Dublin Bay Biosphere. Battling the Buckthorn
Native species are under threat around the globe. Invasive species compound this threat. At our 74th Baden-Powell Fellowship Event, held in April this year, Irish Scouts and Young Baden-Powell Fellows took part in a community service project to champion native species in the UNESCO Biosphere reserve in Dublin.
Kyran Ross is our guest author. He is a Young BP Fellow and National Section Team Lead for Rover Scouts in Scouting Ireland. Kyran writes about the service project, the Irish Scouting Dublin Bay Biosphere Award and what it means to be a Young BP Fellow, supporting World Scouting.
As part of the 74th BP Fellowship event, the Young Baden Powell Fellows, alongside four Scouting Ireland Rovers from the greater Dublin area, took part in a biodiversity project on Bull Island. Bull Island, as part of a 300 sq. km. designation of the Dublin Bay area, was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1981. This is the first UNESCO Biosphere in Ireland and remains the only site worldwide in a capital city.
The island has seen an invasive species of Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) take over areas and cause problems for some of the native flora. This plant was deliberately introduced to the island in the early-to-mid 20th Century by neighbouring golf clubs to establish a privacy border between public and private land and prevent public access from the reserve side. However, the spread was not controlled; a 2009 report highlighted that the buckthorn has been changing nutrient levels in the soil, hindering the survival of our native species. The thorny bush has also caused issues for animals that graze plants on the island. The report advised that the numbers of non-native species should be reduced to 5% to maintain the ecosphere of the island.
Over the course of an afternoon, the Young BP Fellows worked on an area about the size of a miniature golf course, removing smaller buckthorn plants and chopping back larger ones ready for follow-up efforts to prevent re-growth. Fresh from a briefing by the park rangers about the harm buckthorn is doing, they tackled the task head-on — no plant was safe from the chop! Their enthusiasm was noted by locals who commented that with 100 Scouts like this, it may be possible to contain this invasion.
It’s not the most attractive of projects, but it is essential to restore balance to the island and stop the suppression of such species in our local native biospheres. Buckthorn plants can be of a particular nuisance because, as the name suggests, they have a thorny stem which can puncture through gardening gloves and break off in your skin, so care was required with gardening shears and saws to remove as much of the plant as possible and open space for the native species to thrive.
The buckthorn community service project is part of a wider Dublin Bay Biosphere Award, launched by Scouting Ireland with the Dublin Bay Biosphere Partnership. The aim of the award is to encourage young people to go out and learn about the wildlife around them and the actions they can do to make a positive impact and protect the fauna and flora from larger projects like this down to litter picking, doing a wildlife survey or creating posters to educate walkers, all of which are core parts of Scouting programmes worldwide. Completion of this award sees the holder receive a badge which can be sewn on their uniform, providing members of our organisation an incentive to perform a small act for a small reward, show their badge and encourage others to get involved.
I had the pleasure of accompanying the Young BP Fellows during their time in Ireland as a liaison from Scouting Ireland to ensure their time here ran smoothly. I learned about the importance of the World Scout Foundation and how it allows us, as Scouts, to make a difference in a wider area than our immediate vicinity that we Scout in. That by coordinating on projects across borders, we can multiply the impact that we have as well as develop Scouting and the benefits that come along with that in areas of the world that need it most. I am a bit of a social butterfly, so I especially enjoyed meeting my Scouting colleagues from around the world, sharing Scouting stories, projects they are passionate about both inside and outside of Scouting and what made them join. I don't think it was their intention to convince me to join up, but by the Friday, I had decided this was something I wanted to do.
By supporting and coordinating on projects across international borders, we can multiply the impact we have, as well as develop Scouting and the benefits that come along with that in areas of the world that need it most"
Collaboration is a big part of Scouting, and already I have been able to collaborate with members of other Scouting organisations on projects and bring to their attention schemes which would benefit them, as well as set up meetings to analyse and borrow elements from the programmes from around the world to increase the effectiveness of our own. From my point of view, being able to do all this as well as help Scouting in other places from the donations we bring in is win-win. It was a great time had at the 75th Baden-Powell Fellowship Event as a member of Scouting Ireland and now as a Young BP Fellow, and I look forward to future events where hopefully, I can help bring more people like ourselves on board.
Kyran Ross – National Section Team Lead for Rover Scouts, Scouting Ireland
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Photo credits: E. Antman, D. Brennan, B. Beese, J. Bu, L.A. Feliciano, D.O'Flynn, J. Perea, P. Zabriskie