Irish Wildlife Trust - Autumn 2023

ISSN - 1649 - 5705 • AUTUMN ’23

IRISH MAGAZINE OF THE IRISH WILDLIFE TRUST

IRELAN D’S

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WILDLI FE MAG AZINE

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Language of Trees SPOTTED IN IRELAND: • CORNCRAKE • LIZARD • FOX

FAIR SEAS TOGETHER

REWILD WICKLOW

AUTUMN WOODLAND

CORNCRAKE COMEBACK?

WELCOME

Chairperson’s Comment

D

Cover Image Credit Common Blue

by Jim Kenny Contents page credits: A bee collecting nectar by iStockphoto Corncrake by Mike Brown Sika Hind & Fawn by Rewild Wicklow and UCD Mayfly emerges early in the season by iStockphoto Fox in Altidore by Rewild Wicklow and UCD Brown Trout, salmo trutta fario, Group of Juveniles by iStockphoto

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ear friends of the Irish Wildlife Trust, I hope this edition of our magazine finds you healthy, happy and nourished after the recent sunny summer days through September. It’s been a real treat before the darker days of autumn and winter set in.

In the IWT, summer has been busy with Heritage Week, the Fair Seas World Ocean Day conference, and local events. We’ve also been navigating some changes within the IWT staff as our advocacy leader Pádraic Fogarty chose to resign from his role as spokesperson for the Irish Wildlife Trust.

Pádraic is a huge loss to the organisation, and to the IWT’s contribution to the eNGO network. We are deeply appreciative of the enormous value he has brought to the IWT and to the protection of nature over the past 20 years. We sincerely wish Pádraic the very best with his future endeavours, and know he will continue to be a strong advocate for change.

In our autumn magazine, we have another bumper issue which is packed to the brim with information. Just some of the content includes - Niall Mac Coiter pulls our hearts towards our native forests, bringing a rich reminder of the strength, beauty and folklore that surrounds them. Brian Duignan taps into Irish mythology and reminds us of the importance of story and the origins of place names.

Paddy Woodworth and Muhammad Achour share the powerful connections which arise through bringing many nationalities together in nature walks and heritage visits. It’s wonderful to learn how sharing stories and heritage is bringing people together across cultures.

Katie Holten and Kerri ní Dochartaigh bring inspiration about the critical role nature plays in our vitality, and touch our souls with a cry to slow down, to see each other, to connect with one another. Danny Alvey ignites a passion for volunteering in Wicklow engaging multiple organisations to partner in conservation activities. A wonderful lesson in collaboration for significant impact.

Kieran Flood reflects upon the exciting news that the Corncrake population is increasing, and considers further changes which are necessary to sustain this population growth for the long term. Tim

Clabon writes a fascinating article about a limestone sinkhole which reflects some of humans’ impact on the planet.

Grace Carr considers the Nature Restoration Law, the damaging misinformation which is causing fear and the urgent need to act based on science rather than false information. Grace also shares an update on the first global conference held in Ireland to discuss Marine Protected Areas, and the progress required to achieve the goal of protecting 30% of seas as MPAs by 2030.

Gordon d’Arcy encourages us to consider the importance of the environment and heritage in our education system, and questions whether the focus on STEM subjects is coming at the cost of critically important education about our environment.

Elena Zioga discusses the importance of sustainable farming practices which protect pollinators, and shares research into the impact of pesticide use on our pollinators and within our food ecosystem; and Anne Sundermann considers the Comcor river, its criticality to native fish, and the importance of projects underway to manage erosion, flooding and to improve the river for nature.

I hope you enjoy the rich content in this edition.

For now, I’m watching nature slowly discover the small pond I’ve recently added to my garden. It’s exciting, and I’m very hopeful that the dragonflies and damselflies that are darting around will lay their eggs.

This is a great time of year to add a pond to your garden - and it’s surprisingly simple.

Whatever you do, please make sure to avoid fish and to add some native Irish oxygenated plants. Then you’re creating a space which becomes a magical ecosystem for nature to thrive.

Wishing you the very best for a fabulous autumn, I hope it makes your heart sing.

Thank you for your continued support.

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

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.

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ABOUT US

Discover more about the work of the IWT and how you can get involved.

IWT ACTIVITY UPDATE

Updates on IWT News and Activities

CONSERVATION NEWS

Tim Clabon compiles the latest national and international news from the world of conservation

MARINE NEWS

Grace Carr reports on the Fair Seas Conference

CAMPAIGN NEWS

Insight on the survival of the Nature Restoration Law

THE LANGUAGE OF TREES

A conversation with Katie Holten and Kerri Ní Dochartaigh about Katie’s latest book

WILD IDEAS

Rewilding Wicklow inspiring action

GORDAN D’ARCY

Insight from the Pushkin Pathway education programme

AUTUMN FOCUS

Niall Mac Coitir explores the trees of an autumn woodland

ANNE SUNDERMANN

Get to know the Camcor River

NATURE AND ART

TorcAlta By Brian Duigan

SANCTUARY IN NATURE

Paddy Woodworth and Muhammad Achour report on an inspiration project

PESTICIDES AND POLLINATORS

Dr Elena Zioga shares research on pesticides in the Irish agriculture landscape

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

A selection of images from our monthly photo competition

COMPETITION

Your chance to win

Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

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IRISH WILDLIFE TRUST

About Us The 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.

IMAGES THIS PAGE: TOP: Kate Kavanagh leads a nature artworkshop BELOW: Dr. Rashid Sumaila

The 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 habitats.

Lobbying 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.

HAVE COMMENTS? Editors: Kieran Flood & Marion Jammet Magazine queries email: editor@iwt.ie Information on campaigning and policies email: info@iwt.ie Snail mail: The Irish Wildlife Trust, 8 CABRA ROAD, DUBLIN 7, D07 T1W2 Web: www.iwt.ie Social media: facebook.com/IrishWildlifeTrust twitter.com/Irishwildlife instagram.com/irishwildlifetrust/ Registered Charity Number: 20010966

HOW CAN YOU HELP? You, our members, make the IWT what it is. Through your subscriptions and support we can undertake the projects that are benefiting Ireland’s wildlife. If you would like to help more, here’s what you can do: • Make a one-off donation to the IWT. • Give IWT membership as a gift.

• Volunteer – we are always looking for people to help out. There are lots of ways to get involved, from helping with important admin work in our office to helping us increase membership by volunteering at public events. See our website www.iwt.ie for details or contact the office directly.

Supported by

The IWT encourages action at a local level and has a number of branches around the country: Dublin: dublinbranch@iwt.ie facebook.com/DublinBranchIrishWildlife Trust, dubliniwt.blogspot.ie Waterford: Denis Cullen, iwtwaterfordbranch@gmail.com, deniscullen@eircom.net, irishwildlifetrust. blogspot.ie Kerry: Ger, iwtkerry@gmail.com, www.facebook.com/KerryIWT Limerick: limerickbranch@iwt.ie / https://www.facebook.com / IWTLimerickBranch Galway: Dan, iwtgalway@gmail.com, www.facebook.com/IWTgalwaybranch Laois/Offaly: Ricky, iwtlaoisoffaly@gmail.com, www.facebook.com/IWTlaoisoffalybranch Monaghan: monaghanbranch@iwt.ie

• 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.

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

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

Keep up to date on all the latest news from the Irish Wildlife Trust on www.iwt.ie 4

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IWT NEWS

A C T I V I T Y U P D A T E By Kieran Flood, IWT General Manager

Thank you Pádraic.

Regular readers will notice the absence of Pádraic Fogarty from this issue of the Irish Wildlife magazine. Pádraic resigned from the Irish Wildlife Trust this summer and is no longer our Campaigns Officer or magazine editor. We will miss Pádraic from the pages of this magazine but more importantly as a driving force for nature advocacy and an inspirational colleague at the Irish Wildlife Trust.

