Irish Wildlife Trust - Autumn 2022

A for FreshNatureStart IRISH‘22AUTUMN MAGAZINE OF THE IRISH WILDLIFE TRUST •5705-1649-AUTUMN‘22 • COMPASS JELLYFISH • TROUT • SPECKLED BUSH CRICKET INSPOTTEDIRELAND: IRELAND’SBESTWILDLIFEMAGAZINE GREY SEAL DISTURBANCE SCAVENGING SCOTS PINE FASCIATION

www.iwt.ie/become-a-member www.iwt.ie/donate Scan the code with your phone and see how to donate today!

in Sweden GreyCapercaillesealson Great Blasket Cover Image Credit Fox by

Claire Walsh, Chair of the Irish Wildlife Trust claire@iwt.ie Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘22

going to press,

or omissions contained herein. onPrinted

Lots of questions we will explore in our strategy - I’d love to hear from you (claire@iwt.ie) if you have thoughts or ideas on any of these topics. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy getting cosy as you immerse yourself in the rich content of this our Autumn edition of the IWT magazine.

Chairperson’s Comment

how disturbing a well-intended photo opportunity or game of “chasing” may be for wildlife. is autumn, as nature pauses to bring forth new growth, in the IWT, we too are pausing to take a moment of re ection to consider our progress so far, and to refresh our strategy for the years ahead. We will continue on our mission to protect Ireland’s natural heritage and we will create clear recommendations to equip you, our members and friends to use in advocating for wildlife in your community.

For instance, a) what is our “All Ireland” strategy to in uence policies on both sides of the border to support our wildlife?; b) who should we partner with to combine forces and have a stronger voice together?; c) where should we prioritise - and deprioritise - to avoid spreading ourselves too thin, and to maximise impact?; d) as an environmentally focused NGO, how do we fund our activities to enable a wider reach?

Can you feel it? e quiet dance of nature is underway as it advances towards its winter slumber. is new season brings fresh, crisp days, and a kaleidoscope of golden colours which is simply breath-takingshould we take pause for just a moment to breathe it in. Although the days are getting shorter, there’s a real joy in pulling on a cosy jumper and snuggling up with a bowl of warm, hearty soup! In the IWT, the summer months were busy as the country got back to some sense of normality. We had a super turn out at Bloom in the Park, and it’s been wonderful to see our events with high attendance all summer. In this edition of our magazine we’re excited to share updates on the recent national biodiversity conference, restoration of wild pine forests, and the importance of scavengers in our environment. We hear more about the positive impact local food choices have and the exciting reform of the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

I believe it is important to recognise positive change as it occurs. Our article on “fasciation” highlights that many are discovering new garden delights as a result of less cutting. Additionally, and with much credit to the All-Ireland Pollinator plan, to City and County Councils and to every person who has chosen to avoid pesticides, Irish wild owers (and subsequently, wildlife) are beginning to ourish. Personally, I was thrilled to see gold nches dining on dandelions in the garden!Although there is lots to celebrate, and positive change is gaining momentum, unfortunately there is much more to do, and it’s upsetting to see that the human impact on nature is ever present. Just one example is demonstrated through the impact “ecotourism” has on seals who use the Blasket Islands as a base. I’ve witnessed similar behaviour in the Phoenix Park with the beautiful deer inhabitants. Awareness is critical, so please share by Mike Brown Red squirrel by Andrew Kelly Fasciated by Zoë Devlin Natterjack toad by Mike Brown A peat bog KriegerCarsten not While every effort has been made to ensure that all of Ashville Media Group and the Irish Wildlife Trust cannot be held responsible for any errors Please recycle this copy of Irish Wildlife Pass it on. If you’re finished with your Irish Wildlife don’t throw it in the bin. Pass it on to someone who you think may enjoy it – or ask your local library or doctor’s office to leave it in the reception. You’ll help the environment and the IWT while you’re at it. Irish Wildlife is 100% recyclable, so if you do choose to throw it out, please put it in the green bin.

information contained in this publication is factual and correct at time

inadvertent

Over the past months, I’ve been re ecting on the topics we need to consider as we create our strategy, and while some topics such as biodiversity, invasive species and marine protected areas are clear priorities to focus on, there are others which need deep consideration.

Published by Ashville Media Group www.ashville.com All articles © 2022 No part of this publication including the images used may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. Opinions and comments expressed herein are

WELCOME 1

necessarily those of the publisher.

dandelion

Contents page credits: Magpies scavenging

04ContentsABOUTUS Discover more about the work of the IWT and how you can get involved. 05 CONSERVATION NEWS Tim Carbon compiles the latest national and international news from the world of conservation. 10 ACTIVITY UPDATE Updates on IWT campaigns and activities 16 REVIEW, REFLECT, RENEW Transforming the governance of nature conservation in Ireland 20 WILD IDEAS The effects of human disturbance on grey seals 22 GORDON D’ARCY Scavengers of the animal world 24 AUTUMN FOCUS Carbon footprint and global food markets 26 GARDEN DISCOVERY Fascinated by nature’s fasciation 29 CHUILE RUD CEANGAILTE... ITHIR, FEITHIDÍ, BLATHANNA, BIA... 30 FRONT LINE Bringing back the Irish pine forest 32 RED GROUSE Ireland’s unique red grouse 34 FACEBOOK PHOTOS 36 COMPETITION Your chance to win a copy of an exciting new nature book Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘22 3

e IWT encourages action at a local level and has a number of branches around the country: Dublin: Trust,facebook.com/DublinBranchIrishWildlifedublinbranch@iwt.iedubliniwt.blogspot.ie

• Set up a branch. Are you passionate about wildlife and are in a county that does not have an IWT branch? Contact the o ce and we can give you the support you need to get up and running.

Laois/O aly: Ricky, iwtlaoiso www.facebook.com/IWTlaoisoaly@gmail.com, alybranch

About Us

Keep up to date on all the latest news from the Irish Wildlife Trust on www.iwt.ie

Limerick: limerickbranch@iwt.ie / https://www.facebook.com / IWTLimerickBranch Galway: Dan, www.facebook.com/IWTgalwaybranchiwtgalway@gmail.com,

Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘224 IRISH WILDLIFE TRUST

Waterford: Denis blogspot.iedeniscullen@eircom.net,iwtwaterfordbranch@gmail.com,Cullen,irishwildlifetrust.

IMAGES

Supported by

• Remember us in your will. Why not leave a lasting legacy towards conserving Ireland’s natural heritage? e IWT uses all funds towards our campaigns, managing reserves and our education programmes. Please visit www.mylegacy.ie.

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e Irish Wildlife Trust was founded in 1979 and aims to conserve wildlife and the habitats it depends on throughout Ireland, while encouraging a greater understanding and appreciation of the natural world. e IWT is dedicated to creating a better future for Ireland’s wildlife through: Motivating and supporting people to take action for wildlife. Education and raising awareness of all aspects of Irish wildlife and conservation issues. Research of the natural environment. Acquiring and managing nature reserves to safeguard species and Lobbyinghabitats.decision-makers at all levels to promote policy in Ireland that provides a sustainable future for wildlife and people. Working in partnership with other organisations to achieve results that matter for conservation. Irish Wildlife is published quarterly by the IWT. CAN YOU HELP? You, our members, make the IWT what it is. rough your subscriptions and support we can undertake the projects that are bene ting Ireland’s wildlife. If you would like to help more, here’s what you can do: • Make a one-o donation to the IWT. Give IWT membership as a gi . • Volunteer – we are always looking for people to help out. ere are lots of ways to get involved, from helping with important admin work in our o ce to helping us increase membership by volunteering at public events. See our website www.iwt.ie for details or contact the o ce directly. THIS PAGE: TOP: Beetle by P.Fogarty BELOW: Fasciated dog violet by Z. Devlin

Monaghan: monaghanbranch@iwt.ie

Kerry: Ger, www.facebook.com/KerryIWTiwtkerry@gmail.com,

• Do you have land that you would like used for conservation? We are always on the lookout to establish new sites to enhance wildlife or provide education opportunities.

HAVE COMMENTS? Editor: Pádraic Fogarty Magazine queries email: editor@iwt.ie Information on campaigning and policies email: irishwildlife@iwt.ie Snail mail: The Irish Wildlife Trust, 8 CABRA ROAD, DUBLIN 7, D07 T1W2 Web: www.iwt.ie Social media: Registeredinstagram.com/irishwildlifetrust/facebook.com/IrishWildlifeTrusttwitter.com/IrishwildlifeCharityNumber:20010966 HOW

The latest national and international news from the conservation world, compiled by Tim Clabon

Based on reviews by experts in social science, economic and humanities the Values Assessment drew on more than 13,000 references including scientific papers and information from indigenous and local knowledge. The report also built on the previous assessment conducted in 2019 which identified the role of economic growth as a key driver of nature loss, causing the extinction crisis we now know today.The report provides a new and comprehensive typology of nature's values and highlights how different worldviews and knowledge systems influence the way people interact with nature. This will help policy makers understand the different ways poeple seeand value nature.

The report is laid out in four headings to make it useful for decision making. These are: Living from, Living with, Living In and Living as Nature.

those associated with intensively produced food. However, these market values do not reflect how changes in nature affect people’s quality of life, and overlook the values associated with nature’s contributions such as climate regulation and cultural identity.

According to a new report prepared for the UN by the Intergovernmental SciencePolicy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) states that the values we ascribe to nature are vital parts of our cultures, identities, economies, and ways of life, all of which should be reflected in policy decisions surrounding our natural world. However, their assessment found that when policy decisions are made in a global context there is too much emphasis on short term profits and economic growth which often undervalue nature. The assessment was completed over four years by 82 scientists and experts from every region of the world. The assessment was approved by representatives of the 138 IPBES member states.

