Nature Magic Mary Bermingham

Today Mary is talking to Anna Murphy. Anna moved to Kinvara in 2001 and raised her three children here, and works in the village. Her main passion is environmental activism, and she has been  involved in Plastic Free Kinvara, Kinvara Climate Action, the Ballindereen Kinvara Tree gang and now Rights of Nature Galway. Activism gives me hope and can help with eco anxiety. " We need to re-imagine our relationship with Nature, and protect it  for this and future generations  to head off a looming sixth mass extinction"

rightsofnaturegalway@gmail.com
www.ejni.net/rights-of-nature
Kinvara and Ballindereen tree gang
www.facebook.com/KBtreegang/

Recommended book 
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer

Mary Bermingham wraps up the year with a short report on 2023 at The Burren Nature Sanctuary and a poem inspired by native Irish Trees. The Song of Ogham.

Today Mary is talking to Victoria Beeler. Victoria is a butterfly enthusiast and enjoys gardening, wildlife, nature, and learning. She and her family have helped with the Smith-Gilbert Gardens butterfly exhibit in Kennesaw, Georgia, U.S.A., and with releasing butterflies there. They have raised Monarchs—from eggs, to caterpillars, to chrysalis, and to emerging butterflies—in an outdoor butterfly garden habitat at home near Atlanta for the first time last fall and then released them into the wild to migrate! It was truly an incredible, inspiring, and transformative experience! Victoria has written a documentary book about her Monarch experience with raising and releasing them. In Journey with Monarchs: A Personal Experience of Raising and Releasing Monarchs in the Home Garden, she combines photos of the Monarchs’ life stages and personal knowledge about Monarchs with the science. Monarchs are so special, and their legacy can be continued by planting native milkweed. Monarchs have also inspired Victoria to give native milkweed seeds as gifts (seeds of hope) to family and friends and Monarch books to children in her community to save and protect Monarchs and continue their legacy. Monarchs bring joy, hope, and continuity. Nature is a blessing. Planting native milkweed and creating a wildlife habitat are important to helping Monarchs, as well as birds, pollinators, and the ecosystem. It also connects people. All of creation is interconnected and weaves together a unique, dynamic tapestry of life. Victoria hopes that, together, we can spread joy to all and save the Monarchs and wildlife!


Victoria's suggestions How We Can Support Nature:
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Create natural habitat in our yards and communities to support the full life cycles and food webs of local biodiversity and restore species populations. -Garden, pocket prairie/meadow (mini-prairie/meadow). -Try to let it grow naturally. Limit mowing to pathways (reduce mowing).
·
Provide host and nectar plants (host-plant specialists / plant-insect interactions; no milkweed, no monarchs; no flowers, no pollinators; no insects, no balance). -“Insects are the animals that are best at transferring energy from plants to other animals…” (Doug Tallamy, Nature’s Best Hope, 2019). -Also include a “puddling station,” a place in the habitat area where butterflies and moths can absorb minerals from muddy soil and pebbles (place pebbles in a tray with water and mud).
·
Plant native plants and keystone plants (most beneficial to local ecosystems and increase biodiversity, ecological connectivity, and ecosystem function). -Top 20 native trees, like the oak, cherry, and willow, support over 5,000 butterfly and moth species (Tallamy, Nature’s Best Hope, 2019). -Oaks support about 557 caterpillar species- more than any one plant; oaks make the most food; excellent for supporting local food webs; oak = top keystone plant species. -Five percent of the local keystone plant species can host up to 75 percent of local Lepidoptera species (including some local keystone plant species benefits greatly) (Tallamy, Nature’s Best Hope, 2019). -U.S. resource: National Wildlife Federation’s Native Plants Finder, which shows the native plants by zip code that support local species and food webs. -Try to remove and replace non-native, invasive species with native plants. -Balance: Plant mostly native plants, with some exceptions (a habitat space with primarily native and keystone plants benefits greatly; helps local ecosystem; having some native plants is better than none). -Replace with native plants gradually (manageable segments/tasks/goals); a process.
·
Provide shelter for non-migratory, overwintering butterflies and moths (safe caterpillar pupation sites) -Leaf litter for moth caterpillars to drop from their host trees, burrow into the leaves and/or soil, and spin their cocoons. -Leaf litter is also...