Pádraic's resignation was a huge loss for our organisation and a loss to nature campaigning in Ireland as Pádraic contributed to many collaborative biodiversity forums on behalf of the IWT and the Environmental Pillar. I sincerely hope he will be as effective an advocate for nature outside of the IWT as he has been within it. We would like to reassure members that the Irish Wildlife Trust is committed to remaining a strong voice for nature and to continuing our vital advocacy work.

Pádraic has been editor of this publication for many years and was responsible for increasing the quality and standard of the publication to its current high level. We felt we could not start this issue of the magazine without taking a moment to recognize Pádraic’s invaluable contribution to the IWT over the years.

IWT needs you Members wanted on our Board

We are currently recruiting new directors from within the Irish Wildlife Trust membership base. Our Board of Directors is made up of unpaid directors (also known as Trustees) who are responsible for the governance of our charity. The Board is a hugely important part of our organisation and those who sit on our board make a vital contribution to the function of our charity.

At the IWT, it is important to us that our Board of Directors represents our membership and that we have a depth of knowledge in the areas of nature advocacy and nature conservation. For these reasons, we are seeking expressions of interest in joining the Board of Directors from current IWT members with experience and skills in nature

conservation or nature advocacy. This could be professional experience or experience from community and voluntary activities.

If you are interested in joining the IWT Board of Directors, please submit an expression of interest by emailing to board@ iwt.ie. Please include a short written statement and a CV if possible. The statement should describe your skills and experience as well as why you want to join the IWT Board of Directors. For this round of director recruitment, we are focussing on skills and experience in nature advocacy and nature conservation however please do briefly mention any other relevant skills you may have. We look forward to hearing from you.

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IWT NEWS

A C T I V I T Y U P D A T E By Kieran Flood, IWT General Manager

Stepping into nature

 Biodiversity Week, Glengarriff Nature Reserve.

Photo Kieran Flood

The long days of summer are a time of great activity in the natural world, and it is the same at the Irish Wildlife Trust. One of our favourite ways of engaging people with nature is our in-person events.

This year we ran National Biodiversity Week events in Limerick, Cork, Wexford, Monaghan and Dublin.

We ran our annual world bee day People for Bees event at the National Botanic Gardens where event attendees had a chance "SUMMER IS A to learn about wild bee identification.

GREAT TIME FOR Staying with insects, our Limerick GETTING OUT branch led a fascinating event looking at the dragonflies and INTO NATURE TO butterflies of Curraghchase Forest MEET MEMBERS Park.

AND THE Down the road in County Cork GENERAL PUBLIC, we had a visit to Glengarriff Nature SO WE MAKE THE Reserve to learn about wild Atlantic MOST OF IT" rainforest with Eoghan Daltun while at the far end of the country our Monaghan Branch ran a native tree propagation workshop for those who want to start their own little woodland. Our Waterford Branch stretched their legs and ventured over the county boundary for a coastal nature walk from Arthurstown Co Wexford. Keeping it coastal IWT staff gave talks on sturgeon reintroduction and marine protected areas in order to spread ideas for restoring our degraded seas. Each year Biodiversity Week keeps growing and in 2024 we too plan to increase our schedule of free events, so keep an eye on our website next May to find what's on.

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Bookending the summer is National Heritage Week.

This week of heritage engagement is funded by the Heritage Council and covers all forms of heritage in Ireland, but nature is always well represented in the lineup. This year we ran a Heritage Week bat walk in the National Botanic Gardens. This event is always very popular as people get to have a sneak peek behind the great gates of the Bots after dark to see what wildlife comes out when everyone else has gone home. We were happy to encounter pipistrelles bats foraging among the trees as we wandered the grounds in the low light.

Our Limerick Branch ran an inventive event to celebrate Heritage Week this year. They led a nature walk along the West Limerick Greenway which features the Barnagh Tunnel. This tunnel is one of the more evocative features of the now closed Limerick-Tralee Railway. It was opened in 1880, is 115m long and was excavated with explosives and pickaxes. The rock cuttings on either side of the tunnel have reverted to nature and are an impressive sight and interesting habitat.

It is great to see state funded initiatives like National Biodiversity Week and National Heritage Week providing regular nature engagement every summer. At the IWT our mission is to engage people with nature conservation and restoration and a vital step in this process is to learn about nature and experience its wonder first hand. We’d like to thank all the IWT branch volunteers who make our on the ground engagement possible by giving their time to share their nature knowledge and bring people together to experience the very thing that we are fighting to save.

CONSERVATION NEWS

CONSERVATION NEWS The latest national and international news from the conservation world, compiled by Kieran Flood &Tim Clabon.

There was welcome news this summer from the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). They announced that Irish corncrake numbers are starting to move in the right direction. The 2023 NPWS data showed an overall 35% increase in the population of corncrakes in Ireland over the past five years. What is particularly positive to hear is that this increase is due to help from farmers and landowners who have been supported to protect corncrake through state funded schemes.

The corncrake, known as Traonach in Irish, is a migratory bird that lives in Ireland from April to September. It flies here all the way from Africa, where it spends the winter.

Corncrake were once widespread across Ireland’s hay meadows where they breed from mid-May to August. The loud kerrxkerrx call of the male bird was synonymous with summer across our island. The species has experience dramatic declines here due to the intensification of agriculture resulting in greater mechanisation, earlier cutting of fields for silage and less marginal areas on farms. Marginal areas such as nettle patches are important for cover when the bird arrives here in spring. This species is now only found in parts of Donegal and Western parts of Connaught.

The findings shared by the NPWS include the following.

• An overall 35% increase in the population of corncrakes in Ireland over the past five years.

• A total of 218 corncrake breeding territories were recorded in 2023, up by 10% on 2022 and exceeding 200 for the first time in a decade.

• 2023 had the first sighting of a corncrake in over twenty-five years reported on the Aran Islands.

The corncrake is still occurring in precariously low numbers and occupying a very limited geographical range however the recorded increase in population and breeding territories is very good news.

The involvement of the farming community has been key to this success.

Hope for the Corncrake Through an EU LIFE funded project called “Corncrake / Traonach LIFE” and preexisting NPWS conservation grant programmes farmers and landowners have been directly engaged and paid to carry out corncrake friendly farming techniques.

The Corncrake / Traonach LIFE project works with farmers in and around Special Areas of Conservation in counties Donegal, Mayo and Galway. The project focuses on two conservation measures, the provision of Early and Late Cover and Conservation-Friendly Mowing. Early cover is important for birds arriving in the spring when there is less vegetation available in the landscape, while late cover provides refuge after the mowing of fields.

The cover provision involves farmers creating patches of tall vegetation on their land such as nettles, flag iris, cow parsley or hogweed and then fencing this vegetation off to prevent grazing until after September. Corncrake use tall cover vegetation to hide from predators, hunt for food, nest and raise their young.

 Photo: Mike Brown

I R I S H N E W S By Kieran Flood, IWT General Manager

Conservation friendly mowing is key to the survival of the corncrake in the landscape. Firstly, it involves delaying mowing to late in the season to avoid overlap with corncrake breeding. Then when mowing does happen it is done using subtly different technique to radically reduce chick mortality. The big difference is mowing from the inside of the field outward rather than the modern convention of mowing from the outside in. Mowing from the inside out allows corncrake (and other wildlife) to escape to the edges of the field and avoid a painful death. Thanks to the provision of cover at field margins, the edges of fields are safe refuges for the fleeing bird.

The corncrake’s fate in Ireland is uncertain but the news from the corncrake conservation project gives us hope not only that species can be brough back from the brink but also that we can embrace state funded schemes that support farmers and landowner to take action to conserve and restore nature.

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CONSERVATION NEWS

I N T E R N A T I O N A L N E W S By Tim Clabon  Crawford Lake, evidence of Anthropocene

strata. Photo: iStockphoto

The Anthropocene

A human fingerprint in the geological timescale Humans as we would call ourselves have been around for over 200 thousand years, however it has only been recently that our species has been making a mark on the planet. In light of this, geologists have suggested a new period of time is added to Earth's geological timeline. The proposed period is to be called the Anthropocene Epoch starting from the mid-20th century (1950’s).

