Conservation Volunteers Galway (CVG ) has recently been awarded 'Coastcare newcomer of the year 2013' by An Taisce at the 10 year anniversary of its nationwide Clean Coasts programme.
CVG has been in existence since 2010 when Caitriona Cunningham approached Stephen Walsh in Galway City Council about setting up a Galway branch of CVG. The group is 100 per cent volunteer based and encourages its members to form a vision for the local Galway parks and woodlands. The work is endorsed by the council and is based largely on recommendations from biodiversity reports from 2009.
The club has been involved in more than 25 different activities and projects since it set up. They have planted more than 1,000 trees, built willow fences, built and installed bird and bat boxes, pruned an oak plantation; done some seed saving, cleared invasive species, cleaned beaches, cleared paths, built a marsh for birds and more.
A wide range of people turn up to take part in the bimonthly activities on Saturdays and volunteers feel free to come along whenever they can.
"What's really nice is that the volunteers are beginning to come up with more and more ideas. Their input is vital and giving the volunteers ownership of projects in local woods, parks, beaches is a priority for CVG," said chairperson Una Reddington.
Regarding the award, Ms Reddington said: “CVG are very grateful to An Taisce for involving them in beach clean ups which were taking place all over the country on the same day. And of course they're even more grateful to the volunteers for coming out in the rain to gather bags of rubbish; a sometimes hairy activity. CVG feel lucky to be in a position to make small changes to the local Galway environments and urge anyone who likes hanging out in the outdoors doing some physical work for a few hours to get in touch and join them.”
All are welcome to take part. For more information contact [email protected] or call Una at 087 2809314.
