Horizons

Frog watch:The Irish Peatland Conservation Council is asking us all to join its annual survey of the common frog. February and March are peak times for frog spawn but you can also send them any sightings of tadpoles, froglets and adult frogs.

Frogs are barometers of environmental health. Although their numbers are declining worldwide due to habitat destruction, pollution and infectious diseases, there are healthy populations here because frogs are migrating to garden ponds when wild habitats are destroyed. For details of the Hop To It frog survey, see www.ipcc.ie or contact Michael Kenny, Frog Watch officer at the IPCC, at 045-860133.

Cultivating community

Some commentators are seeing a new emphasis on local businesses and community-based activities as the silver lining of the recession. Eco-pioneers, such as those at Cultivate Centre in Dublin, have for many years been promoting local sustainability in terms of renewable energies, local food production and green businesses. Davie Philip, will lead a 10-week course exploring these areas at Greenhouse (the former Enfo offices), Andrew St, Dublin, starting on Tuesday, February 16th at 7.30pm. Entitled Community Resilience, it costs €180. Contact 01-6745773 or www.cultivate.ie

Bridges and cinemas

Dublin City Engineer Michael Phillips will give a public talk on the bridges of the River Liffey on Wednesday at 6.30pm in Raheny Library, Dublin. He will focus on the history of all Dublin bridges right up to the city’s newest bridge, The Beckett Bridge. Admission free. Booking essential, call 01-8315521.

Meanwhile, Marc Zimmermann, author of The History of Dublin Cinemas(2007) and chair of the Cinema Heritage Group, will give a talk, The History of Cinema- going in Dublin, on Wednesday, February 24th at 6.45pm in the Central Library, Ilac Centre, Dublin. Admission is free. Booking essential at 01-8734333 cinemaheritagegroup.org

ECOWEB

www.countdown2010.org

Set up by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, this site is a network of various groups whose aim is to halt biodiversity loss by 2010. Irish NGO Just Forests is their featured partner for this month.