Broadford focus on eco tourism offering

BROADFORD Development Association has done a lot of work within Broadford Arboretum, a major eco tourist attraction in west Limerick.

A fence was erected around the area of trees within the arboretum in 1998 and Tidy Towns' member Kathleen Barry said they wanted to remove that fence to encourage visitors to engage more with the site. “At the same time, part of the fence needed to be repaired just for health and safety reasons in another area so we removed part of it.”

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The Association is also hoping to rebuild the wildlife pond later this year and to carry out further works on the arboretum. They have held some great events in the wildlife arboretum such as Broadford Garden Day to celebrate Biodiversity Week last May. “Sinead McDonnell, the Biodiversity Officer with Limerick City and County Council visited us and she was actually delighted with the arboretum. She hadn't been in it before. She wanted to know where we were hiding this gem,” said Ms Barry.

Ms McDonnell said she saw birds that she had never seen before including the treecreeper and as a result, she sponsored part of the gardening day.

Well-known biologist environmental consultant Éanna Ní Lamhna also attended the event as a special guest which Ms Barry said attracted about 150 people to Broadford's newly-opened community hall. Ms Barry said she was “delighted”asbout this.