The Irish Wildlife Trust knows how to market itself. It writes: "Imagine a week of adventure in the wilderness, with fine food, plenty of craic and wildlife at your door." That might be too close for some! And the information leaflet goes on: "Imagine a week of boating along lakes and rivers, hiking in green hills and spotting wild deer, horses and falcons. Imagine a week of wandering through leafy woodlands, visiting ancient settlements and exploring limestone coves. Imagine a week of all this for only £20."
This reads almost as an advert but I know there is a very serious side to it because I have experienced it at first hand.
Garden-lovers, cultivators, flower-lovers, will know the rhododendron. It is a beautiful shrub/tree. In full flower, it is majestic. It commands attention. It is a wonderful thing to have, but rhododendron ponticum can also be an invasive neighbour as the wildlife people in Kerry know only too well. When it takes hold in the right conditions, it does not know where to stop, and over the years it can devour all before it, obliterating local species, even attacking the last of the native Irish oak in the south-west.
Groundwork is a voluntary organisation attached to the Irish Wildlife Trust. Each year it organises summer camps for youngsters - hence the advertising bit - but behind the hype there is a much more serious side.
In places like Kenmare and Killarney, gargantuan efforts have been made to stop the encroachment of the lovely rhododendron, which isn't so lovely at all when rich soils spur it on to devour almost everything in its path. And once established, to all intents and purposes, there is no getting rid of it.
And that's what Groundwork in this project is about. The voluntary organisation, you might say, offers a carrot-and-stick approach. The carrot is the excitement of the wilderness and camaraderie: the stick is pretty hard work.
A spokesman said: "We organise annual summer workcamps in the remote mountain woodlands of Killarney and Glenveagh National Parks. This vital work involves the removal of the invasive shrub, rhododendron ponticum, from woodlands.
"Unless cleared, this plant will shade out all that grows on the woodland floor. The impact of this on the plants and animals that live in this habitat, and indeed on the future of the very trees that comprise the woods, will be devastating and irreversible.
"Since 1981, thousands of volunteers from all over the world have come (some of them several times) to help in this conservation struggle."
Groundwork doesn't dwell too much on the hard work side and points out that if you sign up, and after a busy day saving the Irish natural environment, there will be no shortage of craic agus ceol.
This year, the workcamps are running from June 27th to September 5th in Killarney and from August 1st to September 12th in Glenveagh.
If two people go, the cost will be £30 for one week. The Killarney workcamp is already up and running, and among others, has had Polish, Italian, French, Dutch and German volunteers helping out.