Valuing biodiversity

CONSERVATION NEWS Irish Wildlife Autumn '22 5

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

The report found that the number of studies that value nature had increased on average by more than 10% per year over the last four decades. The most prominent focus of recent (2010-2020) valuation studies had been on improving the condition of nature (65% of valuation studies reviewed) and on improving

CONSERVATION NEWS

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valuation methods to tackle power asymmetries among stakeholders, and to transparently embed the diverse values of nature into policymaking.”

Living from nature emphasizes nature’s capacity to provide resources for sustaining livelihoods, needs and wants of people, such as food and material goods.Living with nature has a focus on life ‘other than human’ such as the intrinsic right of fish in a river to thrive independently of human needs.

Economic and political decisions often prioritise certain values of nature, particularly market-based values such as

Living in nature refers to the importance of nature as the setting for people’s sense of place and identity. Living as nature sees the natural world as a physical, mental and spiritual part of oneself.

“With more than 50 valuation methods and approaches, there is no shortage of ways and tools to make visible the values of nature,” said Prof. Unai Pascual (Spain/ Switzerland), who co-chaired the Assessment with Prof. Patricia Balvanera (Mexico), Prof. Mike Christie (UK) and Dr. Brigitte Baptiste (Colombia). “Only 2% of the more than 1,000 studies reviewed consult stakeholders on valuation findings and only 1% of the studies involved stakeholders in every step of the process of valuing nature. What is in short supply is the use of

There is often some debate about the arrival of the Natterjack toad in Ireland. It was first noted in 1805, and no evidence of its existence occurs in the fossil record. The Natterjack toad is abundant in Iberia and the toad could have been introduced as there is a history of trade between Kerry and Iberia. More likely is that the toad might be part of the Lusitanian biota where a small number of plants and animals occur both in this corner of Ireland and the Iberian peninsula. The Kerry slug is also a member of this group and the study of this group is certainly interesting in how species were once linked.

the-wild/bred-natterjack-toadlets-released-into-release/3168a-irelands-first-captive-https://www.gov.ie/en/press-publications/pdf/IWM10.pdfhttps://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/Reference:

have made efforts to address this with pond creation schemes, and a new scheme to pay farmers based on results aims to encourage farmers to help conserve this species.

“The Values Assessment provides decision-makers with concrete tools and methods to better understand the values that individuals and communities hold about nature,” said Prof. Balvanera. “For example, it highlights five iterative steps to design valuation to fit the needs of different decision-making contexts. The report also provides guidelines on how to enhance the quality of valuation by taking into account relevance, robustness and resource requirements of different valuation methods.”“Different types of values can be measured using different valuation methods and indicators. For example, a development project can yield economic benefits and jobs, for which instrumental values of nature can be assessed, but it can also lead to loss of species, associated with intrinsic values of nature, and the destruction of heritage sites important for cultural identity, thus affecting relational values of nature. The report provides guidance for combining these very diverse values.”

Ireland’s first captive bred NATTERJACK TOADS RELEASED into the wild

The report also found that there are a number of deeply held values that can be aligned with sustainability, emphasizing principles like unity, responsibility, stewardship and justice, both towards other people and towards nature.

The Natterjack toad is one of three native amphibians found in Ireland. With less than 10,000 remaining in the wild it is considered to be our most threatened species of amphibian. In a joint project between the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and Fota Wildlife Park to-date around 6,000 toadlets have been released back into the wild. The latest release of 500 toadlets occurred at Castlegregory (Co. Kerry) with the help of the local community on the 25th July last. This release included toadlets that had been spawned in captivity marking a major milestone in the conservation project and a first for Ireland.Stafffrom the NPWS collected spawn and tadpoles from ponds in their natural habitat and transported them to Fota Wildlife Park. Staff there cared for the spawn and tadpoles in holding tanks. After metamorphosis the froglets were returned to their natural habitat at sites in Kerry. This year the project also saw spawn produced from toads held in captivity to boost the breeding efforts of the native population. Captive breeding plays an important role in the conservation of this and many other species. Natterjack toads endure a high natural mortality rate with over 90% being lost. Large numbers are lost through predation (by dragonfly and water beetle larvae) and their breeding ponds drying out. 2022 has been a particularly challenging time for the toads with the dry spring and summer meaning that spawning was limited. The natural range of the Natterjack toad in Ireland is restricted to coastal zones in Kerry. Land reclamation and changes to agricultural practices led to the loss of habitats for this species. The NPWS

respecting the worldviews, values and traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples and local communities allows policies to be more inclusive, which also translates into better outcomes for people and nature”, said Dr. Baptiste. “Also, recognizing the role of women in the stewardship of nature and overcoming power asymmetries frequently related to gender status, can advance the inclusion of the diversity of values in decisions about nature.”

Irish Wildlife Autumn '226 CONSERVATION NEWS IRISH NEWS people’s quality of life (31%), with just 4% focused on improving issues around social justice. 74% of valuation studies focused on instrumental values, with 20% focused on intrinsic values, and just 6% focused on relational values.

“Valuation is an explicit and intentional process,” said Prof. Christie. “The type and quality of information that valuation studies can produce largely depends on how, why and by whom valuation is designed and applied. This influences whose and which values of nature would be recognized in decisions, and how fairly the benefits and burdens of these decisions would be “Recognizingdistributed.”and

 Natterjack Toad by Mike Brown

 Basking sharks by George Karbus – Identifying areas of interest for Marine Protected Area Designation in Irish Waters MARINE CONSERVATION By Regina Classen, IWT Marine Policy and Research Officer OURREVITALISINGSEAS Irish Wildlife Autumn '22

The ocean that surrounds Ireland is home to an amazing array of life. From the largest animal ever to have lived on our planet, the blue whale, to the second biggest fish, the basking shark, all the way down to sprat (a small fish) and plankton (tiny shrimp-like creatures) that form the foundation of our ocean food chain.

Example area of interest: Northwest Continental Shelf and Abyss

MARINE CONSERVATION

A new report by the Fair Seas campaign and co-authored by the Irish Wildlife Trust, shows how Ireland could increase its Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) 18-fold to cover 36% of its maritime area, enabling the country to meet its target of 30% MPA coverage by 2030.

Irish Wildlife Autumn '228

This is the largest AOI out of the 16 chosen sites and covers 11% of the entire Irish maritime area. The seabed in this AOI descends from the shallow Irish continental shelf waters (c.200 m depth) steeply down into the Rockall Trough (c.2,600 m depth). Cold-water coral reefs grow abundantly along this steep slope, providing a habitat for deep-sea fish species. On the border with Scotland, this AOI covers the edge of the only seamount found in Irish waters, the Hebrides Terrace Seamount. Deep-sea sharks, many of which are endangered due to high bycatch mortality from deep-sea fisheries, make their home here: Leafscale gulper shark, cuckoo ray, Portuguese dogfish, birdbeak dogfish, flapper skate, thornback ray and spurdog, to name a few, have all been recorded in fisheries surveys along the continental shelf edge. Whales and dolphins are also commonly reported in this AOI, e.g. white-sided dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, longfinned pilot whales, deep diving whales such as sperm whales and beaked whales, and baleen whales such as fin whales. The proximity of the Mayo and Donegal coastlines to the continental shelf in this area is of high importance to seabird colonies located in Mayo, Sligo and Donegal. of 4,000 metres below the surface. This area is known as the continental shelf (see map on pg9).

16 Areas of Interest (AOI) have been identified in the report ‘Revitalising Our Seas’ that make up a network of MPAs covering 175,504 km2 of Ireland’s maritime area. That would protect an area of the ocean over twice the size of the island of Ireland! The areas identified in the report highlight the need to protect large offshore areas of our ocean as well as areas along our coast. The south and west edges of Ireland’s maritime area are places where relatively shallow waters, about 200 metres deep, suddenly slope away to depths

It is a highly productive part of our ocean where cold nutrientrich water is pushed up the slopes by ocean currents. These nutrients mean the water here is full of life and makes for a perfect feeding ground for all sorts of animals. Many deepdiving whales spend lots of their time in this area and seabirds, like our iconic puffins, are known to spend the winters here. Along the slopes themselves and in the deep waters, fragile coral reefs thrive, with some species living to be thousands of years old. The sediment that gathers in these areas is extremely carbon-rich, due to falling ‘marine snow’ or debris like dead plankton, fish and whale poop. If this sediment gets stirred up, tonnes of carbon can be released and potentially even make its way back into our atmosphere. If we make sure that this sediment remains undisturbed then it has the potential to lock away huge amounts of carbon and help us in our fight against climate change. MPAs need to take the whole ecosystem into account, not just one particular species or habitat. The report therefore identified a range of species and analysed their distribution

"IF WE MAKE SURE THAT THIS SEDIMENT THENUNDISTURBEDREMAINSITHASTHEPOTENTIALTOLOCKAWAYHUGEAMOUNTSOFCARBONANDHELPUSINOURFIGHTAGAINSTCLIMATECHANGE."

