular, phosphorus fertilisers. A long war with Iran will cause global phosphorus fertilisers to become ever more expensive.”

Ollan Herr from Zero Waste Alliance Ireland.

Ollan will also explain how the project can produce a slow-release phosphorus fertiliser called struvite, which scientists have shown to be a suitable non-toxic fertiliser for growing food crops, containing no toxic metals or ingested pharmaceuticals.

Other Biodiversity Week events at the Organic Centre include a talk on Monday, May 18 at 7pm with Kildare Wildlife Rescue, who will discuss their work rehabilitating injured animals and returning them to the wild.

On Tuesday, May 19 at 12pm, the public can learn about Leitrim’s local grasslands and the rare marsh fritillary butterfly with Sabine Waniek.

On Wednesday, May 20 at 6pm, UCD’s Dr Adam Smith will give a talk on the rise and decline of different species in Ireland, based on data collected through camera monitoring across the country as part of the Europe-wide Snapshot Europe project.

There will also be a daily self-guided Biodiversity Treasure Hunt on the grounds of the centre, offering something for all ages.

As part of Biodiversity Week, the Organic Centre’s Blue Tit bird box is also back in use with new residents and is being live streamed this year. The birds have nine eggs, and the centre is inviting the public, including schools and nursing homes, to follow their progress from hatching to fledging. A live feed is available via YouTube.

Visitors can also view the activity on a live monitor at the Grass Roof café at the Organic Centre. Staff will also be visiting schools and nursing homes as part of the project.

The Organic Centre's Blue Tit bird box is back in use.

“We are delighted to have such a great and varied line up of events for Biodiversity Week and really appreciate the support of the Irish Environment Network to put them on. We already have three of our events sold out including our dawn chorus canoeing trip on Lough Melvin so we advise that people book early on other events to avoid disappointment,” said Dervilla Keegan from the Organic Centre.

Full details of all free activities and booking information are available here.