Our orchards helped to benefit and educate our local communities.
Ardmac is pleased to announce its participation in Host in Ireland’s “Orchards in the Community” initiative. Orchards play a key role in providing an early food source for struggling bees. To help protect the bees and increase pollination, Ardmac is part of 52 pledgers and over 90 schools and community groups planting in excess of 1,000 mixed fruit orchards all over Ireland.
Ardmac worked with primary schools, secondary schools, and nursing homes across Swords, as well as Ardmac staff to plant a total of 8 orchards. The actions implemented will promote positive change within the local community and the wider environment. Ardmac are proud to be involved with this programme and are looking forward to seeing the long-term benefits it will have for the bee population and the local community.
Orchards provide vital green spaces in our cities and towns, where people are encouraged to interact with nature either through becoming custodians of the trees or by simply being around them and enjoying their shade, beauty and fruit. They are also important habitats as the natural life cycle of fruit trees provides food sources for pollinators and other species throughout the year. With “Orchards in the Community”, orchards are being planted in every single county on the island of Ireland – both in the Republic and Northern Ireland – making this an all Ireland effort.
“‘Orchards in the Community’ is helping to create ‘pollinator pit stops’ across the island. One third of our 99 wild bee species are at risk of extinction. Each year as they flower, these orchards will provide them with vital food. In return, by pollinating the flowers, the bees will ensure we have lots of fruits to enjoy in the autumn,” said Dr Úna FitzPatrick co-founder and project manager of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan. “This scale of this initiative provides us with a unique opportunity to track change. By planting uniform orchards in multiple locations within the one growing season, we can assess which insects visit in different regions, and better understand which areas have the greatest abundance and diversity of pollinators remaining.”
“Orchards have played an important role in communities for many centuries, providing a focal point, a gathering space, and a place where people and nature successfully work together to create abundant harvests,” said Garry Connolly, founder, Host in Ireland. “That spirit of community is alive and well with ‘Orchards in the Community’ as organisations like Ardmac come together with biodiversity groups, schools, colleges, Tidy Towns and others across Ireland to tackle challenges like biodiversity loss to save Ireland’s pollinators.”
“Ardmac are proud to be part of the world’s first Datacentre Ecosystem Pollinator Plan. It has been a wonderful opportunity to bring the community together. We planted 40 trees / 8 orchards as part of this initiative to help Ireland’s declining bee population. We look forward to tracking progress and pollination over the coming months and being part of the difference.” Roy Millar
About Host in Ireland
Host in Ireland is an award-winning strategic global initiative created to increase awareness of the benefits of hosting digital assets in Ireland as well as Irish companies that are designing, building, and operating data centres globally.
For more information about Host in Ireland, visit www.hostinireland.com.