The south-west coast of Ireland is a haven for marine wildlife. The Tralee and Dingle Bays are known breeding areas of several threatened species of shark, ray and skate. Tralee Bay in particular is one of the last known refuges for the critically endangered angel shark. In Dingle Bay and around the Blasket Islands, basking shark sightings are very high, with one record having reported a maximum of 100 sharks in one sighting. The area is also important for whales and dolphins: The site hosts the highest densities of minke whale and humpback whale recorded within Irish waters, accounting for 30% and 45% of all sightings made respectively. Risso’s dolphin and common dolphin are also extremely abundant in this area. The islands and archipelagos that skirt the peninsulas of Kerry are also some of Ireland’s most prominent seabird breeding sites. The Skelligs host 74% of the entire Irish breeding population of gannets, while the Blaskets are home to 60% of Ireland’s breeding populations of European storm petrel and Manx shearwater. The sheltered bays in this area are home to patches of seagrass, which is an important carbon store and refuge for juvenile fish, such as cod. While several protected areas already exist within this area, a larger area is needed to protect seabird foraging habitat and other highly mobile species, while also protecting the food sources that these species rely on, such as sprat and sandeel.and overlap. This allowed the authors to identify biodiversity hotspots, the protection of which would contribute to recovery of sealife overall. By taking an ‘ecosystem approach’ we allow all life within an MPA to flourish. This guarantees better protection for all the species that occur in an area, the food they rely on and the habitats they live and raise their young in, while also removing threats from the water they swim around. The analysis in the report is based on the best data available to Fair Seas scientists and identifies the areas of interest based on their importance for biodiversity or sensitive and rare species and habitats. The report acknowledges that more data and funding for further study and research is required to fill existing data gaps. Ireland’s maritime area covers a stretch of open ocean seven times the size of the island of Ireland. Therefore it’s not surprising that there are things we still don’t know about our seas. However, what we do know is that our seas need our help and we cannot afford to delay putting measures in place to protect and restore them.

The full report ‘Revitalising Our Seas’ is available at www.fairseas.ie  Sea bed contours off the Irish coast showing the deep fall from the continental shelf (shown in red) "WHAT WE DO KNOW IS THAT OUR SEAS NEED OUR HELP AND WE CANNOT AFFORD TO DELAY THEM."ANDPLACEMEASURESPUTTINGINTOPROTECTRESTORE

MARINE CONSERVATION

Irish Wildlife Autumn '22 9

Example area of interest: Loop Head to Kenmare Bay

During these last two difficult years we have been delighted to welcome two new local county branches into our organisation. We are extremely grateful to the volunteers who set up these new branches in Limerick and Monaghan as well as to the resilient volunteers who kept our existing branches in Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Laois/Offaly and Waterford running throughout hard times. Branches are voluntarily run by dedicated IWT members who give their time to organise events and activities at a county level engaging fellow IWT members and the general public with Irish wildlife. Our branches are an important way for the organisation to lay roots within communities and increase actions for nature on the ground. We will continue to grow our network until we have coverage in every county. This summer

UPDATE By Kieran Flood, IWT Coordinator

the majority of our branches ran fantastic outdoor nature events and for this update we will take a closer look at the work of our new branches in Counties Monaghan andOurLimerick.Limerick branch formed in late 2021 and has been running events for IWT members focusing on species identification with guidance from branch committee members as well as guest experts. Learning how to identify and record your local wildlife is a powerful action. You will find that it can increase your sense of place and help you tune into the local habitats and ecosystems in your area. As well as being rewarding in itself, species identification can help national conservation efforts. All data submitted to the National Biodiversity Data Centre is made available to researchers and decision makers and can be used for species assessments and wildlife research projects.Learning how to identify some species groups can be a little tricky at first but our Limerick branch has been lending a hand

Monaghan - Butterfly Outing by Fearghal Duffy Monaghan - John McKeon by Fearghal Duffy

Irish Wildlife Autumn '2210 IWT NEWS

IWT BearingBranchesFruit

Lim - Banded Demoiselles Castleconnell by Lyn Nolan

ACTIVITY

to members in the area by running fantastic ID events. This spring and summer the Limerick branch has run outings looking at wild grasses, wild flowers, butterflies, dragonflies & damselflies. The events involved field trips to locations in Limerick where attendees learned species ID skills in the field. On a recent outing a rare damselfly, the scarce emerald damselfly was recorded at Graigues Lough. This is a beautiful emerald-green damselfly assessed as near threatened in Ireland and only recorded in a few locations. Without people learning and practising these important skills our knowledge of nature will decline. So a big thank you to everyone in our branches empowering people with this knowledge.ThisNational

IWT Back In Bloom

propagation that he uses and spoke about the challenges that small, native species tree nurseries might face. John is a traditional hedge layer and is passionate about our native trees. He spends as much time as he can collecting and propagating a variety of native tree seeds in small nurseries that he manages.

Biodiversity Week our Monaghan Branch ran two events in the county. An update from branch members Floss Adams is below to give you a taste of what went on: We did a butterfly walk with Jesmond Harding from Butterfly Conservation Ireland. Jesmond has a wealth of knowledge about butterflies and their behaviour and his talk was incredibly interesting - from the wood white male, who will patiently tap the edge of the female's hindwing with his proboscis and clap his wings in a courtship ritual, to As well as wildlife outings we were out and about this summer running information stands at events such as Bloom in the Phoenix Park and the Rose Festival in St Anne’s Park Co Dublin. It is great to see such summer festivals happening again. Having a presence at these events is extremely rewarding as we get the opportunity to speak with thousands of people from all walks of life. This year we met people from all over Ireland and had great discussions about the challenges and opportunities of wildlife conservation in Ireland. We also gave out hundreds of copies of our kid’s wildlife posters educating households all over Ireland about the wonders of Irish wildlife.

To find out about branch events check out the branch contact page here https://iwt.

ie/get-involved/our-branches/ where you can find branch email addresses and social media links.

ITW NEWS Irish Wildlife Autumn '22 11

headbutting speckled wood males and learning that some butterflies can live for up to eight months! After the talk we had a lovely walk in the Tyrone Guthrie estate in Annaghmakerrig, where it was wonderful to see the rewilding that has been taking place there. We also did a native tree workshop with John McKeon. John invited us to his tree nursery in the Castleblayney Community Gardens & Allotments where he spoke about his experiences of gathering and growing the seeds of native trees. John demonstrated a few of the methods of

IWT NEWS Irish Wildlife Autumn '2212 CAMPAIGN UPDATE By Pádraic Fogarty

Much confusion has arisen with regard to the role of trees and forests on peatland in Ireland. This is important as our new Forest Strategy is soon to be finalised, something that will set very ambitious targets for new afforestation. Earlier this year, a ‘deliberative dialogue’ was carried out with a hundred randomly selected individuals (this was like a mini citizens’ assembly on the future of forests) and which was addressed by an Taoiseach Micheál Martin. Mr Martin told the audience that we must establish new forests in Ireland, and a lot of them, if we are to meet climate targets. Land is currently a net emitter of greenhouse gases and although forestry is currently a carbon sink, this sink is set to shrink in the coming years as more trees will be felled than planted. He highlighted that many of our trees were put in the wrong places, by which he meant peatlands, and this is a climate problem because huge quantities of carbon are being released by the soil in these places. This needs to be rectified and he emphasised that the trees, particularly birch but also rowan, holly and aspen can grow perfectly well on dry heath while Scots pine does well where it is not competing for light (see the article in this issue by Daniel Buckley). In fact, much of our uplands would naturally be covered in native forests if we hadn’t converted them to a treeless expanse for grazing animals (deer are also an issue today and will prevent the growth of trees just as much as sheep). However, dry heath is also a protected habitat under the EU Habitats Directive and a number of Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) have been designated for them. Dry heath is a farmed habitat (a bit like species-rich grassland) while certain bird species, notably the endangered hen harrier, rely upon open, treeless areas. This does not mean that dry heath needs to be completely treeless and this is allowed for in some of the ‘conservation objective’ documents for these SACs which have been prepared by the NPWS. But also, many of these SACs are not solely comprised of dry heath,  A peat bog in Sweden with trees on drier spots roughly 20% of Ireland that is peat cannot be used to reach forestry targets.

Trees on PEAT?

However, there is a problem with this statement: native trees can grow perfectly well on peat. But it’s complicated. Firstly, our forestry model has been based upon blocks of non-native conifers that are grown to be clear-felled. This is bad for just about every environmental indicator but has been particularly disastrous on peat, where blanket bogs were drained and fertilised in order for the trees to grow. Naturally functioning, healthy blanket bogs rarely have trees on them as they are too wet and too poor in nutrients. Trees, if they can get a foothold, are stunted and twisty and are usually found on pockets of shallower soil. Indeed ‘bog woodland’ is a protected habitat listed in the EU Habitats Directive. But as a general rule: we should never be planting trees on blanket bogs and those that are there need to come out. But not all of our peatland is blanket bog. On sloping ground or where the peat is shallow, there is wet or dry heath. Native

IWT NEWS Irish Wildlife Autumn '22 13 there are typically other areas habitats them, such as areas of bracken, that could be targeted for tree establishment without compromising the health of the dry heath (which is in any case in bad condition). We also have great expanses of cutaway bogs in the Midlands and anyone can see that those areas where peat mining has ceased are already being naturally recolonised with trees. They are rewilding! Coillte Nature also has a project to speed up the establishment of native trees on these cutover peatlands and this is beneficial where full rewetting of the bogs cannot happen. Like blanket bogs, healthy raised bogs are hostile to trees. Much of the confusion around trees on peat is based on the carbon balance, and whether they are taking carbon out of the air or releasing it through the soil… or both! Nature doesn’t fit easily on a spreadsheet but it is clear that we need to be restoring hydrology as much as possible (i.e. rewetting) but we shouldn’t be concerned about wild trees planting themselves once this is done. However, the main source of confusion in my view stems from our tendency to see forests as commercial entities, rather than natural ones. From this perspective it makes no sense to target peatlands for trees because they will not be commercially successful. We hear this a lot when we hear certain foresters tell us that “trees won’t grow there”, when what they mean is that “commercially valuable wood won’t grow there”. In fact, the great challenge ahead of us is to re-establish native forest ecosystems, not rescue the commercial timber industry, though a nature-friendly version of the latter could sit within the Restoringformer. forest ecosystems is an enormous challenge and given that 80% of Ireland is not peat, these areas of mineral soil will need to do much of the heavy lifting. However, rewilding our hills, to a mix of wet bogs, managed heath and native forests can play a significant role in addressing the biodiversity and climate crisis.