Scientists from Brock University, Canada, led by Francine MG McCarthy have proposed a small lake called Crawford Lake near Toronto to be the Global Boundary Stratotype Section.

This is a reference point to mark a boundary where a change has occurred in rock, ice, sediment etc., showing a new geological time period. Once agreed upon a “Golden Spike” is used to mark the precise boundary for future geologists. It does not have to be a physical or golden spike, just a set point on the geological scale.

The site has been selected out of 12 sites which were studied over the last 14 years. Other sites included peatlands in Poland, Coral Reefs in the US and Australia, as well as the Antarctic Ice. Crawford Lake was selected by the Anthropocene Working Group set up in 2009.

The Anthropocene epoch is essentially a human fingerprint in the geological timescale marking when human activity started to have an impact on the global environment. The lake only covers an area of 5.9 acres but is 24 metres deep. Formed 8

Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

in a limestone sinkhole the structure of the lake does not allow mixing, so any sediment that is deposited has laid undisturbed.

Within the sediment are deposits of plutonium which spread globally in the 1950’s as fallout from H-Bomb testing but ceased in the 1960’s when the nuclear test ban treaty was enacted.

This is treated as a marker in the sediments. Along with the plutonium isotopes, other markers included fly ash and nitrogen isotopes marking the increase in the use of fossil fuels. The lake had been previously studied for the pollen held within the sediments, focusing on the record of Indigenous agricultural settlement, colonial land clearing and logging, and the associated ecosystem changes.

Not everyone is happy that this site has been selected as the Golden Spike. Plutonium isotopes decay over time, and human influences on the planet started long before the 1950’s. A final vote is to take place in South Korea in 2024 where this new epoch will be ratified. So, for now we are still living in the Holocene epoch, which started over 12,000 years ago.

References 2023 McCarthy, Francine MG, et al ‘The varved succession of Crawford Lake, Milton, Ontario, Canada as a candidate Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Anthropocene series’ Volume 10, Issue 1,Sage Journals ref: https://journals. sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20530196221149281

IWT NEWS

M A R I N E N E W S By Grace Carr

World Ocean Day Conference

 Group of puffins in Latrabjarg cliffs in iceland

Photo: iStockphoto

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IWT NEWS

M A R I N E N E W S By Grace Carr

A

t the start of June we had the much anticipated Fair Seas Conference. This first of its kind conference in Ireland brought together ocean advocates, researchers and environmentalists from around the globe to discuss Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), what they are, why they need to be managed effectively, and how we can bring those lessons to the forefront of Irish legislation. Here is a brief overview of some of the speakers' presentations and the main takeaways from the conference.

To watch all the speakers from the Fair Seas Conference please go to www.fairseas. ie and click into the 3 blogs available about the day.

The keynote speaker was a joint winner of the Tyler prize for the Environment, Dr. Rashid Sumaila. The title of his opening presentation was ‘not everything, not everywhere, not all at once’.

‘Not everything’ - We don’t need to take everything, everywhere, all at once. Rashid spoke on the fish of the high seas who spend most of their lives in the open ocean and can live to be 100 years old or more. These animals should be left alone, surely we can find something else to eat? We are unfortunately fishing everything and destroying not only the food web but also ocean habitats with the destructive ways in which we fish.

‘Not all at once’ - This is to do with thinking about the future and our responsibility to protect our ecosystems and pass down a healthy ocean to the coming generations. We don’t need to make as much money as possible right now, we need to ensure sustainability. He spoke about moving away from the negativity we see every day in ocean news and remember that fish can be renewable. If we manage our fisheries wisely and protect vulnerable ecosystems we can fish forever.

‘Not everywhere’- Only 5 countries in the world take 70% of the fish from the high seas. The high seas should be closed to fishing and give highly migratory fish a place of refuge which will in turn increase their numbers for when they return to a country's Exclusive Economic Zone where 10

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 Dr. Rashid Sumaila

fishing can take place. Restricting fishing will be invaluable to smaller countries who need these fish for the well being of their citizens. Deep sea mining was another topic and the fact that we have a lack of knowledge on ecosystems in the deep sea. While there are arguments that deep sea mining will help with establishing green energy through collecting minerals for batteries, do we really know the damage we could cause?

He also spoke about bottom trawling in protected areas. Ireland's current 8.3% of

protected areas are very weakly protected and while we don’t know the exact percentage of Ireland’s protected areas which restrict bottom trawling, it is believed to be less than 1%. He, along with many of the other speakers, believe that bottom trawling has no place within MPAs. Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan spoke about the progress being made in the new Irish MPA bill and the increase in Ireland’s Natura 2000 network. Stakeholder engagement is extremely important and effective public participation must take place through all stages of identification, designation and management of MPAs. This is a novel way of working but it is vital to hit the 30% target by 2030. The Minister also stated that reversing the decline of marine biodiversity will take more than just compliance with environmental standards. There are areas that are poorly understood and need

IWT NEWS

 Dr Donal Griffin, Dr Rashid Sumaila, Aoife O’Mahony, Karen Ciesielski Minister Malcolm Noonan  On board the LÉ Samuel Beckett. Photos: Clare Keough

"IF WE MANAGE OUR FISHERIES WISELY AND PROTECT VULNERABLE ECOSYSTEMS WE CAN FISH FOREVER"

greater understanding and attention.

Protection of the marine environment must go beyond the habitats and species which are protected under EU law and new Irish legislation must show this. He stated the new bill will not only offer greater protection for species and habitats it will also allow us to focus on ecosystems that play particularly important roles in climate regulation. It will also be based on the principles of ecosystem based management, which the Irish Wildlife Trust would greatly welcome.

We also heard from Professor Mark Costello of Nord University who informed us that only 2.9% of the global ocean is a ‘no take’ zone and within Ireland we have 0% of our waters designated as ‘no take’.

94% of MPAs are not designated to protect marine biodiversity and they are designated due to a specific feature of the area. He spoke about how it is not a radical idea to have areas of the ocean which are

‘no take’ to aid in conservation. There are many areas such as cable zones, military areas and pipelines where public access to fish are restricted for commercial gain, so why aren't there minimal areas set aside for biodiversity?

Dr. Valerie Hickey of the World Bank spoke about the benefits of Blue Economy and financing MPAs. When economists looked at the links between the ocean and development it shows that there will always be poverty in the world as long as the ocean is not in a healthy state. There are 260 million people employed in fisheries related jobs around the world and if there are no fish to be caught, the number of people going to bed hungry each night will hugely increase. Finding a way to pay for protected areas is massively important and Fair Seas have produced a sustainable finance report looking into how much it will realistically cost to establish and manage MPAs in

Ireland. Not all MPAs are the same, they will all require different costs. It is also vital to consider other aspects such as money available to prosecute criminal activity at sea and in protected areas. It has been illegal to dispose of fishing gear at sea since 1973 but there are barely any court cases brought against this practice as there hasn’t been money put aside for this. We cannot put the price of protecting areas on the people who are least equipped to deal with it and we must find ways to help the people whose livelihoods will be affected to make the transition to more sustainable practices. MPAs will benefit the public and so some money should be taken from public funds likewise it will also benefit the private sector and so they should also be expected to pay towards this. Fair Seas' sustainable finance report is available on their website and looks into the different ways of financing MPAs. The cost of doing something now is a lot lower than it will be in 5 or 10 years time and the chance of it not succeeding then is also greater.

