The Irish Wildlife Trust Laois-Offaly Branch was formed in 2013 and has since grown significantly, now consisting of 6 committee members and over 70 members. In its first year, the branch held 20 events on wildlife topics and engaged over 500 children through its Badger Club events. It also completed a nest box scheme for barn owls, kestrels and bats. Going forward, the branch aims to continue expanding its volunteer conservation work, events, and engagement with the local community in Laois and Offaly.

1. Irish Wildlife Trust Laois- Offaly Branch
Community and Voluntary Awards submission
October 2014
Compiled by: Ricky Whelan (Chairman), Brian Gaynor (Secretary)
iwtlaoisoffaly@weebly.com
Irish Wildlife Trust Laois/Offaly Branch
IWTLaoisOffaly

2. Introduction:
IWT Laois-Offaly was formed in November 2013 at a modestly attended meeting. On the
night 3 committee members were elected and the branch was born. It was agreed that the
branch would serve Laois and Offaly as both counties lacked branches and both counties
contained similar habitats/species and issues affecting wildlife in the Irish Midlands.
Since formation both the committee and remit of the branch has grown. The branch now
has 6 committee members ranging in skill sets and duties preformed in each respective
position. Our committee structure contains a Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Development
Officer, and 2 Education Officers focusing their work on Badger Club (Children's Wildlife
Discovery Group) events.
We run a calendar of events, being held monthly but with seasonal breaks during December
and July.
Our Philosophy:
The Branch acts to promote and celebrate the rich natural history of the counties and
surrounds. By spreading the IWT’s message here we hope to preserve and enhance all this
for many generations to come.
Aims:
Our aims were set out at our formation meeting as follows:
 Run a monthly calendar of events across Laois/Offaly
 Increasing wildlife recording throughout Laois and Offaly.
 Form a Conservation Work Group to carry out habitat management and restoration
in both counties.
 Form a children’s wildlife discovery group to encourage wild learning, exploration
and play.
 Carry out and promote projects that help to improve habitats and conditions
(ecosystems) for local wildlife.

3. Our Work:
Events
To date we have successfully run 20 events. These have included a wide range of different wildlife
activities from dawn chorus walks, wildlife talks, bat survey workshops, wildlife displays and much
more. We have two more events lined up for this year; a Deer Rut Watch and Winter Bird Bonanza
Watch.
We have been involved in running events during Biodiversity Week, Heritage Week, Wildwatch
Week and National Tree Day.
Projects
In addition to our events, we carry out local conservation projects. We aim to carry out one
worthwhile project annually. In our first year we designed and completed a Barn Owl, Kestrel and
Bat nest box scheme. We successfully funded the project and formed a partnership with Portlaoise
Men's Shed to carry out the construction of the boxes. This project is now complete and we will be
monitoring the uptake by the target species next spring.
Conservation Work Party
As the autumn habitat management window opens we have introduced a volunteer "conservation
work party". It involves carrying out practical conservation work in a fun, relaxed and safe
environment. We visit local wildlife hot spots to carry out various conservation works, such as
invasive plant clearance, in order to improve these habitats for native species of plants and animals.

4. We have a number of partners on-board for this effort including; Conservation Volunteers Ireland,
Abbeyleix Bog Project, IEN and others. Our volunteers get to meet likeminded people, learn new
skills and get a good outdoor workout all at the same time. We hope to continue to establish this
group in the coming months and spread our work further, increasing our success by involving Tidy
Towns groups, Mens Shed and others.
Wildlife Advice/Monitoring
We make submissions on issues affecting wildlife and habitats locally as well as providing an advisory
service for any individuals or groups that approach us. We make submissions to local heritage plans
etc. We are also involved in the formation of the Public Participation Networks currently being
established in Laois and Offaly. We carry out a number of projects on behalf of various groups to
monitor wildlife locally, from bats species on the Barrow and Grand Canal to mammal monitoring at
Abbeyleix Bog.
Badger Club
Badger Club is our wildlife discovery group for children and families. It aims to create a fun and safe
learning environment for children and parents and teaches families about caring for the countryside
and its wildlife. We run monthly events from
wildlife art workshops to bug hotel builds. To
date we have carried out 6 Badger Club
events across both counties and have another
2 events lined up for the remainder of 2014
(October-December). We have engaged with
over 500+ children and their parents during
the course of the year. For example, at our
Bug Hotel Build and Bug Hunt in Emo Court

5. run during National Heritage Week, we engaged with nearly 100 children and their parents. During a
Wildlife Display at Portlaoise Shopping Centre in October we engaged with over 700 people the
majority being children. We showed them an array of local and native mammals, river and plant life.
Newsletter
We deliver our bi-monthly E-Newsletter to over 200 people (both members and non-members),
highlighting our work in that 2 month period, our upcoming events and celebrating good news
wildlife stories. People can subscribe or unsubscribe by the click of a button.
Website
We host a simple "weebly" website. Weebly is a free web hosting platform and fits well with our
voluntary status as it is operated at no cost to the branch. It highlights the work of the branch, has
up to date event info and contacts for the group. We have recently created a "places to visit" page,
highlighting local wildlife hotspots, which we hope to continue to build over time.

6. Wild I
Wild I is a monthly nature and countryside column written for and published in The Leinster Express.
It outlines the seasonal wildlife highlights and local wildlife events.
Membership/Communication:
We have a membership of 70 across Laois and Offaly but our reach is much wider. From our digital
outlets, such as our newsletter/website, and our social media (Facebook/Twitter) presence, we
reach an audience of thousands on a monthly basis. The Leinster Express has a large local audience
in Laois and parts of Kildare and Offaly. Our Wild I article in this paper helps us reach this audience,
often a very different demographic from our digital means. We have 540 followers on Facebook and
over 220 on Twitter.
We strive to spread our message as widely as possible by writing frequent press releases and
through outreach events. For example, our recent Wildlife Display at Laois Shopping Centre helped
us engage with hundreds of new people by bringing nature to them.
Or event attendance has exceeded more than 100 attendees on more than one occasion with the
majority (95%+) being non-members.

7. Funding and Fundraising:
Our group is a branch of a larger charity ENGO (Irish Wildlife Trust). The branch and all events are
run entirely on a free and voluntary basis. We incur costs for equipment, printing, travel etc. but no
volunteer takes expenses in any form. Our equipment has been sponsored, fundraised for or
purchased with help from local Heritage Officers.
We successfully ran two fundraising events to insure we remained financially buoyant for the coming
year.
Conclusion
We are very proud of what we have managed to achieve in our first year of existence. We have
worked hard to establish good links and relationships with various groups across the counties. We
strive to be as open and inclusive as possible aiming our events at a range of audiences, knowledge
levels and ages. We have tried hard to build capacity within the team to ensure the groups future
and we look forward to developing our reach and remit in the coming months and years.