"WE ALSO HAVE GREAT EXPANSES OF CUTAWAY BOGS IN THE MIDLANDS AND ANYONE CAN SEE THAT THOSE AREAS WHERE PEAT MINING HAS CEASED ARE ALREADY BEING NATURALLY RECOLONISED WITH TREES."  Native birch trees growing well on shallow peat in Connemara

IRELAND

NEW

IWT NEWS Irish Wildlife Autumn '2214 CAMPAIGN UPDATE By Pádraic Fogarty

A START FOR NATURE CONSERVATION IN

When the government was formed in June of that year, the work programme included a commitment “to review the remit, status and funding of the NPWS” and this review began in early 2021 and was prepared by Jane Stout and Micheál Ó Cinnéide.endings of the review were widely leaked last year and the process took longer than expected. It seems there was resistance in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (in which the NPWS sits) as the language in the review was excoriating.

Minister Malcolm Noonan then commissioned another review, from retired civil servant Gerry Kearney, but this only backed up the ndings of the rst one. ere was much fear that the prolonged wrangling within the department would lead to a watering down of the conclusions or, worse, a weakening of the recommendations. ankfully neither of these things happened (I examined the rst dra of the Stout/Ó Cinnéide report alongside the nal version and found no discrepancies). Although the process took too long (it always does) all the documents were nally published in May of this year along with a commitment to act swi ly on the recommendations. Our feature article in this issue by NPWS director Ciara Carberry gives an overview of the reforms

Prior to the general election in 2020, we highlighted reform of the NPWS as the most important element in addressing the biodiversity emergency. We simply cannot set and meet targets, manage important areas and communicate the importance of biodiversity without this essential function.

and some of the work that has already been WeSoundertaken.farsogood.don’tyethave a timetable on when we’ll see our new nature conservation agency. At a meeting with eNGOs shortly a er the announcement, Minister Noonan told me that we would likely see a new name to go with the new body. Hopefully we’ll see branding and a fresh identity. We have also highlighted to him that we’d like to see a fresh face in charge, ideally through an open competition for the post, as this would give con dence to sta and outside observers that a real change in culture is coming. Unfortunately, we got no commitment that this will happen. NPWS sta that I know tell me that they are seeing an increase in personnel and funding for projects. New surveys are being undertaken of high conservation value sites with a view to taking actual conservation measures (something Ireland is currently being taken to court over by the European Commission). But key elements remain uncertain. Will we get forestry, peatland and agriculture policy working towards needNoonananrestoredWhilefundingadditionalforthcomingagainstobjectivesenvironmentalratherthanthem?WilltheBudgetseeanincreaseinfortheNPWS?fundinghasbeentopre-crashlevels,achievementMinistercanbeproudof,wemuchmore.I understand that a ‘needs analysis’ is underway and we will need a multi-annual funding commitment to make sure this is ful lled. e presence of the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, at the National Biodiversity Conference in Dublin in June, gave the signal that biodiversity is a priority for him. Hopefully this will be re ected in October when the Budget is announced. But this will be his last Budget as Taoiseach, the new year will see Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar take over the role and neither he nor his party have shown much interest in this area. In short, we have clocked up some important progress. We constantly stress the urgency of this situation as we still do not see changes on the ground (or at sea!) and this is what matters at the end of the day. If everything aligns then 2023 may be a turning point, but there remain many uncertainties. We will not be easing up the pressure for strong action at this critical time.

IWT NEWS Irish Wildlife Autumn '22 15

Everywhere we look we nd entrenched systems that are negatively a ecting biodiversity. For decades, the IWT and our friends in other NGOs have been calling for reform of these systems. However, in the past decade in particular we have always run into the same obstacle: the dysfunctional nature of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). If you look at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which monitors and reports on greenhouse gas emissions and water quality, you will quickly see why a strong, trusted and independent voice is vital. Nature in Ireland simply has not had that voice, but the good news is that this may be about to change.

 Taoiseach speaking at the National Biodiversity Conference

"THE PRESENCE OF THE ATMICHEÁLTAOISEACH,MARTIN,THENATIONALBIODIVERSITYCONFERENCEINDUBLININJUNE,GAVETHESIGNALTHATBIODIVERSITYISAPRIORITYFORHIM."

Renew Transforming nature conservation governance

Reflect,Review,

Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘2216 FEATURE

The organisation has been sustained through many years and decades by truly dedicated and expert people. For them, the past and current members of the NPWS team and their colleagues and allies outside the organisation, the Strategic Action Plan for the Renewal of the National Parks and Wildlife Service represents a step-change in momentum, building on the work of many years, and the very significant gains for the organisation in the past two budgets, which brought NPWS funding in 2022, for the first time since the financial crisis, back to pre-2008 levels.

The end-result will see an NPWS that is more resilient, more stable, with a stronger identity of its own, better able to drive and lead change. The organisation will have clearer core priorities, and better direction of resources toward those priorities, clearer communications, both internally and externally, and a much stronger focus on customer service and delivery for the public and the citizen.

The Strategic Action Plan is designed to deliver on those recommendations, and its implementation is a key priority for Minister O’Brien, Minister of State Noonan, and for Government. An immediate outcome is the establishment of the NPWS, (currently a division of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage), as an executive agency within that Department. Significant funding (a €55m cumulative increase in investment over the three years of the plan) is provided to help deliver the renewal programme, supported by the accelerated filling of critical posts across the organisation, enhancing NPWS capacity to deliver visitor services at national parks and nature reserves, address wildlife crime, care for our designated sites and deliver top-class scientific advice on nature and biodiversity.

THEAPPROPRIATEAPLANACTIONSETSOUTSUSTAINABLEMODELFORENSURINGSTAFFINGLEVELSFORNPWSLONGINTOTHEFUTURE.

Ireland’s National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has a proud history, and for a relatively small organisation of a few hundred people, carries a complex range of responsibilities, from significant policy and advisory functions, to operational responsibilities in the National Parks, conservation, enforcement, licensing, biodiversity and as a statutory consultee on planning.

BY CIARA CARBERRY, NPWS DIRECTOR THE

Structurally, it delivers a dedicated top management team, distinct mission statement, priorities and resources for the NPWS, while maintaining close direct reporting and accountability links to the Department, Minister and Government, and eliminating duplication by capitalising on efficiencies in terms of access to Departmental corporate service, expertise and supports.

The Plan fulfils a commitment in the Programme for Government to review the remit, status and funding of the NPWS. That independent, multi-phase Review was completed in February 2022 and culminated in fifteen key recommendations.

The Action Plan sets out a sustainable model for ensuring appropriate staffing levels for the NPWS long into the future.

 Killarney National Park

FEATURE Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘22 17

• Wildlife Enforcement and Nature Protection

• Legislation and Licensing



So, the NPWS is very different from perhaps an NGO or a civil society organisation and is not expected to behave like one. It serves a different purpose and has a different relationship with the state. We have some really effective and dedicated civil society groups in the environmental space, but that is a discrete space to where a public body sits. Our engagement with NGOs and civil society groups is critically important to the delivery of our mission in NPWS. The Action Plan addresses the need for much better and more structured communications in this regard. The establishment of a structured stakeholder forum will be completed by early Autumn 2022. This will support a more regular and constructive engagement with the sector as a whole.

A key priority in the Action Plan is to address the way in which NPWS interacts with partners and stakeholders in the community and the wider sector. Of course, the NPWS remains part of a government department, and is accountable to the government.

• Nature Conservation

OUR GROUPSWITHENGAGEMENTNGOSANDCIVILSOCIETYISCRITICALLYIMPORTANTTOTHEDELIVERYOFOURMISSIONINNPWS. Squirrel by Andrew Kelly

• A deep love of nature, and a commitment to its care and safeguarding.

THE ROAD AHEAD

STAKEHOLDERS AND PARTNERS

Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘2218 FEATURE

• A renewed commitment to customer focus, to transparency and accountability in our decisionmaking, to teamwork and mutual respect.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

• Teamwork and excellence, and a well-grounded pride in our professionalism and scientific integrity.

• A strong identity, and an authoritative voice for nature

STRUCTURE The Action Plan fundamentally changes the NPWS internal structure to six new directorates clustered around functional responsibilities:

• Parks and Nature Reserves

The time ahead will be a challenging period of disruption and opportunity. Change is difficult, even where we know that it is necessary, and even where it is welcome.

• Scientific Advice and Research

In the NPWS context, the Review brought a very clear-eyed look at the realities and highlighted the high level of support in the organisation for profound change.

• Engagement, Corporate and Specialist Supports

Each is headed up by a director, reporting to the Director General of the NPWS. Collectively, the Directors and the Director General form the NPWS Management Board.Already, we have seen very significant increases in NPWS staff as a result of the Review. At the end of June 2022, the number of staff in the organisation had increased by more than 25% over 2021 levels, with an emphasis on the filling of critical posts. Over the coming 12 months we will see further significant recruitment of mission critical staff.

While the NPWS is in a time of unprecedented change, the NPWS of the future will continue to be guided by those core values that have always made the organisation special:-.

 Minister of State for Heritage & Electoral Reform Malcolm Noonan

A FOCUS ON WHAT THE ORGANISATION IS ALREADY DOING WELL IS A GOOD STARTING POINT TO BUILD FUTURE EXCELLENCE.

And how can we create a new organisation, with a new vision, if we don’t also create the possibility of actually behaving in the new ways? Removing obstacles to change, both those that are directly obstructive and those that resist and protect against dealing with direct obstacles will be a key challenge in the months and years ahead. We are already seeing practical changes in the NPWS, with better access to equipment, IT facilities and other visible improvements. These changes bring recognition, positive reinforcement of new behaviours, and highlight more open and professional models of decision-making.