Brian McSharry from the European Environment Agency spoke about protected areas across Europe. There is a huge data gap on the condition of our biodiversity and we need to start working on how to address this, which was also brought up by Minister Noonan. He spoke about why we are in a biodiversity crisis and the answer is human activities. In 2020 the EU Biodiversity Strategy was launched which was a part of the European Green Deal (of which the EU Nature Restoration Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

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IWT NEWS

M A R I N E N E W S By Grace Carr

"THE EU BIODIVERSITY STRATEGY SPOKE ABOUT HAVING 30% OF EU SEAS PROTECTED BY 2030 AND 10% STRICTLY PROTECTED"

Tuna. Photo: Alexander Mustard

 Dr. Donal Griffin

Law is a key piece of legislation). The Biodiversity Strategy spoke about having 30% of EU seas protected by 2030 and 10% strictly protected.

Dr. Donal Griffin from Fair Seas gave a great update on how the Irish MPA legislation is progressing. In 2020 the independent MPA Advisory Board published a report ‘Expanding Ireland’s Marine Protected Area Network.’ In 2021 there was a public consultation on this report and in 2022 the General Scheme of this report was published. Fair Seas, the Irish Wildlife Trust and several other eNGOs gave our recommendations and attended pre-legislative scrutiny on this.

This report along with recommendations 12

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was published and we are waiting for it to now be brought before the Dail where it will go through the different parliamentary procedures before it is signed into law.

Some of these recommendations will be critical for the societal paradigm shift needed to effectively designate and manage new protected areas. This year our quantity of MPA coverage has more than tripled but unfortunately the quality of these areas is poor due to poor management.We are on our way to reaching the 30% target by 2030 but there is still a long way to go.

Eimear Manning from the National Youth Council of Ireland spoke of the importance of involving our youth and Joe Richards from Blue Marine Foundation spoke about the importance of collaborative management to ensure successful MPAs. There were also video links from former vice president Al Gore and founder of Mission Blue, Dr. Sylvia Earl. Dr. Siobhan Vye Herads from the RSPB and Adrian Gahan from National Geographic’s Pristine Seas gave presentations on MPA success stories from around the world.

One of the main points of the day was that for successful MPAs we need to have full stakeholder engagement throughout the entire process. The third panel session

of the day featured Oonagh Duggan of Birdwatch Ireland, Bernadette Connolly from the Cork Environment Forum, Nial MacAllister of EarthRoute Ltd (giving an offshore renewable energy view) and Kieran Healy, fisherman and director of the National Inshore Fisheries Association.

This panel had the perspectives from several sectors and while there were different views it was agreed that stakeholder engagement from the offset must be undertaken and that MPAs can be a positive thing. The main points which were made by several speakers at the conference were, 1. Areas of strict protection are needed 2. Bottom trawling should be banned within MPAs 3. Stakeholder engagement during the entire process is vital 4. Time is running out.

WHERE ARE WE AT IN MPA DESIGNATION? Since the Fair Seas conference took place a new Special Protected Area (SPA) for seabirds has been announced in the North West Irish Sea.This announcement will increase Ireland’s MPA coverage to over 9% and moves us closer to the 30% target by 2030. 63% of Ireland’s bird species are declining so this new protected area was badly needed. However, as the minister stated in his speech, we need effective management of protected areas. If there are no management plans in place then these areas are not truly protected and are what we call ‘paper parks’. Ireland unfortunately has not done well in this area in the past which resulted in the state being taken to the European Court of Justice over failure to hit their obligations under the Habitats Directive. We hope moving forward that this will be rectified and that site specific and coherent management plans with clear targets and timelines will be produced for all of our protected areas.

IWT NEWS

C A M P A I G N N E W S By Grace Carr

EU Nature Restoration Law The Process So Far

 Restored Bog. Photo: David McConnon

T

he Nature Restoration Law (NRL) was proposed by the European Commission in June 2022. This law is part of the EU Biodiversity Strategy which is a key element to the European Green Deal. It aims to help recover Europe's extreme biodiversity loss by 2030.

The original text which was proposed had restoration targets to cover at least 20% of land and sea by 2030 and all areas in need of restoration by 2050. There were targets on peatlands, forests, freshwater ecosystems, marine ecosystems and other agricultural and urban land.

There are several stages for the NRL to go through before being written into law.

First it had to be voted on by various EU Parliament Committees, the European Council and finally the full EU Parliament i.e. all the MEPs. The Committee for the Environment (ENVI) was the lead Committee on this file but the Committee on agriculture (AGRI) and fisheries (PECH) also got to vote on their opinion.

All of these Committees are part of the European Parliament and are made up of Member of the European Parliament (MEPs) from each member state. Ireland has 13 MEPs in total and 7 of them are part of these particular Committees either as full members or substitutes.

The Council is made from Ministers representing each member state. Malcolm Noonan and Eamon Ryan represented Ireland in this process.

After the text is voted on by the Committees in Parliament and the Council it goes to a Plenary vote and this is where all 705 Members of the European Parliament can vote on the law. If it was rejected in this vote then the text would be dismissed.

The AGRI and PECH committees both voted to outright reject the law. This was back in May of this year when there was a huge disinformation campaign being spread on the NRL by the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) and other conservative groups. Fine Gael MEPs are

DISINFORMATION BEING SPREAD » This law will threaten food security » It will take away land needed to deal with the housing crisis » Rural communities livelihoods will be threatened » 100% of peatlands will have to be rewetted part of the EPP and there was much scaremongering done on the law throughout Ireland.

The people spreading the disinformation chose to ignore all the scientific evidence showing that restoring nature will secure long-term food security and without it, it is only a matter of time before agricultural lands are rendered unusable due to droughts, fires and other climate related disasters. Overuse of the land will also lead to its collapse and healthy ecosystems are needed for pollinators to thrive. Our food systems rely on pollinators and without them, they are guaranteed to Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

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IWT NEWS

C A M P A I G N N E W S By Grace Carr

 A stone fence on the burren and

grazing lands. Photo: iStockphoto

collapse. Nature restoration doesn’t mean a stop to economic activities and with a dedicated Nature Restoration Fund, farmer’s and fisher’s will be subsidised for any transition they make towards more sustainable practices.

The disinformation campaign that was spread under the guise of being ‘the farmers voice’ was extremely detrimental and irresponsible to the EU people. The MEPs supporting this clearly "ALL 13 OF IRELAND’S had political games in mind and had MEPs VOTED NOT more consideration for large industries TO REJECT THE LAW rather than small scale farmers and fishers, the majority of whom do their INCLUDING THE 5 best for nature. Environmentalists know WHO ARE WITHIN that farmers and fishers know the land THE EPP GROUP" and sea better than anyone. They spend their lives working in these ecosystems and they can see the degradation that has happened over the past decades. It was never about the farmers versus the environmentalists, but dangerous members of the European Parliament tried to enforce this narrative.

The ENVI committee did not outright reject the law and so they moved onto voting on amendments.

After this process they voted again on the law and it was rejected due to the fact it had been weakened beyond what could be considered appropriate for nature and people. This meant that whenever the law was brought before the entire Parliament in plenary, the first vote would again be whether to reject it outright.

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Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

While the Committees voted on the law, the Council also came to an agreement, the General Approach (GA), on the NRL. A majority of EU countries agreed on this GA including Ireland. The GA did water down the targets of the initial proposal but it was a solid base for future negotiations. If EU Member States had rejected the NRL that would have been extremely detrimental.

The disinformation campaign continued to pick up momentum with the EPP clearly ignoring that their claims had been debunked by over 6000 scientists as well as solar and wind energy industries and more than 100 global businesses. Over 1,000,000 EU citizens took part in the Restore Nature campaign sending emails to MEPs asking them to vote for nature restoration.

On the 12th July, the Plenary vote took place and the first vote on the outright rejection of the law. The law was not rejected by a margin of 12 votes (324 to 312 with 12 abstentions). All 13 of Ireland’s MEPs voted not to reject the law including the 5 who are within the EPP group. They then proceeded to vote on amendments. In an usual turn of events the entire Council General ApproachA was also tabled as an amendment and this was passed. However, more amendments were voted on which considerably weakened the Parliament's position.

