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ACTIVITY UPDATE
ACTIVITY UPDATE By Kieran Flood, IWT Coordinator
Monaghan - Butterfly Outing by Fearghal Duffy Monaghan - John McKeon by Fearghal Duffy
Lim - Banded Demoiselles Castleconnell by
Lyn Nolan
IWT Branches Bearing Fruit
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 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 and Limerick.
Our 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
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.
This National 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 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 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.
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.
IWT Back In Bloom
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.
CAMPAIGN UPDATE By Pádraic Fogarty
A peat bog in Sweden with trees on drier spots
Trees on PEAT?
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 roughly 20% of Ireland that is peat cannot be used to reach forestry targets. 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 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,
Native birch trees growing well on shallow peat in Connemara
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 former. Restoring 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.
CAMPAIGN UPDATE By Pádraic Fogarty
A NEW START FOR NATURE CONSERVATION IN IRELAND
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. 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. 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. e ndings 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
and some of the work that has already been undertaken. So far so good. We don’t yet have 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 "THE PRESENCE OF uncertain. Will we get THE TAOISEACH, MICHEÁL MARTIN, AT THE NATIONAL forestry, peatland and agriculture policy working towards environmental objectives rather than BIODIVERSITY against them? Will the CONFERENCE forthcoming Budget see an IN DUBLIN IN additional increase in JUNE, GAVE THE SIGNAL THAT BIODIVERSITY IS A funding for the NPWS? While funding has been restored to pre-crash levels, an achievement Minister PRIORITY FOR HIM." Noonan can be proud of, we need much more. 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.