In leadership terms, over the past twelve months, five new directors have been appointed to NPWS, and are already working with the Director General as a management board. Recruitment for a sixth Director (to lead the Engagement, Corporate and Specialist Supports directorate) is underway, and that position is expected to be filled by Autumn 2022. This provides a framework for collective senior-management accountability and decision-making, collegiality and mutual support. As the organisation navigates the turbulence of a profound programme of change, strong and authentic leadership from the top of the organisation will be hugely valuable. Development of a coherent vision, a shared mental picture of the future and a real and shared sense of what the NPWS will be after the changes have been delivered will be a key orientation for the road ahead, especially in so geographically and functionally diverse an organisation.

FEATURE Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘22 19

With the ambitious programme of recruitment that is underway at all grades, ensuring that leadership development and training support the new approach is important – the critical messages our people receive, especially via formative experiences in induction and on promotion, must be consistent with the new vision and model that the organisation is working so hard to create. A focus on what the organisation is already doing well is a good starting point to build future excellence. The people in NPWS are a resource for good and will, if well-supported, contribute enormously to the future design of the organisation. In other words, we can draw on the potential of our people, if we are wise, to end up with something even better than what we have However,planned.models of change always seem to envisage a neat linear progression, planning each next step in a thoroughly thought-through fashion from the outset.Inthe real, public-policy context, where interventions are aimed at bringing about complex changes in human behaviour on the very broad, societal scale, there is a degree of folly in believing that any change model can be applied in a tidy sequential fashion, moving through steps one after the other, following a clear and well-designed pathway that has been determined in advance. In the environment where NPWS operates, issues inevitably have a variety of aspects that only emerge as changes begin to be implemented, and plans may need to be re-designed while the system is in motion. Problems in a system as complex as nature, biodiversity, climate, even wildlife protection, have a myriad of factors that all influence each other, and interventions in these spaces are rife with unintended consequences.Thetemptation to remain in the safety of measuring and controlling what is concretely measurable and controllable, to our ultimate detriment, can be very strong. In reality, a more flexible, less certain, less designed-in-advance approach will be needed. Dare I say organic, fluid and responsive?

It has been said that in the final analysis, change sticks when it seeps into the bloodstream of the organisation, rooted in social norms and shared values. It simply becomes “the way we do things around here,” In the times we live in, we need the NPWS to be strong, resilient, accountable, fit for purpose and able to look forward. Although we have a clear framework, timeframe and roadmap to follow in the Action Plan, this will be an interesting journey for the NPWS. Ultimately, it is about making us more effective, both as a team and as individuals. And NPWS will own this process - for the first time in a long time, we are the authors of our own destiny. More than ever in 2022, the future of the NPWS looks brighter. And, as a consequence, so does the future for nature in Ireland.

SEAL DISTURBANCE WITHIN A SPECIAL AREA OF CONSERVATION BY MARIA PÉREZ TADEO Ireland hosts breeding populations of grey and harbour seals, protected under the Wildlife Act 1976 and listed under Annex II of the European Union’s Habitats Directive. Therefore, their populations must be monitored and their habitats assessed for designation as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs). These species are found in a range of coastal habitats including intertidal sandbanks and rocky shores. Grey seals can also be found in remote areas, such as caves and sandy beaches on offshore islands, as is the case for one of the largest colonies in the country, located in White Strand beach on the Great Blasket, the biggest of the Blasket Islands, off the coast of County Kerry. Located off the west coast of the Dingle Peninsula, this magical archipelago is a SAC for grey seals and harbour porpoises. It is also a transient area for other species, presenting suitable habitats for common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, Risso’s dolphins, minke whales, and humpback whales. Basking sharks are also SEALS

Isle of

Irish Wildlife Autumn '2220

WILD IDEAS

The Blasket Islands are undoubtedly a special area, but it is time to move towards better management of SACs and enforcing regulations based on empiricalbased recommendations, so we can give a proper meaning to the ‘conservation’ part as well.

Maria did her PhD in the Marine and Freshwater Research Centre, at the Atlantic Technological University (ATU) in Galway. Her research is published in the journal Aquatic Mammals: Pérez Tadeo, M., Gammell, M., & O’Brien, J. (2021). Assessment of anthropogenic disturbances due to ecotourism on a Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus) colony in the Blasket Islands SAC, SW Ireland and recommendations on best practices. Aquatic Mammals, 47 (3). org/10.1578/AM.47.3.2021.268https://doi.

We encountered some common dolphins when crossing the Blasket Sound and finally, when we were approaching the island, we spotted the seal colony, with hundreds of seals hauled out on the shore. I realised how special this place was during my first stay on the island. At night, I could hear the noise of the seals vocalising quite loudly, as well as the eerie, strident calls of the Manx shearwaters on their return from the sea. Those sounds accompanied me during the summer nights on the island. Every day, I woke up in the early morning with that mystical view, I headed down the island to have a first look at the grey seal colony and I set up my camera and scope at the top of the cliff surrounding the beach. During my trips, I enjoyed the island life but I also witnessed how hundreds of seals were regularly leaving their resting site and quickly entering the water due to visitors approaching too close to them to take photos, or moving fast and loud, dogs, drones and, on some occasions, visitors intentionally running towards them. Imagine 800 seals resting peacefully until someone decides that running towards them while filming was a good idea! Vessels passing close to the colony while moving along the beach, increasing their speed at times, also triggered seals to abandon their haul out site. This felt extremely sad and frustrating. Our study revealed that grey seals were clearly affected by ecotourism, especially by visitors on the beach where seals were hauled out as well as vessels passing along the colony. Approaching vessels at a distance between 250 and 500m also had effect. These activities resulted in seals entering the water, an increase in their vigilance behaviour, a decrease in seals resting, and overall, less seals hauled out. This is concerning due to several reasons. Grey seals present ‘site fidelity’ (i.e. they don’t easily move to another site) and are highly dependent on these sites to rest after foraging at sea, mate, breed, nurse their offspring and moult. Disturbances could prevent seals from conducting these essential life functions and ultimately lead to habitat displacement.Wherearethe seals going when they are disturbed and forced to leave the beach? This is potentially more detrimental to breeding seals and their pups. In Ireland, grey seals breed from September to December, so the tourist season overlaps with part of the breeding season. Disturbances could lead to a decrease in resting and nursing, increasing the energetic demands of mothers and potentially affecting pup survival. Disturbances could also lead to the abandonment of pups, as these cannot enter the water until three weeks afterDespitebirth.being a SAC, there are no management plans or regulations in place to avoid disturbances caused by ecotourism, which has continued to grow extensively in the Blasket Islands. This highlights the urgent need for a strict code of conduct for tourists and boats. Our recommendations include reducing vessel speed when approaching the colony and keeping a distance of at least at 250m. Visitors should remain at least at 100m away, avoid all interactions and, during the breeding season, sealwatching should only occur from the top of the cliff surrounding the beach.

WILD IDEAS Irish Wildlife Autumn '22 21

Grey seals on Great Blasket encountered within the area during the summer months. Due to their ornithological relevance, the Blasket Islands are also designated as a Special Protection Area, supporting breeding colonies of seabird species such as Manx shearwaters, storm petrels, and puffins. While always beautiful, this is a dreamlike place on a fine summer day, where you can witness one of the most wonderful wildlife scenes in Ireland. Therefore, it is no surprise that the area has quickly become a popular tourist destination in the last few years. During 2018 and 2019, I had the opportunity to conduct part of my PhD research on the Great Blasket, for which I felt extremely fortunate. This research intended to assess whether disturbances caused by the daily tourism activities, taking place in the area from April to October, were having an impact on the behaviour of grey seals. I remember my first trip to the island. Accompanied by my PhD supervisor and loaded with fieldwork equipment, we took the ferry from Dunquin Pier with Billy O’Connor (The Great Blasket Island Experience), who made this possible thanks to his great help and hospitality.

W e may not like to dwell on the subject of scavengers but there is no escaping the scavengers that dwell on us. Microscopic demodex mites live in hair follicles and feed on our sloughed skin cells. Provided they don’t multiply and cause an unpleasant skin condition they provide a useful (if somewhat distasteful) ex-foliating function on the human body. ese mites are representatives of hordes of miniscule invertebrate scavengers that perform vital clean-up work throughout nature, the absence of which would quickly reduce our world to an odorous ‘tip’. In general, scavengers are regarded negatively. We know they are there but we like to keep them at a distance: we do not like our sanitised notion of nature to be ‘contaminated’ by them. ere is, nevertheless, no escaping their importance in ecology. It is among the birds that we become most aware of scavengers. Take the noisy, gregarious starling, famous for the spectacular murmurations. Starlings re ect their amazing collective intelligence from an early age. No sooner have they le the nest than hordes of brown juveniles, gather on the shore. Working together as an avian meitheal they seek out the abundant food stocks BY GORDON D’ARCY

Irish Wildlife Autumn '2222 GORDON D’ARCY

SCAVENGERNatural hidden in the accumulated seaweed along the high tide. De ly icking over the rotting fronds they extract seaweed y eggs and larvae, sand-hoppers and any other exploitable jetsam. e little seaweed-coloured rock pipit has been so successful at this activity that it occurs exclusively all around the Irish coast. Jackdaws and rooks will join in the foraging when it suits but they generally prefer agricultural land to the open coastline. One species, however, the hooded crow, has made an art-form out of shore scavenging. By ying up to the requisite height, hovering and dropping anything from a winkle to a mussel, to be smashed on a rock below, the ‘hoodie’ has cornered a particular scavenger’s market to itself. Herring gulls will try the same method but as o en as not the mollusc

e African lappet-faced vulture was also subject to ignorant vili cation which almost brought about its extinction. Erroneously regarded as a livestock killer due to its readiness to feed on carcasses, this magni cent raptor was seen as an undesirable presence on the African savannah. Trapped by pastoralists, poisoned with bait laid for jackals and shot by tusk-hunting poachers, this vulture had declined to endangered status by the turn of the millennium. Just in time, however, its unique function in opening the tough hide of mammalian carcasses was realised. By exposing the innards with its huge hooded beak and rendering them available for consumption by a host of other scavengers – from other vultures to jackals and hyenas – diseases such as botulism were greatly reduced.

when necessary. When the nocturnal ramblings of the fox take it along the high tide it too will feed on the available tit-bits and on any unsuspecting tit-bit foragers with which it comes in contact.