IWT NEWS

Some of the amendments which weakened the law » The entire article on agricultural land was removed (this included peatland targets) and so there are no timelines or restoration targets in place for these ecosystems. All Irish MEPs voted against this amendment apart from one who abstained from voting (Chris MacManus). » Restoration targets for land based ecosystems were also limited to areas already under the Birds and Habitats directives, instead of looking at the whole scope of these ecosystems. The language was weakened (‘aim to’ instead of must). All Irish MEPs voted against this.

» Marine restoration areas were significantly reduced by deleting the text which stated that restoration measures should be put in place to restore habitats in areas where they have disappeared (non role call vote). » While some ambitious amendments made it through, significant weakening of the language used, deletion of time bound targets and moving towards ‘effort’ based results rather than ‘outcome’ based results all equal a far less ambitious law then what is needed to restore nature.

» The access to Justice was deleted which would allow members of the public to hold governments accountable for not hitting their restoration targets. There was no role call on this vote to see how the MEPs voted. » The non-deterioration principle on land (and for certain habitats in the marine) was deleted which means that once an area is restored it does not have to be kept in this favourable condition (again no role call).

NEXT STAGES There was a short initial trilogue meeting one week after the Plenary vote but proper negotiations start once the EU Parliament returns from Summer recess. This is when the Parliament and the Council negotiate between their two texts. Here lies an opportunity for the law to be strengthened. Both the Council and the Parliament must agree on a text before it can be written into law. The Council text is currently more ambitious than the Parliament's which is unusual but we hope that some of the mistakes which were made during Plenary can be rectified.

We at The Wildlife Trust would like to thank every single person who signed up to the Restore Nature email tool which sent MEPs and Ministers letters asking them to support the Nature Restoration Law. MEPs commented on how they were inundated with emails and this would have made a huge difference in how they decided to vote.

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FEATURE

 Katie Holten. Photo: Dillon Cohen

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Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

FEATURE

The

Language of Trees

How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives

By KERRI NÍ DOCHARTAIGH

CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE OF WHAT DREW YOU TO TREES? WHY THEY MATTER TO YOU AND WHY IT FELT IMPORTANT TO CREATE YOUR FIRST TREE ALPHABET? I’m not sure how to say it, but I’ve always felt more comfortable around plants than humans. I often find being around people exhausting. Sorry humans!

In 2004, I moved to New York City on a Fulbright to research our relationship with “Nature” in the city.

It felt important for me to spend time in an uberurban environment to see how our human nature was entangling, or unraveling, with the wider world.

I’ve always felt very embedded on this planet, aware of how grounded we are, hands and feet in the soil, walking in the wind, watching plants grow, harvesting, composting. But I was sensing that many other people didn’t have any of that. Looking back now, it’s easy for me to see that I felt in my bones that something very fundamental was wrong with everything. At the time I just knew that it felt important, vital, to try and learn more about where our species was rushing towards, so I felt I had to go to a big city. And I also

wanted to acknowledge that “Nature” — which is also us humans and what we make, so cities are nature — is what my work is about.

And so, ironically, in order to look closer at trees I found myself living in the East Village and Alphabet City, in the heart of the concrete jungle. I loved the city, but I was aching for green, for living beings beyond all the rushing humans and their dogs. I was immediately drawn to the street trees. Street trees are the simplest, easiest way for New Yorkers to encounter Nature. Little seeds and saplings grow and grow and grow to over four, five, six stories tall.

Trees just do it — and they know when to stop growing. It’s miraculous and beautiful and quiet and simple. And mostly ignored.

A friend was passing through New York and gave me a gift of a little book, New York City Trees: A Field Guide. I started identifying my local street trees. I was drawn to them, so I drew them. These first tree drawings were very simple and small — just one- or two-inch tall trees. Soon I was making larger drawings, portraits of street trees. I had no idea what I was doing but I knew it was both intimately

Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

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FEATURE

related with the art world and completely apart from it. I was just drawing myself into something, finding silent companions. New York is very loud.

Trees are quiet. The tree drawings were like little meditations.

Looking back, it’s easy to see that I always knew that one day I would have to play around with the Irish Tree Alphabet, explore it, tease it apart. It’s something that’s such an integral part of who I am, being Irish, loving language and the natural world. Learning that we have an ancient Ogham “tree alphabet” was something we were never taught at school. We just knew about it. It was taken for granted, and to be honest kind of sniggered at, like all the myths, folktales, remedies, and fairies. But I think many of us are coming around now to an appreciation of how important this buried or forgotten knowledge and cultural history is.

It was exactly ten years after I made those first little tree drawings in my apartment in 2005 that I realised that my drawn trees could replace the ABC of the alphabet. I made my first Tree Alphabet in 2015. I replaced each letter of the alphabet with a tree drawing as a way to write love letters, with Trees.

COULD YOU SPEAK A BIT OF YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS? HAS THAT CHANGED AT ALL AFTER LIVING THROUGH THE LOCKDOWNS OF RECENT YEARS? It feels like everything has changed!

I just mentioned that it took ten years for me to realise that the tree drawings could become an alphabet. Ten years isn’t much in tree time, but for a human it’s a long while for work to sit and stew.

Time is an element that I’ve always tried to include in my work, but we usually notice in more humancentric time, what I’ve started thinking of as a Flat-Earth way of thinking about linear time. I think our sense of time has been splintered during these lockdowns and quarantines. I’d like to think that people are more open now to thinking in tree time, in cyclical time.

Of course, time is speeding up as I get older. It feels like we’re hurtling too fast towards the great implosion or whatever is the opposite of the Big Bang. Due to COVID travel bans and problems created by the last US administration I wasn’t able to travel home for three years. That’s the longest I’ve ever been away from Ireland. It felt like I’d lost access to a part of myself.

Now for a year I’ve been literally not myself since I got COVID last April and for ten months was living with undiagnosed dysautonomia. Some days just sitting in a chair and holding a pencil is impossible. It’s been a year since I’ve made any real work in that sense of drawing or making. I’ve put everything into just training my body to remember how to breathe and making this book.

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Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

"I MADE MY FIRST TREE ALPHABET IN 2015. I REPLACED EACH LETTER OF THE ALPHABET WITH A TREE DRAWING AS A WAY TO WRITE LOVE LETTERS, WITH TREES"

Usually, I work very quickly. My work is intuitive and often iterative. Fail again, fail better. I’m often invited to make work in response to a specific place. I meet local people. I wander about. Each project starts with walking, reading, chatting, research, more reading, and asking questions.

Getting a sense of a place and responding to it is very important to me. I never know what form the work will take, just that it will take some time, and things that are lying around will probably maybe be recycled into it, always drawings, often some plants...

Now I’m limited in how far I can walk, how fast I can walk, whether I even have the energy to sit in a chair and hold a pencil and draw. It’s incredible how much we take for granted. Before this covid damage to my body, I had no idea how much energy it takes to do the simplest things. Every cell in my body gets exhausted. All I want to do is sit and hold a pencil and make a mark, but I can’t.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE TREE? AND YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE ON THIS BEAUTIFUL EARTH? Impossible questions! Right now, today, I’m in my mother’s garden under a weeping silver birch surrounded by foxgloves.

FEATURE

KATIE, YOU INTRODUCED ME TO A REALLY IMPORTANT ESSAY BY ROBIN WALL KIMMERER ON LANGUAGE AND THE USE OF THE WORDS KI/KIN INSTEAD OF IT WHEN REFERRING TO OUR FRIENDS IN THE OTHER THAN HUMAN WORLD. COULD YOU EXPLORE A LITTLE WHY THIS MATTERS FOR YOU? Oh, what can I say that Robin hasn’t already articulated so beautifully! When I read her essay, years ago now, it struck me deeply. Like all great work, it was so obvious and simple and beautiful — like truth. We, humans, are an animal. We share the world with so many others; animals, plants, birds, stones, water... We are all related. We are kin.

