Based in 5th Port Dollymount, the Jupiter beaver group meets every Saturday morning at 11am. In accordance with the Covid-19 guidelines they are currently spending all of their sessions outdoors. Over the recent months they have visited local parks, trekked through the dunes on Dollymount beach and even hiked from Howth Head to Sutton! During each session, they raise the beaver’s awareness of their natural environment by encouraging them to observe and connect with nature. Because of thier location in Dublin Bay and their weekly scouting activities, they set themselves the goal of achieving the Dublin Bay Biosphere Award.

Part 1 – Explore: To experience our environment, they observed the olive-brown froglets in the low-lying marshy lands near their ‘Crows Nest’ scout den. During other trips they also identified the Six-spot Burnet moths leaving their cocoon, a skylark flying above its nest, the common-spotted Orchid and many more wildlife native to Bull Island. They were fortunate to have The Wildlife Of The Bull Island, by Proinsias Mac an Bheatha as a reference to help identify the various species encountered.

The beavers were set a challenge of creating a ‘sound map’. With each beaver asked to sit quietly and tune in to their surrounding environment. Then, with their notebooks and pencils, each time they heard a new sound they drew a picture to describe what they heard.

This is the first step to earning the Biosphere Award, spend a little time and use your senses to experiencing nature.

Part 2 – Learning: The beavers motto is ‘leave no trace’. In keeping with this, they used their weekly outdoor adventures to learn about the negative effect that litter and plastics can have on our environment.

This is the second step, take time to learn about the process going on in nature and how humans can impact the environment both positively and negatively. These activities helped inform what they would do for their ‘taking action’ step, the third step towards achieving the Biosphere Award.

Part 3 – Taking Action: To reinforce the idea about the impacts that humans can have on the natural world the beavers engaged in a litter pick-up morning. The beavers learned that removing plastics and other forms of general waste can positively impact our ecosystems. The scouters and the beavers filled 5 refuse sacks in one morning!

Upon completion of a busy summer of scouting activities, the beavers were delighted to have achieved the Dublin Bay Biosphere award.

It was an honour to witness the investiture of these wonderful young people and to be able to present them with the first ever Biosphere Awards! The Jupiter Beavers have a commitment to 'Love the World' and the biosphere is a better place for having these young people dedicating themselves to its protection.