Historically, human preoccupation with cleanliness has cast many important scavengers into the metaphorical refuse bin. In more unsanitary times the red kite (one of most e ective refuse collectors), gained the rather uncomplimentary moniker of ‘shite-hawk’. Vili cation of this kind and the steady destruction of its woodland habitat resulted in its disappearance from Ireland in the early 19th century. ankfully, a more enlightened attitude has supported the successful reintroduction of this most useful and beautiful raptor.

GORDON D’ARCY Irish Wildlife Autumn '22 23

'MOST OF AREWHETHERMAMMALS,OURCONSIDEREDPRIMARILYPREDATOR,ORPREYSPECIES,ALSOSCAVENGERS'.

ere is no denying the vital service provided by the likes of crows and foxes in clearing up road-kill. Scorned though they o en are, how much additional contagion would exist in the wild, in farm livestock, even in humans, were it not for these roadside corpse-cleaners?

 Magpies scavenging by Mike Brown

e lappet-faced vulture is still endangered but a new appreciation of its role should ensure its future. In these days of economic ‘nature-rating’ (as in the much-debated notions of Natural Capital and Ecological Services), it behoves us to re-evaluate our relationship with our scavengers. A er all, they are closer to us than we think!

will refuse to open having been dropped on a seaweed-covered rock or a grassy verge. Herring gulls, have succeeded in giving scavengers a particularly bad name due to their chaotic land ll assemblages and their annoying tendency to harass people for scraps in urban settings. Most of our mammals, whether considered primarily predator, or prey species, are also scavengers. Dare we consider the rat? Our highly successful brown rat is the quintessential scavenger of all kinds of refuse whether ‘natural’ or human. As likely to be found along the shore as a sewage outfall, this muchvili ed creature has been performing its scavenging duties since its (inadvertent?) introduction in the Middle Ages. ough less appropriately designed for the job, mice, voles and even shrews will scavenge

Irish Wildlife Autumn '2224 AUTUMN FOCUS BY BILLY FLYNN

H

The Impact

"FRESH PRODUCE THAT TRAVELLEDHASN’TFARFROMITSPOINTOFORIGINISGOINGTOBEEASIERONTHEPLANETTHANSOMETHINGPROCESSEDFROMFARAWAY."

ave you ever looked at a food item and wondered whether purchasing and consuming this is good or bad for the planet? No doubt you have. As the effects of climate change and the biodiversity crisis become ever more apparent, environmentconscious consumers are increasingly considering the impact that their shopping basket may be having on the world. The UK’s food standards agency showed that over half of UK shoppers want to make more sustainable decisions on the environmental impacts of foods. However, faced with aisle after aisle of myriad products, how could you ever know what this is? Some common-sense can confidently be applied to the question. For example, fresh produce that hasn’t travelled far from its point of origin is going to be easier on the planet than something processed from far away. It’s just not always so clear though. For example, what about a product that contains multiple ingredients? Help is on the way. We’ve been asking ourselves about the carbon footprint of food for a while now. In 2020, Mike Berners-Lee produced an updated edition of his earlier guide 'How Bad are Bananas? – the carbon footprint of everything'. This contains a few surprises. Not least of which is that contrary to this author’s previous belief, bananas aren’t that bad at all – at least in terms of the tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent that it takes to get them up and grown and into our mouths. This carbon accounting does not however, take into account land-use, pesticides needed, packaging or any of the other ways a food product can impact on the environment. In early August of this year, researchers in Oxford University’s Martin School produced an estimate of the environmental impact of around 57,000 items that are sold in supermarkets in the United Kingdom and Ireland1. This is the first study of its kind and looked at the greenhouse gas emissions, land-use, water-use and aquatic eutrophication potential of all of these items sold across eight major retail chains. It provides a ‘cradle to shelf’ accounting 1. Estimating the environmental impacts of 57,000 food products. PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2120584119 of

 Environmental impact scores per 100 g of products in Tesco Aisles. Points indicates mean impact of all products categorized to the Aisle. Aisles are coloured by food type. Food types are shown from lowest median environmental impact on the left to highest median environmental impact at the right.

AUTUMN FOCUS Irish Wildlife Autumn '22 25

a standard across all products have previously come unstuck, due in the main to the sheer volume of products out there and the fact that new items are being added all the time. In 2012, Tesco shelved its plans to carbon-account for everything it sold, some 70,000-odd items. The retail giant realised that this would simply take too long to do, adding only 125 completely assessed items each year. This new study could break that log-jam and produce a simple and understandable way to label our purchased items in terms of overall environmental impact. This could make a real difference, especially if it breaks down previously held convictions. The Oxford study has its limitations though and these are acknowledged by the authors. The algorithm doesn’t account for the different sources of the same product that may be produced in different countries. This is pertinent to an ongoing debate in Ireland where, it has been said, meat and dairy products may arguably be produced more sustainably than anywhere else in the world. Therefore, scoring on products containing beef (e.g. ready-made lasagne) for more commonly available items than any other such study. Rather than painstakingly looking into the ‘back-story’ of these it did so using an algorithm that was developed and tested for the project. This algorithm was ‘taught’ to calculate the environmental impact by using known impact measurements of the ingredients of each item. Food regulations in the UK and Ireland require the producers to list these ingredients in descending order. The algorithm was therefore able to assess the overall impact of each product by simply being told how much of each ingredient was in the product under scrutiny. The end result was a scoring system that that listed the combined impact of each product on a numeric scale. The headline results mightn’t come as a shock. Beef and lamb are the worst, scoring 34.72. Other meat came in a long way back in second place at 10.04. Coffee weighs in at 6.39 and Tea at 5.44. At the lowest end of the scale, fizzy drinks such as energy drink scored only 0.21, which may surprise some readers. Overall the study showed there is an overlap between healthy and nutritious food and low environmental impact.Previous efforts to make carbon labelling has to be taken to contain some latitude, depending on where the beef came from. This argument will rumble on but there is now no question that reducing meat and dairy in your diet is a hugely positive step in terms of emissions reduction. The study does though provide a huge step forward in making the impacts of our purchasing choices tangible and accessible for shoppers here in Ireland and our nearest neighbours in the UK. In a year of extreme weather events, wildfires and water shortages, this study has come at a good time. While previous carbon accounting may have landed in the ‘too much bother’ basket back in 2012, the world has moved on since then. Our appetite for change and for food that weighs less on our common environment has grown. Greater buy-in is expected.

"WHILE PREVIOUS CARBON ACCOUNTING MAY HAVE LANDED IN THE ‘TOO MUCH BOTHER’ BASKET BACK IN 2012, THE WORLD HAS MOVED ON SINCE THEN."

GARDEN DISCOVERY: Fascinated by Fasciation 'NO MOW' 26 Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘22 Fasciated Dandelion. All images by Zoë Devlin FASCIATION

Nature’s Patterns

FASCIATION

Like so many life forms, plants often adhere to known and repeated patterns for design and growth, as simple as waves and spirals, or mathematically complex as the Fibonacci curve, fractal branching, or the tiling of Voronoi patterns. These patterns serve a multitude of purposes: promoting reproduction, providing BY ANNE SUNDERMANN protection, or acting as camouflage. Occasionally there is a glitch in the pattern design matrix that causes unintended growth forms. But even these abnormal forms often appear in recognizable patterns. Fasciation is one such phenomena found in vascularFasciationplants.occurs when plant tissue is flattened and elongated (Fascia comes as a translation of the Latin word for ‘band) and the flattened and coiled stems indeed bear resemblance to ribbon. A fasciated plant may look gigantic compared to the normal counterparts, with increased mass and volume from multiple buds or flowers on a widened, ribbed stem. Species in the Compositae family, including asters, sunflowers, and daisies, are particularly prone to fasciation. Structural Changes Although the changes wrought by fasciation are quite visible, why it occurs is more of a mystery. There is no one cause for this abnormal growth pattern, and it may be tied to genetic as well as environmental variables such as extreme weather, or exposure to infections from bacteria, fungi, orTheseviruses.potential causes are separated into two broad categories: 1) Physiological fasciation, caused by natural environmental factors or applied treatments, and 2) genetic fasciation, based on genes that regulate cell growth. For example, mutations in one gene pathway (the CLAVATA1 gene) promote changes in cell structure so that certain cells are enlarged when compared to unaffected plants. Regardless of the cause of the changes, it is no mystery as to where, at a cellular or molecular level, fasciated conditions arise: in the apical meristem. This densely packed group of cells located at the tip of a plant shoot or root acts as stem cells in animals in that they are responsible for all cell growth and development in vascular plants. Meristem cells provide critical access to light (via shoots) and water (via roots). A microscopic view shows the shoot apical meristem cells are arranged as tiled polygons, possibly following

uring ‘No Mow May,’ front lawns throughout Ireland were filled with a bouquet of pollinator-friendly wildflowers. Among such diversity and abundance, there were a few flowers that looked different, slightly deformed. A cluster of multiple dandelion blooms on a single, thickened stem provided an odd bouquet in and of itself. What causes this curious condition, known as fasciation or cristation?

"OCCASIONALLYTHEREISAGLITCHINTHEPATTERNDESIGNMATRIXTHATCAUSESUNINTENDEDGROWTHFORMS.BUTEVENTHESEABNORMALFORMSOFTENAPPEARINRECOGNIZABLEPATTERNS.