Today Mary is talking to Galway based artist Lorraine Fletcher. Lorraine's wildlife-inspired prints and giftware showcase the beauty and strength in animals through colour. Her studio is based here at The Burren Nature Sanctuary where there are endless inspirational views and wildlife.The paintings are a combination of vivid colours and focus on the subject, with the grey backgrounds the focus is on the animal. Expressions and compositions are important in Lorraine’s work, with an importance on the beauty and strength in each animal, from the elegant stag to the curious and powerful owl.
Lorraine also offers group and one to one wildlife painting workshops.



Contact Lorraine Fletcher at lorrainefletcherartstudio.com

Contact Mary Bermingham at mary@burrennaturesanctuary.ie

Check out Burren Nature Sanctuary at www.burrennaturesanctuary.ie

Today Mary is talking to Isabella Tree. Isabella is an award-winning journalist and author, and lives with her husband, the conservationist Charlie Burrell, in the middle of a pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex. She is author of six non-fiction books. Her book Wilding, the story of the ambitious journey she and Charlie undertook to rewild their farm, has sold over 300,000 copies worldwide and been translated into 8 languages. It won the Richard Jefferies prize for nature writing, was shortlisted for the Wainwright prize and was one of the Smithsonian’s top ten science books for 2018. In 2020 Isabella was awarded a CIEEM Medal for her contribution to ecology and environmental management, and in 2021 she received the Royal Geographical Society’s Ness Award. She served on the Mayor of London’s 2022/3 Rewilding London Task Force. The Book of Wilding – a practical guide to rewilding big and small is published by Bloomsbury (2023) and has been described as ‘a handbook of hope’ and ‘an indispensable guide to the restoration of the living planet’.

Recommended books :
Wilding By: Isabella Tree
The book of Wilding - A practical guide to rewilding big and small by Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrel

Contact Isabella through www.knepp.co.uk
Contact Mary Bermingham at mary@burrennaturesanctuary.ie
Listen to Ours To Protect with Mary Bermingham here
https://galwaybayfm.ie/podcasts/ours-to-protect-with-john-morley-ep-8/
Check out Burren Nature Sanctuary at www.burrennaturesanctuary.ie

Today Mary is talking to Eoghan Daltun. Eoghan is a sculpture conservator, a High Nature Value farmer and, above all, a rewilder. Originally from Dublin, since 2009 he has lived with his two sons, Liam and Seánie, on their 73-acre farm near Eyeries on the Beara Peninsula, West Cork.
He released his hugely successful and award winning book late last year.

An Irish Atlantic Rainforest winner of the An Post Irish Book Award winner, 2022

'The stories are absorbing, the writing charismatic and the ideas thought-provoking' Irish Independent

'Fascinating ... a manifesto for saving our own corner of the planet through letting things be' Irish Times, The Gloss

'Daltun writes with passion and purpose of the way we should live now' RTÉ Guide

On the Beara peninsula in West Cork, a temperate rainforest flourishes. It is the life work of Eoghan Daltun, who had a vision to rewild a 73-acre farm he bought, moving there from Dublin with his family in 2009.

An Irish Atlantic Rainforest charts that remarkable journey. Part memoir, part environmental treatise, as a wild forest bursts into life before our eyes, we're invited to consider the burning issues of our time: climate breakdown, ecological collapse, and why our very survival as a species requires that we urgently and radically transform our relationship with nature.

This is a story as much about doing nothing as taking action - allowing natural ecosystems to return and thrive without interference, and in doing so heal an ailing planet.

Powerfully descriptive, lovingly told, An Irish Atlantic Rainforest presents an enduring picture of the regenerative force of nature, and how one Irishman let it happen.

Contact Eoghan Daltun at
www.beararainforest.com

Buy the book online at

www.gutterbookshop.com
www.booksupstarirs.ie
www.kennys.ie
www.easons.ie


Contact Mary Bermingham atmary@burrennaturesanctuary.ie

Check out Burren Nature Sanctuary at www.burrennaturesanctuary.ie