Wexford Wetlands Exhibition in ENFO, Aug 1 - 14th

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday August 02, 2002 15:47 by Eoin Dubsky - Coastwatch info at wexfordwetlands dot org (055) 25843

Coastwatch and Wexford County Council have just moved a first 'Taster' of the Wexford Wetland Pilot project results into ENFO - the Environmental Information Centre in Andrew Street Dublin. It is colourful and informative, produced by lots of people who participated in wetland exploration events and then set out their special findings in drawings, maps, paintings, sculpture and poetry. Come and see what can happen when local government and environmentalists get together with the public to discover and celebrate their wetlands heritage!

"The exhibition is a decorative display of some of our findings from two of the recent events about wetlands. One part covers Bannow Bay in the south of the County, the other an area in North Wexford around Castletown and Tara Hill - from springs to the Sea." explained Eoin Dubsky of Coastwatch.

"Have you ever met a frog on the shore? They hate salt water! But in Bannow Bay you can find the most unusual sandwich of farm land and sea, with a narrow fresh water filling, hopping with frogs", enthuse Karin Dubsky of Coastwatch and Noirin Byrne of Wexford County Council, who coordinated the 5 day Bannow Bay survey. In another such fresh water 'filling', a heron was seen beside a feeding moorhen, watched by a bemused looking Little Egret - the beautiful white heron which up to recently was typical of Africa and Spain and now nests in the bay. That was just off Liam Ryan's land, who manages a REPS farm at the Fethard end of the Bay. For more - including stunning drawings by Dave Daly, visit the Wetland Taster exhibition.

In the window hang children's drawings of wetlands plants and flowers. sketched on fieldtrips. A beautiful mermaid, initiated by sculpture Katrin O Shea and created in group work at the North Wexford event, welcomes you in as ambassador of wetland creatures. Please jump into the skin of any fish, frog, bird or dragon fly and ask the mermaid to speak up on your behalf by giving her your written request or concern. Around and behind her are displays about the project and our recent events, which included a survey of glasswort - the EU Habitat Directive plants, which look like stray cacti on some muddy shores and were identified and mapped by local people - not consultants - in this project.

The Wexford Wetlands Pilot Project aims to raise awareness about our wetlands and create a multimedia inventory of these valuable resources in County Wexford, as a pilot for the whole country. Though the inventory won't be released until the pilot project finishes in October, the awareness raising-aspect has truly been a multimedia experience – including talks and fieldtrips deep in mud and on canoes, listening to old people, to Nature and catching this in drama and art and photography.

Hopefully the exhibition can give you a first taste of what we are doing in this partner project, which includes Wexford County Council, Coastwatch, cosponsored by the Department of the Environment, Dúchas, and the Heritage Council.