IWT NEWS

Members of the Trailblazers Hiking Group (Dublin) who took part in the Fei Sheehy Challenge.

The Fei Sheehy Challenge Fundraiser - Exploring the Uplands for Nature

Ireland is lucky to have so many upland areas throughout the country and we have long campaigned for better management of our hills for nature. Restoring the uplands is an important part of the challenge of bringing nature back from the brink in Ireland. Therefore, we were very happy to be one of the charity causes of the Fei Sheehy Challenge this year – a fundraiser all about spending time exploring the uplands.

The Fei Sheehy Challenge is a hike to cross the Comeragh, Galty and Knockmealdown Mountains on three designated, consecutive days. You can also elect to do one or two days. This year, the three days had a cumulative distance of 95km and cumulative height gain/descent of 4,500m. Those taking part in the challenge raise funds for the charity causes and thanks to the hard work of those brave hikers, this year we will be receiving a donation of €1,237.34. Thanks to the organisers for choosing the IWT as a charity cause for the event this year. To find out how to take part in the Fei Sheehy Challenge visit https://www. feisheehychallenge.net/

If you would like to run your own fundraiser for the IWT, please contact info@iwt.ie or see our online fundraising platform, iDonate https://www.idonate.ie/1208_irish-wildlife-trust.html

CAMPAIGN UPDATE By Pádraic Fogarty

Sheep on the hills

TOO MANY SHEEP IN THE WRONG PLACES

The 12 Bens SAC, showing the effects of sheep grazing

After the lifting of lockdown early in July, I took some time out in the West of Ireland to clear the head. I travelled from Galway City through Connemara and north to Mayo, visiting a few farmers and landowners along the way. My trip coincided with an announcement from the European Commission that they will be referring Ireland to the European Court of Justice for failure to implement management measures for any of the 423 Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) in the state, something an Irish Times editorial decried as an “egregious failure”. This will come as no surprise to readers of Irish Wildlife and while the reasons are various, there is one with four legs and a woolly coat that we really need to talk about. At the top of the 12 Bens Mountains SAC, I saw all around me the devastating impact that sheep grazing has had. The vegetation here was no higher than my ankle when it should be somewhere between my knee and waist. While some habitats (e.g. flower-rich grassland) can benefit from grazing by livestock, alpine

Nephin Beg SAC where severe erosion has destroyed the peatland habitats

scrub and heath is not among them. Despite the warm sunshine for the length of my 6-7 hour hike, I saw hardly any bees or butterflies. Where there should be red grouse, ring ouzel and soaring golden eagle, I saw a single raven and a handful of meadow pipets. When the number of dead sheep on a hike outnumbers the diversity of bird species, we know we have a problem. And it’s not confined to this corner of Co. Galway. Drive from Ros a Mhíl in the south to Maam Cross and through the Maumturk Mountains and all you will see is a deadening expanse of degrade – and overgrazed – bogs and hillsides. Another stop on my trip was the Nephin Beg SAC in Mayo, a part of the Ballycroy National Park and here, despite reductions in sheep numbers in recent years, the damage to the peatlands is catastrophic. A report published this year by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) said that 98% of this SAC had been damaged from grazing. That’s pretty much all of it! We also have a separate report from the NPWS showing how increases in sheep numbers in Special Protection Areas in the northwest are leading to a collapse in breeding wading bird populations, such as oystercatcher, dunlin and lapwing. How is it that this is allowed over one year on from declaring a biodiversity and climate emergency in Ireland? While cattle have borne much of the brunt of the debate in terms of climate change, how is it that sheep are getting a free ride, especially where they are contributing to the degradation of peatlands and subsequent loss of greenhouse gases? Even where overgrazing is not so dramatic, we know that the presence of grazers is preventing the emergence of native woodland and so is an enormous loss of ecological potential. The IWT has called for emergency measures to be implemented with the removal of all sheep from the uplands. This must be accompanied with management measures for these so-called protected areas. Farmers should be paid to help restore the land and move to more nature-sensitive ways of farming. With Ireland yet again facing court action, it is hard to see how the sheep in the room continues to be ignored.

CAMPAIGN UPDATE By Pádraic Fogarty

NEWS ON FORESTS

There is some good news on the forestry front. For a start, everyone – even the commercial forestry industry – recognises that the current system is broken. Minister for Biodiversity and Land Use, Pippa Hackett, has set herself the task of reforming the system with a new Forestry Programme expected for public consultation shortly. We expect the outcome of this to be strongly influenced by the Green Party motion on forestry from October last year and which was supported by all political parties with the exception of Fine Gael. This called for a nature-based approach to forestry, whether for commercial ends or just for nature. In August, a consultation was published on a new Bill which – if enacted – would severely limit the ability of individuals and environmental organisations to object to forestry proposals. The IWT submission was strongly against any such move; we feel that the problems in forestry licencing, which stem not from objectors but a lack of compliance with EU and national law, must be the priority. Also in August, Minister Hackett announced a scheme for forestry on public land. This is to be warmly welcomed and could see Local Authorities and state agencies apply for grants to establish new native woodlands with no commercial objective. We hope this will see enthusiastic uptake. Another initiative announced this summer is the expansion of Coillte Nature, which last year undertook to transform commercial plantations in the Dublin Mountains as well as Lough Gill in Sligo to native species. This is exactly the type of rewilding that needs to be encouraged. This time they are seeking to restore 2,100 hectares of commercial conifer plantation in the West of Ireland to blanket bog or native woodland. Despite our opposition to the proposed changes to forestry appeals, my sense is that things are moving in the right direction. They are certainly moving… there is enormous potential for new native woodlands which will be embraced by local people and which provide multiple benefits. The IWT has met with Minister Hackett, her Green Party colleague Malcolm Noonan (Minister at the Department of Housing) as well as Coillte this summer and will continue to stress this point with them.

Later in August, the IWT met with a local community group in Rathcoole, Co. Dublin. They are fighting to save an extraordinary patch of native woodland from a housing development. This case is particularly interesting as the land was bought as farmland in the mid-1990s by South Dublin County Council but despite being zoned at the time for housing, it was never developed. In the intervening years, nature has taken the reins and visitors can now walk though tall stands of willow and birch with hazel and mountain ash. There are still some open areas

of now-species rich meadows with 2m high angelica, willowherbs and hogweed which are buzzing with insect life. There’s a small wetland while a stream running through the site enters the River Camac, which ultimately flows through Dublin City. The complexity and diversity of the Rathcoole Woods is astonishing given that it was a plain corn field only 20 years ago and is a testament to nature’s great healing power. The residents told me about the badgers and foxes that live in the wood, the thriving numbers of nesting birds and the great abundance of bats which emerge on summer evenings. This is exactly the type of rewilding that need to be encouraged. South Dublin County Council is a member of the all-Ireland Pollinator Plan and has a Climate Action Plan which extolls the advantages of ‘nature-based solutions’ like woodlands in addressing multiple issues like carbon storage, amenity, water protection and flood alleviation. How could they just clear it away for houses? Ireland faces an acute shortage of affordable housing but we nevertheless have a climate and biodiversity emergency along with government targets to encourage public bodies to establish more native woodland. It’s time we joined the dots! A new county development plan is to be opened for public consultation shortly

and we very much stand with the people of Rathcoole in demanding that this site be saved. They want to see the woods protected as part of a Rathcoole Woods Community Nature Reserve and this kind of idea can make a significant contribution to our climate and biodiversity targets.