D

 Fasciated Common Dog-violet 2

Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘22 27

Iliev and Kitin (2011), when fasciation occurs, the activity in shoot apical meristem cells ‘results in a significantly increased circumference of the stem and enlarged proportions of pith and cortical parenchyma [the essential or functional elements of an organ], associated with a delayed differentiation of the vascular tissues. An elliptical or irregular shape of the cross section of a fasciated organ corresponds to a similar shape of the vascular cylinder.’ More specifically, individual plant species may develop ‘deviations from the normal structure of the epidermis, shape of leaves, as well as altered development of axillary buds.’

ClarkSources:SE, Running MP, Meyerowitz EM. (1993) CLAVATA1, a regulator of meristem and flower development in Arabidopsis. Development 119(2): 397-418.

the mathematical dictates of Voronoi patterns, which are often used to provide solutions to growth patterns and other geometricAccordingproblems.toresearchers

 Fasciated Purple-loosestrife

Hormonal Influences Cells in the shoot apical meristem are particularly influenced by two hormones, cytokinin and auxin, which regulate various plant processes. Cytokinin primarily promotes plant cell division and growth. The plant growth regulator auxin promotes cell elongation and behavioural development of the plant, such as branching.Research by Schaller and colleagues (2015) likens the complementary interactions of cytokinin and auxin in plant growth to the Chinese concept of yin-yang: ‘…auxin and cytokinin act together dynamically, with roles that can be paradoxically antagonistic and supportive, to provide robustness to developmental processes and to confer distinct cell fates to precursor cells in close proximity, yielding a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.’

Iliev, I, & Kitin, P. (2011) Origin, morphology, and anatomy of fasciation in plants cultured in vivo and in vitro. Plant Growth Regulation 63, 115–129.

28 Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘22

Although plants affected with fasciation are often seen as unappealing, the conditions have relatively no adverse effects on the plant, and the affected plants survive as would a normal plant. In a stressed environment of changing climate conditions and extremes in temperature and rainfall/drought cycles, it is to be expected that abnormal growth patterns like fasciation may become more common. Research into the patterns of fasciation, and their underlying causes will increase awareness of the growth processes and anatomical structure of the meristem. This in turn will lead to better understanding of the interactions between hormones, environmental influences, and plant growth and development.

Schaller GE, Bishopp A, Kieber JJ. (2015) The yin-yang of hormones: cytokinin and auxin interactions in plant development. Plant Cell 27(1): 44-63.  Fasciated Daisy

Samhradh

álainn te a tá ann i mbliana, agus is séasúr garraíodóireachta é. Suas agus síos an talamh tá daoine ag cur bláthanna agus ag baint torthaí agus glasraí; gabhaimid buíochas as torthúlacht na talún…nó b’fhéidir nach ndéanaimid: Faraor a rá, is cosúil go minic go mbaineann “garraíodóireacht” nuaaimseartha níos mó faoi bhás agus scrios ná ceiliúradh na beatha; ach tá a fhios ag garraíodóirí tiomnaithe agus feirmeoirí, nuair a bhíonn an saol faoin talamh sláintiúil agus éagsúil, go n-éiríonn le Chuile blathanna,feithidí,ceangailte...ithir,rudbia...

feithidí beatha os cionn na talún agus go bhfuil an talamh níos torthúla agus níos athléimní.Léiríonn staidéar nua go bhfuil baictéir, péisteanna, ciaróga agus orgánaigh eile a chónaíonn faoin talamh díreach chomh tábhachtach leis an saol os cionn na talún nuair a thagann sé le sláinte iomlán na n-éiceachóras.“Táafhios againn go bhfuil an bhithéagsúlacht tábhachtach os cionn na talún, ach níl a fhios ag go leor daoine cé chomh tábhachtach agus atá bithéagsúlacht faoi thalamh, Ní mór dúinn ár n-aird a dhíriú ar na miocrorgánaigh seo faoin dromchla más mian linn tuiscint níos fearr a fháil ar na héiceachórais a bhfuilimid ag brath orthu,"Ismaith an rud é go bhfuil tuiscint ag leathnú ar thábhacht na n-éiceachóras dúchasach; ach caithfimid a bheith ar ár gcosaint in aghaidh “dathúlacht” mar thosaíocht.Táaniomarca gruaimhíní féir maisithe anois le bláthanna ioldaite - fiailí arbhair; ach cé go bfhuil siad dathúil, ni fhásfadh siad sna h-áiteanna sin óna nádúr féin. mar an gcéanna, is féidir le gach duine a bheith maoithneach faoi Panda i bhfad i gcéin, nó iora rua ag filleadh ar choillte naNílhÉireann.séchomh soiléir sin go bhfuil an meas céanna tuillte ag drúchtíní agus seilmidí, ciaróga, fiailí agus caonaigh. Déanta na fírinne, le gach coiscéim a ghlacaimid beidh coirp feithidí beaga á mbrú faoi chois: ag tiomáint ár gcarranna, beidh na gaothscáthanna clúdaithe le coirp marbh cuileoga, míoltóga, leamhain agus go leor eile. Marbh uilig! Is é seo an iarmhairt “Splatometer” a bhfuil cáil air, agus sa lá atá inniu ann tá i bhfad níos lú corpáin bheaga ar an ghloine mar gheall ar úsáid fhorleathan feithidicídí ceimiceacha. Nuair a bhíonn feithidí i mbaol, tá an ithir i mbaol freisin. Nuair a thugann tú cuairt ar shiopa crua-earraí, féach ar na céadta galún de nimh leachtach, - agus déan crith.

Agus nuair a chasann tú anonn ar chloch, bíodh lúcháir ar gach créatúr a fheiceann tú.

Fág an ithir lei féin ionas gur féidir le giosta, ocsaigin agus nítrigin í a dhéanamh torthúil go nádúrtha. Is féidir liom a ráthú go mbeidh iontas taitneamhach agat i measc na bláthanna!

Cad a tharlaíonn má líonann sí suas le fiailí garbh, iarrann tú? Fan tamall…is bláthanna fiáine dúchasacha iad seo a bhogann isteach i spásanna nua; ach de bharr ama - agus comharsana maithe,beidh siad ar aon dul le plandaí níos lú agus níos éagsúla.

FIADHLÚRA Irish Wildlife Autumn '22 29

“Maraigh na caonacha, na foichí, na beacha gabhair, na nóiníni…” -- tá an ithir ag mionú; ní mór dúinn ár n-ionchais a shimpliú ar gach bealach. Mar sin, más mian leat rud éigin úsáideach a dhéanamh don phláinéid, cuir tús le do chúlchlós féin: in ionad na faiche aonspeicis sin gan fiailí, lig don ithir áitiúil na bláthanna féaraigh a thairiscint, as a banc síolta féin.

Scots pine is widely distributed across Eurasia, from Ireland in the far west to Russia in the far east and Northern Norway down to Southern Spain. It is clearly adapted to living in a variety of environments and climates. It is principally a light demanding pioneer species that can be easily out-competed by more vigorous and shade tolerant tree species on better soils. It generally becomes the dominant tree species in the canopy in difficult environments where other trees would struggle, such as mountain slopes, peatlands and areas of shallow and thin soils.The seeds are small, dispersed by the wind and require areas of exposed soil to germinate. This is usually created by disturbance events such as a fire, land subsidence or by water. In Ireland the native Burren pines are growing in open woodland on limestone Karst with little or no soil. Reintroduced Scots pine stock has been observed regenerating on cutaway bog, rocky and gravelly lakeshores and thin peat THE HIBERNIAN PINE FOREST BY DANIEL BUCKLEY

Saplings of native Burren stock are now being commercially grown, albeit in limited numbers, and are being planted as part of native woodland planting schemes here. But if we are to truly restore Scots pine as a functioning wild species that can reproduce, live and die without human assistance and as part of a pine forest community of plants, animals and fungi, we need to take an ecological approach.

Irish Wildlife Autumn '2230 FRONT LINE Up until recently the Scots pine was a species that was generally referred to in the past tense in Irish ecology due to its presumed extinction during the medieval period. Reintroduced trees, mainly from Scotland, occupied a contested space. Were they a returned former native or non-native species? This is mainly due to the debate over how the species apparent extinction came about. Was it climate change? Was it competition from other tree species or was it caused by human activities? However, the discovery of an apparent surviving native population in the Burren, Co. Clare by researchers at Trinity College Dublin has completely changed how we view the place of Scots pine in the Irish landscape. It is once again as highly valued as it was in the ancient Brehon laws.

The second group was an open pine and downy birch woodland on peat soils with a field layer of ling heather, bell heather,

RESTORING

The first group was a Scots pine dominated woodland community with sessile oak on sloped terrain with holly, downy birch, rowan, bilberry and hard fern. This woodland type is similar to acid oak woodland communities here and may be a proxy for pine-oak woodlands that were present in many upland areas in the past.

FORESTPINE

The third group was the open Scots pine woodlands on the limestone Karst in the Burren, with hazel, hawthorn, ivy, honeysuckle and bramble. The Burren stands are similar to pine woodlands found in southern Norway.

Ireland's

soils in the uplands (where grazing pressure is low). These environments are where pine wood communities could be restored, using seed from the native Burren trees, historical plantings and wild trees from Scotland. What would a restored pine woodland community look like in Ireland? Work by Dr Jenni Roche found that pine stands in Ireland fell into four distinct vegetation groups, three of which corresponded to wild pine communities in Scotland and Southern Norway.