It’s painful how disconnected we (most of us humans) are from the living world. We are “a part” of it but so many people feel deeply “apart” from it. Again, another reason I thought COVID might help us see clearer — if we are forced to reckon with our bodies and how we share the same air, water, bacteria, viruses…

I really hoped my migration drawings to accompany David Abram’s piece Creaturely Migrations on a Breathing Planet, featured in Emergence Magazine, might help show at a cellular level how what goes on inside of each of us mirrors what happens within communities of animals and birds and planets and stars and the whole universe.

The universe within.

AS WE HURTLE EVEN FURTHER INTO CLIMATE EMERGENCY, WHAT DO YOU SEE AS WAYS WE CAN— THROUGH THE WAY WE CHOOSE TO LIVE— MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE ON THIS PLANET? Love. Love ourselves and those around us and this beautiful, beautiful world. Too much love goes into consuming things, liking things, sharing things online.

You asked me what I “see” as ways we can make a real difference. Seeing — that simple act of looking. Slowing down to simply look. To see something. We can see each other. Help each other.

Just making eye contact with someone asking for money on the street is powerful. You acknowledge them as another being. The return look of gratitude from just making eye contact — it’s heartbreaking.

The suffering, the difficulties that people are going through, has really exploded into view since COVID. There’s such a need to take care of each other. That starts with acknowledging each other.

Looking at each other, then listening. Radical listening is so important.

At the beginning of the lockdowns in early 2020 I really thought this tragedy of the pandemic would be a great moment — the moment —for our species to come together to acknowledge climate breakdown and our shared community on this

beautiful planet, our one and only home. Naively, I thought this enormous shock — we stopped doing virtually everything! — would wake people up from their sleepwalking into extinction. Sadly…

WHAT DOES THE WORD HOPE MEAN FOR YOU, AND HOW/ WHERE DO YOU FIND IT? Thank you for asking about HOPE! Someone just asked me if I’m optimistic for the future. Rebecca Solnit has written that optimism is a form of certainty: everything will be fine; therefore, nothing is required of us, which is really the same as cynicism and pessimism and despair. So nope, I’m not optimistic! Hope is recognizing that the future is being decided right now, and what we do matters. During these last difficult eight years or so I’ve found hope in other people. We’ve been gathering together in communities, often spontaneously, by a shared love that is so much stronger than the ugly. Another world is possible.

I created the book as an act of radical hope. It’s an invitation to fall in love with the world and fight like hell for it.

Katie Holten is an artist and activist. Her work investigates the entangled relationships between humans and the natural world. She has created Tree Alphabets, a Stone Alphabet, and a Wildflower Alphabet to share the joy she finds in her love of the more-than-human world. She is a visiting lecturer at the New School of the Anthropocene. Her book The Language of Trees was published June 2023. www.katieholten.com @katieholten Kerri ní Dochartaigh is a mother and writer. Her books include Thin Places and Cacophony of Bone.

She lives in the west of Ireland. https://substack. com/@kerrinidochartaigh

Birch. Photo: Kieran Flood

"HOPE IS RECOGNIZING THAT THE FUTURE IS BEING DECIDED RIGHT NOW, AND WHAT WE DO MATTERS. DURING THESE LAST DIFFICULT EIGHT YEARS OR SO I’VE FOUND HOPE IN OTHER PEOPLE" Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

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Rewild WILD IDEAS

WICKLOW "DURING THE COURSE OF THE PETITION CAMPAIGN, MANY hat part can volunteers play LOCAL NATURE ENTHUSIASTS AND in Ireland's biodiversity crisis? EXPERTS GOT IN TOUCH WITH US This was the question my AND A GROUP BEGAN TO FORM"

By DANNY ALVEY

W

siblings, Simon, Ian, Enya, and I had considered for many years. With no land of our own, wealth or expertise, we struggled to see how we could contribute in a significant way to Ireland’s biodiversity crisis. We were on the mailing lists for national organisations who had the odd volunteer day or field trip here or there, and we helped out at local cleanups when we could. But beyond this we felt in many ways just bystanders to the slow decline of wildlife all around us in our home county of Wicklow. When we were children we remember regularly seeing hedgehogs all around Wicklow Town, otters in the local Vartry river and ladybirds and caterpillars all along the Murrough, our local coastal wetland. Now our own children rarely see such wildlife and some of them have never even seen a hedgehog!

We were finally spurred into action when a ‘Masterplan for Glendalough and the Wicklow Mountains National Park’ was launched in February 2021. The press release referenced “environmental impact management” but there was no mention of improving biodiversity or restoring habitats.

Anyone who regularly visits the Wicklow Mountains, will agree the National Park could be so much more, it should be a place where nature thrives. Instead it is a landscape dominated by degraded peatland and encroaching Sitka spruce from plantations that surround the park. We decided to launch a petition on change.org to have biodiversity and rewilding added to the plan.

It was in the midst of another pandemic 20

Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

lockdown and local people were spending a lot of time out walking in nature and we think this contributed to how the petition was received and really took off beyond anything we imagined. By April the petition had over 10,000 signatures and we were invited to present it to the Minister for Heritage Malcolm Noonan.

But with the spark now ignited in Wicklow we knew we could not stop there. During the course of the petition campaign, many local nature enthusiasts and experts got in touch with us and a group began to form.

All of us wanted to contribute to practical, tangible efforts to restoring habitats locally and we decided to use our new-found profile to recruit volunteers into a community organisation. ReWild Wicklow was born.

Our mission is to monitor, protect, enhance and increase native habitats in Wicklow so that it can support a vast, biodiverse, balanced ecosystem of historical flora and

fauna. In short - a Wicklow as wild as it once was. We aimed to achieve this by reaching out and collaborating with all public, private and NGO landowners across the county.

We put a strong emphasis on citizen science and people power, educating the public and encouraging volunteers to get involved with our work.

This approach has been far more successful than we ever could have imagined. To date, we have partnered with 14 other public, private and NGO conservation organisations working in Wicklow. We have recruited over 1,000 volunteers onto our database using social media and local news outlets. With these volunteers we have organised 50 activity days throughout 2022 and 2023.

These volunteer days have included tree planting (over 5,000 trees now planted), peatland restoration (over 200 small timber and stone dams now built), vegetation management, seed sowing, erecting deer

WILD IDEAS

 Camera trap images

taken as part of Rewild Wicklow project Photo Credit Rewild Wicklow and UCD

fencing, nest box building, litter cleanups and camera trap setting up.

The biggest project we have collaborated on to date has been a camera trap survey called ‘Snapshot Europe.’ The goal of this project is to collect systematic wildlife camera trap data on mammals across as many study sites in Europe as possible during September and October each year.

The first year of the survey was 2021 and to ensure Ireland was represented in a small

way, ten camera traps were deployed as a joint initiative of University College Dublin and Irish PhD student Adam F. Smith of the University of Freiburg, Germany. In 2022, ReWild Wicklow partnered with Adam and the staff and students of UCD’s Laboratory of Wildlife Ecology and Behaviour to expand Snapshot Europe in Wicklow. We did local fundraising and successfully applied for grants from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, and the Local Authority Waters

“IT'S HARD TO FEEL FRUSTRATED OR POWERLESS ABOUT THE STATE OF THE PLANET AFTER A DAY IN NATURE WITH FRIENDLY SOULS PLANTING OAK TREES, OR SAVING SAPLINGS FROM WEEDS, OR HELPING TO BRING A BEAUTIFUL BOG BACK TO LIFE. REWILD WICKLOW IS THE PERFECT ANTIDOTE TO SCROLLING ON THE SOFA OR SOAPBOXING ABOUT STUFF - IT FEELS PRACTICAL, EMPOWERING AND PROFOUND”

Programme to purchase an additional twenty camera traps. This would now be the largest camera trap survey of its kind ever initiated in the Republic of Ireland.

