Lynn Glanville, Diocesan Communications Officer Dublin & Glendalough sent ECI an article she wrote for their diocesan magazine – the Church Review – about the efforts of the Rector of Rathdrum and a parishioner of a neighbouring parish who have been assessing opportunities for encouraging biodiversity in churchyards and, where appropriate, installing bird and bee boxes.
The increasing urgency to recognise the pressure we humans are putting on creation has thrown climate change and the threat to biodiversity into the spotlight in a whole new way. Student Greta Thunberg has mobilised young people all over Europe to bring the issue to the attention of Governments and people are harnessing the energy created to raise awareness of the need to change our habits before climate change reaches the crucial tipping point beyond which there may be no return.
Recently Wicklow County Council became the first local authority in Ireland to declare a biodiversity and climate change emergency having been briefed by local students who had taken part in school strikes for climate action. In May Ireland as a State also declared an emergency. This follows similar moves in the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and in London and Manchester. Declaring an emergency is one thing but what actions will follow remain to be seen.
What can churches do to contribute to the growing movement to raise awareness of and address people’s impact on creation? There are some obvious steps such as encouraging parishioners to reduce, reuse, recycle and recover their waste and looking at the energy used within parish properties.
The Rector of Rathdrum the Revd Brian O’Reilly has joined forces with Redcross parishioner Oran O’Sullivan, formally of Birdwatch Ireland and now owner of Irish Garden Birds. Together they have been surveying churchyards in the Diocese of Glendalough to see what can be done in these green spaces to encourage biodiversity. Their goals are to educate and inform people at parish level as well as install boxes for birds and bees, if it is appropriate to do so, in churchyards.
They have been awarded a grant under the Department of the Environment’s LA 21 Fund ‘ABC Project: Actions for Biodiversity in Churchyards’, which is administered locally by Wicklow County Council.
For Brian pollinators and birds were not top of his agenda until recently. He admits he is only now learning the difference between a swallow and a swift and that solitary bees are more productive pollinators than the more sociable bees that live in colonies. Oran is a mine of information in helping him on his personal learning curve. However, he feels that their task in assessing churchyards’ suitability for biodiversity measures is attainable.
“You have to push yourself outside your comfort zone to tasks that don’t necessarily meet your vision. Don’t over complicate it. For me this has been a stepping stone approach but it is meeting a need. It is empowering to realise that by putting a bee box in you are meeting a need. You don’t have to buy a whole hive,” he explains. “We can facilitate biodiversity. We have our churchyards. We don’t use them for crops. We can set an example and use the facilities to achieve a balance.”
Bringing 25 years of experience from Birdwatch Ireland to the project, Oran is against doing things as a ‘box ticking exercise’. He also says that we should be challenging a lot of what is done in the name of conservation although he notes that there is more enlightenment emerging now.
“Churchyards are very good because they are undisturbed for most of the week and are generally in mature grounds surrounded by high walls. That’s why I was interested in this project and I feel that it is sustainable. Some graveyards are over manicured and I while I fully understand there has to be a level of tidiness, there are corners that can be left and choices can be made on planting,” he comments. “In some cases it is not worth putting up a box and in some cases planting is as important.”
Having visited Glendalough churchyards, Brian and Oran are now putting bee boxes and nesting boxes into churchyards that are suitable. They stress that not every churchyard is useful for bird boxes and there is no point in putting boxes in simply for the sake of it. “They have to go into a specific environment. Some churchyards are too clinical. Nesting boxes need to go in a place where there is some cover. We don’t just turn up at a church and bang up a box, they must be put in the right place. This is the great thing about having Oran on board. He has and understanding of what will work,” Brian explains adding: “You also have to bear in mind that you can put a bird box up but there is no guarantee that birds will use it.”
Where bird and bee boxes are put into churchyards, Brian and Oran will provide advice on how to maintain them. For example, nesting boxes must be cleaned out after use and bee boxes need to be put near pollinating plants. They suggest that one person from the parish take charge of the care of the boxes. This will mean that they have a point of contact to whom support and information can be provided. “We don’t want to do the survey, give the boxes and walk away. We want to ensure people know what to do to maintain their boxes,” Brian explains.
Plants developed by horticulturalists are not necessarily the best for encouraging biodiversity. They suggest taking steps like building herb boxes in churchyards so that not only are parishes installing something to attract pollinators but parishioners can benefit from a supply of fresh herbs. Apart from the choice of planting in churchyards, there are little changes in regime which can be adopted to encourage biodiversity. Oran says that leaving a small area of the churchyard unmown to allow a meadow to develop is a hugely positive step.
“What you are doing is replacing or giving an additional site for a bird or a bee that would have nested in a hole in a wall or hedge. New housing schemes plant trees but they are very young so this contribution is significant,” Oran concludes.