The fourth group was a pine dominated woodland community on acidic uplands soils with rowan, bracken, ling heather, hard fern, bilberry, molinia, bent grass and tormentil. Although the Irish stands in this group are of planted origin, they may be a good proxy for past upland pine woods that grew above the altitudinal limit for oak woodland.Thelossof our pine woods also resulted in the loss of pine specialist species, the highest profile species being the capercaille,

bilberry, crowberry, cottontail grass, bog rosemary and cranberry. This corresponds to bog woodland, a species of European importance and historically was found on raised bogs in Ireland.

a forest grouse. Remains of five now extinct beetle species associated with deadwood of old pine woodlands in Europe were recorded in Irish archaeological timbers by the late Dr Eileen Reilly. We can speculate on the loss of other pine specialist plants and animals here that are still present in Scotland, such as the crested tit, “Scottish crossbill”, pine hoverfly and twinflower. Recently the ostrich plume feather moss, associated with pine woods in Scotland, was found in Mweelrea, Co. Mayo. A ghost of former upland pine woodlands there perhaps? Species like the Irish coal tit and longeared owl that do well in modern conifer plantations here may have been associated with our pine woods in the past. The restoration of extensive wild pine forests in Ireland, in our uplands, limestone karst and cutaway bogs may also offer us the opportunity to restore some of these lost pine associated species.

FRONT LINE Irish Wildlife Autumn '22 31 Reilly,ReferencesE.,2008. An ever-closing gap? Modern ecological and palaeoecological contributions towards understanding the Irish post-glacial insect fauna. The Irish Naturalists' Journal, 29, Roche,pp.63-71.J.R.,2019. Recent findings on the native status and vegetation ecology of Scots pine in Ireland and their implications for forestry policy and management. Irish Forestry, 76(1&2), pp.29-54.

Native scots pine growing in Rock Forest, the Burren, Co. Clare by Daniel Buckley Caledonian pine forest in Glen Affric, Scotland by Daniel Buckley Tetrao Urogallus, Glenfeshie, Scotland

Irish Wildlife Autumn '2232 RED GROUSE  Red grouse by Mike Brown

The Irish Red GROUSE

POPULATIONS"GROUSEAREGEOGRAPHICALLYWIDESPREADINTHEUPLANDBLANKETBOGSOFIRELANDBUTPOPULATIONSAREBECOMINGINCREASINGLYISOLATEDDUETOHABITATFRAGMENTATION."

BY DARREN ELLIS

Translocation of grouse from Scotland to the Irish blanket bog habitats occurred in the past to bolster population numbers for game hunting. Due to a shared common ancestor these two populations are likely to have only a slightly different genetic profile and it is probable that hybridisation between the two resulted in only a minor shift in the existing genotype of the Irish sub-species. Therefore, it is unlikely that small numbers of Scottish birds in Ireland have radically altered the Irish gene pool and may have even enhanced the genetic profile throughout regions where introductions took place. However, continued stocking of Irish populations with Scottish and UK birds would most certainly alter the native lineage over time and could pose a threat to native populations through hybridization, which can dilute the local gene pool leading to localised extinctions or loss of local adaptations.Effortsto mitigate future extinctions are made difficult by limited knowledge related to the misidentification and misclassification of endemic species. Without identifying separate sub-species accurately and classifying them so, it is not possible to understand the true rate of extinctions or indeed the mitigation measures required to prevent them.

T he red grouse Lagopus lagopus scotica is a sub-species of the willow grouse L. lagopus. The willow grouse is a widely distributed bird with habitats ranging throughout the temperate, boreal and Arctic biogeographical zones of the Northern Hemisphere. Subspecies have developed genetic and morphological variations defined by climate, location and diversity of their habitats. The red grouse occupies upland heath and mountain blanket bog in Ireland and Britain and has been the subject of much research due to its cultural and economic importance as a game bird.Ithad been suggested historically that the Irish population of red grouse represented a sub-species distinct from the Scottish population, referred to at the time as Lagopus scoticus hibernicus but this classification remained unsubstantiated for almost 100 years. Initial observations of divergence were based on a paler plumage in the Irish bird, the evolution of which was considered to be due to the presence of a greater cover of purple moor grass Molinia caerulea in the grouse’ Irish habitat. Consequently though, it was deemed impossible to assign the correct taxonomic classification based on the plumage of a bird and the initial suggestion was later rejected with claims that plumage colour in the galliforme group of birds is largely dictated by the pigment melanin. In 2012, DNA investigation was conducted to test the theory that populations of red grouse existing in Ireland are genetically distinct from the British population. To reinforce the theory posed by a morphological distinction a number of DNA samples from both Scottish and Irish populations were genotyped. It was found that the two populations were in fact significantly genetically differentiated, promoting the requirement for re-classification of the Irish red grouse as a separate sub-species, which would tentatively become known as L. lagopus hibernicus.

Plantation forestry and continued overgrazing in the grouse’s upland habitats are fundamental obstacles to the species success. Sympathetic grazing regimes and the opening up of habitat corridors between isolated populations are essential to facilitate mixing of the gene pool resulting in increased fecundity and proliferation of healthy populations of the Irish red grouse.Results from the National Red Grouse Survey 2021/22, which took place this year, will provide an up-to-date insight on the status of red grouse populations and the current state of their habitats. The implementation of this survey will provide a golden opportunity to reassess the landscape measures and conservation actions required to reverse the decline of this unique species.

In some quarters the Irish subspecies is still considered to be that of the same species as the Scottish variety. However, in Annex II of The EU Birds Directive, both sub-species are recognised as distinct. Modern day DNA investigations allow us to identify formerly unknown species populations and implement appropriate measures for their conservation. In 2010 it was estimated that Irish red grouse numbers had reduced drastically by at least 50% over the preceding 25 years. Such was the negative population trend that the species was placed on the Birds of Conservation Concern in Ireland (BoCCI) Red List in 1999, a designation under which it currently remains. Historic habitat management and predator and parasite control which bolstered grouse populations for game hunting are much less common in Ireland.

RED GROUSE Irish Wildlife Autumn '22 33

The discovery of Irish red grouse as an endemic sub-species may have acute consequences for the conservation of existing populations. Grouse populations are geographically widespread in the upland blanket bogs of Ireland but populations are becoming increasingly isolated due to habitat fragmentation. This problem is exacerbated by the limited dispersal of juveniles to other locations and as such, their tendency to remain in or return to the area of birth combined with loss of habitat is reducing genetic variability. In small isolated populations this loss of variability from inbreeding can result in depression of fitness which may lead to reduction in reproductive success and increased exposure to parasites and disease.

Darren is a conservation ranger in the National Parks & Wildlife Service western region.

Irish Wildlife Autumn '2234 PHOTO OF THE MONTH MONTHTHEOFPHOTOSIWT 41 2

PHOTO OF THE MONTH Irish Wildlife Autumn '22 35 1. Bank vole by Oliver Gargan. 2. Trá Salín compas jellyfish by Lorcan Scott 3. White-tailed sea eagles by Dominic Kelly 4. Pine marten by Cathal Keogh 5. Speckled bush cricket nymph by Neil Halligan 6. Trout by Ciaran O Kelly 53 6

In our summer issue we gave readers a chance to win a copy of ‘Wild Shores’ by Richard Nairn or an IWT branded t-shirt. The answer to the question is sundew, bladderwort, butterwort or pitcher plant (these are Ireland’s carnivorous plants). Congratulations to Adrienne Sweetnam from Skerries, Co Dublin, Susan Barr, Shankill, Dublin, Frances Collins, Phibsboro, Dublin, Annie O’Rourke, Kilmallock, Co.Limerick, Dee Je ers, Glencullen, Dublin, Ireland, Yvette van Schreven, Drogheda, Co. Louth, John Crosbie, Broadway, County Wexford, Lynda Huxley Castlebar, Co. Mayo, Shona O’Connor, New Ross, County Wexford and Colm Gallagher, Kilcock, Co. Kildare. Thanks to all who entered!

Portal by Tina Claffey Tina’s new book, ‘Portal’ is now published since May 25th 2022, and is currently available for Order at Currach Books (www.currachbooks. com). The 150-page hardback book is an immersive visual exploration through the realms of unique flora and fauna within Ireland’s bogs, wetlands and eskers, revealing the hidden gems that have lived and evolved for millennia. Tina Cla ey has been exploring these wondrous bogs through the seasons with a macro lens, which captures this enchanted wilderness in its minuteness, seeing beyond what the human eye is capable of. Carnivorous plants with their sticky tentacles, sphagnum mosses frozen in time in the deep bog pools, ancient water creatures exploring their depths, kaleidoscopes of colour through dewdrops on the backs of wondrous insects. A wilderness on our doorstep that looks otherworldly. com). The 150-page hardback book is an minuteness, seeing beyond what the human eye

Your chance to win a new book as well as one of our IWT branded t-shirts!

We have three copies of ‘Portal’ and five T-shirts to give away

Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘2236 COMPETITION COMPETITION

Send your answer, name, address, prize preference and the design and size of the t-shirt that you would like to win to magazinecomp@iwt.ie by October 31st. Summer issue.

To win one of these great prizes just answer the following question: Name the species of seal to be found on the Great Blasket island off County Kerry. The answer is somewhere in this issue!

You also have a chance to win one of the new designs of our organic clothes range of T-shirts. The IWT has a range of inspiring, ethical T-shirts, jumpers and tote bags in a range of styles to highlight our campaigns to protect nature. See https://iwtclothing.com/ for full details.

iiwt.ie/s iwt.ie/s ho h Introducing the new Irish Wildlife Trust membership card. CardMembership2022 Individual members, please ll in your full name. Family members, please ll in your family name. Card valid until end of 2022. Please fill in your name, cut out and keep your new membership card to present at talks and other events. Cards valid until the end of 2022.

The Badger Club is our Junior IWT Membership subscription. JOIN THE BADGER CLUB TO RECEIVE OUR QUARTERLY JUNIOR MAGAZINE THE “BADGER” FOR €15 PER YEAR. THE BADGER IS FULL OF FUN FACTS ABOUT NATURE AND FEATURES AN A3 POSTER IN EACH ISSUE. TO JOIN VISIT THE JOIN IWT SECTION ON WWW.IWT.IE AND SELECT JUNIOR MEMBERSHIp. MAGAZINE 2022AUTUMN MAGAZINE FOR THE JUNIOR MEMBERS OF THE IRISH WILDLIFE TRUST