WLR's Ours to Protect and Harvard’s Institute of Climate, Sound, and Society Collaborate on World-First “AudioMoth” Biodiversity Project in Waterford
This year, Ours to Protect launched something truly special, and a little bit groundbreaking. In collaboration with the Institute of Climate, Sound, and Society at Harvard University, WLR and 15 other independent radio stations took part in a world-first project: mapping biodiversity through sound.
At the heart of it all was a small but mighty device called the AudioMoth, a portable, weather-resistant sound recorder capable of capturing the hum and heartbeat of an entire ecosystem. From May to October 2025, one of these recorders sat quietly on the grounds of Garranbane National School in County Waterford, collecting the living soundtrack of the area.
Over six months, the AudioMoth caught it all,
the morning chatter of birds,
the steady buzz of bees,
the creaking trees howling in the wind,
heavy rainfall and the rumble of N25 traffic,
the laughter of children at play,
and eventually, the deep, patient quiet of the summer months.
Each layer of sound tells a story of life, movement, and change, a sonic fingerprint of biodiversity in motion.
Now, that rich tapestry of audio has been sent to Harvard’s Institute of Climate and Sound, where researchers will analyse the recordings to better understand how soundscapes reflect environmental health and shifts in wildlife populations. This kind of “acoustic ecology” research offers a new frontier for climate storytelling, blending science, journalism, and community engagement in one shared act of listening.
“This project shows that sound isn’t just background noise,” said Michael Byrne from WLR. “It’s data. It’s memory. It’s how we begin to truly hear the world we’re trying to protect.”
Once the audio has been documented by the team, WLR will return to Garranbane National School to share the results with students and staff.
Thank you for joining us this year on Ours to Protect. We’ll leave you now with a few moments from Garranbane, where the wind, the wings, and the wonder of nature are still playing, just beyond the microphone.