Monaghan County Council is hosting workshops from Monday the 22nd of May right throught to Sunday, May 28th that will include exploration on Sliabh Beagh; information on traditional cures; bat watching; and much, much more.
The effort is in conjunction with national Biodiversity Week which is kicking off on Monday.
On that day, a Bat Talk will take place at Loch Muckno with Niamh Roche; Tuesday the 23rd of May sees a discussion around traditional cures that will be hosted by Anne Bleakley while on Thursday, May the 25th, Botanist Alexis Fitzgerald will lead an exploration of Glaslough Estate and Sliabh Beagh.
On Saturday the 27th May, a Hedgerow Workshop will be hosted by Mark McDowell from Hedgerows Ireland and on Sunday May the 28th, Ben Malone - community water officer for Cavan, Monaghan and Louth - will host a discussion around the local authority waters programme.
Speaking to Shannonside Northern Sound, Mr Fitzgerald said plants draw energy from the sun and disperse that to all the other systems that need it.
He added that plants are, in fact, the fundamental building block to ecosystems.
"Plants produce the soils. They're integral to the water systems in that they keep them clean and they're indicators of whether we're treating the water systems correctly or not. If you dump a lot of nutrients into the water you're going to see the plants react and invasive or non-native plants will start to spread so they're a great way of understanding the environment around us and its great to study them to understand that".
