You can apply for The Hare’s Corner supports (Application Call is announced in spring each year for a selection of counties – check details on the current Application Call).
You can also use our wide range of Practical Tips to create Hare’s Corners on your land today.
Contact us with a brief CV and your location at [email protected]
If you are a funding body, a corporate group, a local authority or an organisation interested in supporting this initiative please contact us at [email protected]
By offering landowners practical, hassle-free, support to enhance biodiversity on their land, this initiative has already delievered hundreds of new spaces for nature in the form of native mini-woodlands, wildlife ponds, heritage orchards and wildlife hedges. This initiative was launched in 2021 in Co.Clare and due to its proven success and demand has expanded to several other counties, and is growing year on year. Every new action taken by The Hare’s Corner participants is documented and mapped. Take a look at our impact on the ground through this Actions Map.
We received guidance and funding and more importantly encouragement to create a wildlife pond from The Hare’s Corner team. One and half years later, we did a study on it and identified 30 different species in and around the pond. Our members really enjoy this pond and now we are designated as one of just six ponds in the whole country as a demonstration site for ponds.
I was able to create a woodland, an orchard and a pond through The Hare’s Corner. I have 2.5 acres of land that was heavily grazed before and I am gradually working on it bring nature back. With the actions taken so far you can already see biodiversity increasing. The main highight for me has been the opportunity to work with the land and have a connection with nature. That has been very rewarding.
Receiving a ‘Plan for Nature’ visit from The Hare’s Corner was like getting an education on your own land, opening your eyes to something you mightn’t have noticed before. The Plan for Nature advisor identified 8 areas on our land for us where we could make small and very manageable changes to enhance biodiversity. The tips were priceless – and came with a map of our site and I keep them handy on my phone at all times.
We were able to plant a mini-woodland on our site using the native trees given by The Hare’s Corner project – oak, birch, hazel, hawthorn, spindle, alder and the Burren pine. I have great vision of this developing into a wonderful gladed woodland one day. Under recommendations of the project we also were able to develop a network of holding pools to slow down the water running down our hillside site and minimise flooding downhill. Getting specialist guidance has gives us confidence to do the right thing and bring out the best in our land for nature.
We had a wonderful ecologist come visit our land as part of our ‘Plan for Nature’. She advised us on which trees to plant where, and what kind of grazing would allow us to have more flora and fauna thrive on the site. She showed us different types of lichens, mosses and flowers that we hadn’t noticed before. We now have a lot better appreciation of the habitats we already have on our land!
I dug a pond and planted a heritage orchard through The Hare’s Corner project. Obviously there is a loads of advice on theinternet but having someone come and look at the site and assess it for suitability and design – that was a huge incentive for me. There is a lot of action on the pond – a lot of frogs, dragonflies, swallows going mad for it in the summer and we get the odd ducks too.
Quick ‘How-to’ guides on making more space for nature
Yellow Rattle can help to create, and speed up the development of, grasslands rich in wildflowers. Wildflower-rich grasslands are extremely important for wildlife – they provide food for insects, birds and small mammals, improve soil biodiversity, and can store 500% more carbon than fields dominated by one grass species.
Fruit trees provide food for adult insects in the form of nectar, pollen and sap; and leaves for their larvae (e.g. caterpillars). They form and sustain part of the food web that will support birds and mammals.
Around 80% of Ireland’s 80 solitary bees are miners which make their nests by burrowing in bare earth. You can create much needed nesting habitats for these mining bees by building, or managing existing, bee banks.
Hedgerows provide wildlife with food, nest sites and shelter. They are important highways for mammals, especially bats, birds and insects, as they move through the landscape. Woody shrubs and trees capture carbon and can help improve soil drainage.
If you are a funding body, a business, a corporate group or a Local Authority interested in supporting this initiative please contact us at [email protected] .
