The Lecale Conservation Association has been restoring degraded beaches around Lecale for the last 8 years with the permission of Newry Mourne and Down Council and the Department of the Environment (DAERA). Lecale Conservation visited Kilclief Village’s Ture Harvest Seeds at the weekend to present £1800 raised by Lecale for this local charity to help continue this work.


Project leader and Lecale treasurer is Downpatrick Councillor Cadogan Enright. He said: “The gathering of seeds and growing-on the different native plants needed to restore sand dunes is a specialist job, and we are lucky to have Debbie Gillis and her charity Ture Harvest to do this for us.”

“Funds raised today will grow another 700 plants and about 100 meters of new sand dunes. We have also persuaded Council to support the project and order thousands of plants to restore Tyrella Beach as well.” Lecale Conservation Association Chair John Peacock explained;

“We use posts and fences to protect the front edge of dunes from footfall or motorised vehicles. This gives the new plants a chance to re-establish the front side of the dune systems. Once the new front edge of the dunes is established, erosion is stopped. Sand-dune systems are a vitally important habitat for local wildlife.”

“We will need lots of volunteers to help plant out the new plants this Autumn and next spring. If you want to volunteer, then place contact Lecale Conservation Association on Facebook or via their website lecaleconservation.org.”

Debbie Gillis said; “Without the funds raised by Lecale over the last few years it would have been nigh impossible to have grown the thousands of plants we have provided to projects at the different beaches in our area. This is specialist work and requires permission of Council and DAERA as we are dealing with native wild plants. “

“True Harvest in Kilclief is a charity that focuses on preserving and propagating a wide range of local and endangered plants native to Ireland. Volunteers are welcome to help or to fund-raise for this practical on-the-ground local environmental charity. We have to ‘think global but  act local’ to tackle the world-wide environmental challenge facing our generation.” Concluded Cadogan Enright.

Support True Harvest Seeds here.