We launched the final report during National Biodiversity Week 2023 and the results show the distribution and frequency of mammals in the Wicklow Mountains project area. Our cameras successfully monitored 37 sites, collected 93,670 photographs and captured 9 wild mammal species and a variety of birds. The report reveals just how abundant sika deer now are in Wicklow. But there is also a good news story with the continued recovery of the pine marten as it was the fourth most common wild mammal identified in our study. The full report can be read on our website at rewildwicklow.ie.

We plan to continue and expand this camera trap survey every year to show us the trends of wildlife distribution in Wicklow. We hope this scientific evidence, coupled with our on-the-ground work, will strengthen the argument for expanding our protected areas in Wicklow and the role community groups can play in this.

So, what part can volunteers play in Ireland’s biodiversity crisis? Our community group is testament that, with a little bit of organising, volunteers can have a truly significant impact on their local wildlife. We would love to see other ‘ReWild’ groups started in every county of Ireland and we would be only too delighted to offer our guidance and advice. Looking forward to hearing from you!

“It's hard to feel frustrated or powerless about the state of the planet after a day in nature with friendly souls planting oak trees, or saving saplings from weeds, or helping to bring a beautiful bog back to life. ReWild Wicklow is the perfect antidote to scrolling on the sofa or soapboxing about stuff - it feels practical, empowering and profound.”

Maria O’Loughlin, resident of Laragh, Wicklow and volunteer with ReWild Wicklow Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

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GORDON D'ARCY

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION:

THE PUSHKIN

By GORDON D'ARCY

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Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

GORDON D'ARCY

A

certain Russian (definitely not for consideration here), commands much bad press, nowadays.

Another, however, whose words have resonated down the ages, has left a peaceable legacy, decidedly worthy of consideration. The poet Pushkin, (Russia’s Yeats?), connected lyrically not only with humanity but also with nature. His poem Autumn, (his favourite season) highlighting ‘the gold and scarlet raiment of the woods’ is a scene with which we are all familiar; his mention of the bear and sable, however, ground him firmly in his native Russia.

It was Pushkin’s work that inspired his great, great, great granddaughter, Sacha Abercorn to create an education centre at the Baronscourt estate in County Tyrone, some thirty years ago - and what an educational ‘hub’ it has turned out to be! Initially, as was to be expected, the gatherings concentrated on the wide theme of literature, including children’s literature. But gradually all kinds of cultural activity – from folklore to story-telling, from music to dance and others – found expression in the Pushkin programme. As in the poet’s life, the natural world (which the poet used in a symbolic context) came later. Since the early 2000’s nature and the environment, emerging as an integral part of the educational package, located in the wildlife-rich circumstance of the estate, has grown exponentially in significance.

Themes such as the ‘reforestation of the imagination’; ’open ground’; ‘rekindling the fire within’… have set the scene for the annual Baronscourt Days for visiting schools. On these days children from state schools and national schools (from both sides of the border) meet and mix at the estate and every ethos – religious, ethnic etc. – is facilitated in a thoroughly enriching experience.

In a series of indoor and outdoor workshops, groups of children and their teachers are exposed to extra-curricular activities from a range of experts. The most recent programme, the Pushkin Pathway, combines the skills of various specialists, including environmentalists, in cross-discipline interaction, suggesting an innovative way forward for the educational model. This approach has much in common with the Steiner Waldorf model which, though long established in this country, is generally not regarded as mainstream. Instead, the new curriculum (2021) emphasising STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths), has unfortunately resulted in the relegation of the humanities to the margins of the educational system. While there is no disputing the importance of the sciences it seems that unquantifiable, creative components must give way to the more practical and measurable ones. Many primary teachers, aware of this educational imbalance, but ill-equipped to become more involved, and feeling somewhat constrained by

STEM, rely on the contribution of outside experts, from the Heritage in Schools Scheme or invited specialists. Is this a sustainable arrangement? For the sake of balance should this not be looked at again?

Arguably Ireland’s most significant artistic contribution down the ages has been in the form of nature poetry.

From the timeless observations of the early monks to contemporary Heaney.

Are we making the most of this?

Keats and Yeats, Shelley, and Wordsworth, sometimes dismissed as anachronistic romantics, have used the elegance of words to draw the "EVERY LAYER attention of successive generations to an THEY STRIP, appreciation of the natural world. Their SEEMS CAMPED Image-filled poems have the power to ON BEFORE, inspire and engender creative activity THE BOGHOLES among children.

Environmentalists and environmental MIGHT BE educators have a vital role in introducing ATLANTIC children to the world of nature through SEEPAGE, THE science and art - a fieldtrip, for instance, WET CENTRE IS combining an explanation as to how a tree BOTTOMLESS" functions (photosynthesis etc.), with a poem or a brief prose piece. A follow-on Seamus Heaney, session in the classroom might involve the Bogland, 1990 children in some kind of creative exercise – a drawing, a cut-out model showing a section through the tree, or a personalised poem. The Pushkin Pathway programme has shown the viability and worthwhileness of this approach.

In the words of the founder of the Pushkin Trust (sadly no longer with us), ‘…our team of environmentalists have woken the imagination of children to the beauty and enchantment of the world around them, encouraging them to ’come back to their senses’ in ways that bring the world of their inner landscapes into creative relation with the outer world in which we live’ (Sourcing Voices, 2014).

Are we ready for such an enlightened educational approach in the Republic?

"PLEASANT THIS TIME OF YEAR, GONE, WINTER’S FURY; FOREST BRIGHT, PASTURE FRUITFUL, SUMMER JOYOUS, PEACE IMMENSE" Anon. 7th Century

 Paul Seawright in Voices -The Pushkin Trust, Ed Slattery Cannon, H. 2013 Pg 143

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AUTUMN FOCUS

IrishinWoodlands

Autumn "THERE ARE LOTS OF REASONS TO TAKE TO THE OUTDOORS AT THIS TIME OF YEAR AND APPRECIATE THE BEAUTY TO BE FOUND IN OUR NATIVE WOODS"

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Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

By NIALL MAC COITIR

A

s we enter the longer evenings and colder days of autumn, our native Irish woodlands still have many interesting and beautiful things to see. Indeed some believe that autumn is the finest time of year to see Irish woods, when they are ablaze with colour and full of many fruits and nuts. So let’s have a look at some of the better known trees and wild plants that are making a display at this time of year.

The oak (Quercus petraea, Quercus robur, Irish: dair) is the primary tree found in

native Irish woodlands, and in a good year its acorns should be carpeting the forest floor. These provide a valuable source of food for woodland creatures like squirrels and jays. Oak has always been prized for its strong timber which has been used for many things from ships to houses, and as an excellent source of charcoal.

Unfortunately, all of these things mean we now only have a few fragments of native Irish oakwood left. Monasteries and holy sites were often found beside oak trees. For example, Kildare comes from Cill Dara ‘the church of the oak’ and Derry City grew out of the monastery at Doire Colmcille, ‘St. Colmcille’s oakwood’.

AUTUMN FOCUS

 Barna wood, Galway.

Photo: Adobe Stock

The beech (Fagus sylvatica, Irish: feá) is widely found in Irish woods and probably arrived in Ireland with the Normans about the 13th Century. It is native to Britain and the rest of Europe. The prickly seedcases are opening around now to reveal the shiny brown nuts inside, which are also eaten by many woodland creatures.

They are not usually eaten by humans, but the Romans apparently used to grind them down to make cooking oil. Beech wood is also valued as it is an excellent wood for making furniture.

The hazel (Corylus avellana, Irish: coll) is to be found somewhere in virtually every Irish woodland. Its well-known

brown nuts are ripening now and have traditionally been an important source of food for both wildlife and people. In Irish legend the hazel is a tree of wisdom and poetry. Nine magical hazels were said to stand at the source of the river Boyne, and the Salmon of Knowledge got its powers from eating the hazelnuts that fell into the river. This magical power was passed on to the warrior Finn McCool when he ate part of the Salmon.

In some Irish woodlands, especially in the midlands, the spindle (Euonymus europaeus, Irish: feorus) will be coming to the fore. During the rest of the year it is an unremarkable small tree, but in

autumn the spindle draws attention to itself with its brightly coloured orange and pink fruits. These were traditionally used as a purgative, though only for farm animals as it is very strong. Although it is a small tree, spindle wood is hard and tough and was used for making items such as toothpicks and spindles for spinning wheels – hence its name.

Holly (Ilex aquifolium, Irish: cuileann) is a common under-storey tree in our woodlands as its dark evergreen leaves can deal well with shade. In late autumn the distinctive red berries ripen in time for our Christmas decorations, to brighten up the house and symbolise rebirth. The name holly is supposed to come from ‘holy’, on account of the leaves resembling Christ’s Crown of Thorns, and the berries his drops of blood. Holly wood is tough and was traditionally used to make the handles of implements and tools like spades and knives.

Blackberries (Rubus fruticosis, Irish: dris): are a familiar site in every Irish woodland glade, and have been eaten as a food in Europe from the earliest times. A very widespread Irish tradition held that blackberries should not be eaten after Halloween night, because the fairy called the pooka went around on that night spitting on the fruit. This is of course a good way to stopping children from eating the fruit, which will be getting rotten that late in autumn.

Ivy (Hedera Helix, Irish: Eidhneán) is just coming into flower now and its small green flowers will keep flowering until November.

Although they are not very eye-catching, the flowers are a very useful source of food for bees at a time when virtually nothing else is in bloom. In Classical medicine ivy was believed to overcome the effects of intoxication, however, in folk medicine in Ireland and Britain, ivy had the more mundane use of curing corns, usually by using the leaves in a poultice.

These are just some of the trees and wild plants that can be seen in our Irish woodlands as autumn arrives. There are many others, like the arum lily or cuckoo pint (Arum maculatum, Irish: Cluas Chaoin), whose bright red, but poisonous berries are poking up now from the woodland floor. Autumn is also the time when many fungi appear in our woods, and while some may provide a delicious meal others can be deadly, so be sure to know what you are picking! So there are lots of reasons to take to the outdoors at this time of year and appreciate the beauty to be found in our native woods.

Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

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ANNE SUNDERMANN

THE CAMCOR

below the waterline 26

Irish Wildlife Autumn 2023

ANNE SUNDERMANN  Scenic view of the river stream, footbridge and colorful riverside

plants, Birr Castle. Photo: iStockphoto

 Camcor: The River of Birr by John Feehan

"CAMCOR GIVES AN IN-DEPTH HISTORY OF THE RIVER’S PRESENCE IN — AND EFFECT ON — THE COMMUNITIES IN THE CATCHMENT"

“Many people know their stretch of their local river, but John Feehan presents the entire Camcor catchment, and he gives the added dimension of the evolution of the river and the landscape over the centuries, providing an invaluable insight and detail about our human interaction through these years.”

Camcor gives an in-depth history of the river’s presence in — and effect on — the communities in the catchment.

Feehan draws on natural history to develop a compelling portrait of the Camcor below the waterline, as well.

By ANNE SUNDERMANN

T

umbling from the mountain glens of the Slieve Blooms, through the distilleries and mill towns, to its junction with the Little Brosna at Birr Demesne, the Camcor River flows through many Midlands landscapes and habitats. It is an important sub-tributary of the Shannon, Ireland’s longest waterway.

Author John Feehan recently published a comprehensive look at this waterway in Camcor: The River of Birr (ISBN 978-1-9163287-8-5; Offaly County Council, 2022).

County Offaly Heritage Officer Amanda Pedlow notes,

A SPATE RIVER With its hillside origins, the Camcor is known as a ‘spate’ river: defined as “a sudden flood or rush, an outpouring,” fed from rainwater as opposed to groundwater or springs.

As such, the Camcor is prone to abruptly rising and falling waters that move— in cycles of erosion and deposition—a cargo of debris, till, and gravel that make up much of the Camcor substrate. Once the river’s mountain incline settles into the lowland meanders and flats, it features less turbulent stretches of riffles, glides, and pools as it moves downstream to Birr.

The features of any river determine the creatures that will thrive in its waters. As the eroded material settles to the riverbed, it creates a habitat for a hardy assemblage of worms, leeches, freshwater shellfish and molluscs that can live in those turbulent waters. The deposits in the gravel river bottom provides a more benign habitat for species that live within the substrate, such as burrowing mayfly, caddis fly, and Chironomid midge larvae; molluscs; and arthropods.

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ANNE SUNDERMANN  Mayfly emerges early in the season.

Photo by iStockphoto

 Brown Trout, salmo trutta fario, Group of

Juveniles. Photo by iStockphoto

FUTURE PROJECTS ON THE CAMCOR

NATIVE FISH Many of these creatures provide sustenance for local salmon and trout, including the native croneen, a brown trout found in the Camcor. The immature croneen, or parr, spends its first two years in the Camcor before swimming downstream to Lough Derg. At maturity (i.e., three years), the fish migrates into the Little Brosna and ultimately the Camcor to spawn.

A 2017 Inland Fisheries Ireland conference noted that there is a “high level of genetic diversity in brown trout populations evident from all catchments studied,” and that there were at least 40 genetic groupings in the Lough Derg catchment, which includes the croneen population. The Camcor is a Wild Trout Conservation Area, with catch and release practices in place.

A BLUE DOT FOR THE CAMCOR An August 2021's assessment notes that a stretch of the Camcor is one of two high environmental status waterways in the lower Shannon River basin and is achieving High Status. All other reaches of the Camcor are considered ‘Good” quality, are not at risk, and are under consideration for protection by local authorities. An important stretch of the river flows through Kinnitty Castle and is one of fewer waterbodies in Ireland awarded Blue Dot status by EPA for water quality indicating pristine ecological conditions.

Unfortunately flooding has taken a toll over the history of the river. Arterial drainage schemes, popular in the last two 28

Irish Wildlife Autumn 2023

"AN IMPORTANT STRETCH OF THE RIVER FLOWS THROUGH KINNITTY CASTLE AND IS ONE OF FEWER WATERBODIES IN IRELAND AWARDED BLUE DOT STATUS

BY EPA"

There are many projects and events centred around the Camcor, including restoration of natural meanders to previously channelised areas near Birr. The project will improve riverbank erosion and decrease potential flooding. In addition: • Over the past 5 years, consultants have worked to remove Himalayan balsam from the Camcor River banks. In 2023, the focus is on a couple of dense patches and maintenance along much of the length of the river. To date this is the only river in Offaly that has this invasive species.

• A Heritage Week event in Kinnitty will discussed the Camcor River and the designation of the Blue Dot for water quality • Syngefield Demesne is on the edge of Birr town and sweeps down to the Camcor River. Eight hectares is being managed for biodiversity. A 2023 Heritage Week walk at Syngefield featured this projects.

centuries, channelised and dredged the Camcor, destroying many of the spawning grounds for salmon and trout. Dredge spoils covered over riparian buffers, and degraded marshes and other habitats along the banks for the river.

Despite the high quality of the water in the upper reaches of the catchment,

impairments include excessive siltation and bank erosion, likely impacts from forestry and unrestricted livestock access.

In the lower reaches of the Camcor, excessive siltation and increased compaction of the river bed substrate reduced habitat availability for sensitive macroinvertebrate species.

NATURE & ART

Torc Alta

By BRIAN DUIGAN

T Illustration by Brian Duignan

orc Alta (wild boar) is inspired by an Irish mythological story I told my two boys at bedtime one night. The pursuit of Diarmud & Gráinne. The Boar is an old Celtic & European symbol of strength and fertility. It would have been commonly used to display leadership in an army as it was also a symbol of courage and aggression.

The Boar was once commonly hunted and appears frequently in Irish mythology (like the pursuit of Diarmud & Gráinne).

Killing a boar was an act of valour, skill and strength. Their meat is associated with high prestige and commonly seen in rituals or with sovereignty. Funnily enough it is also the name of Celtic cloak clasp/ necklace which was also associated with high social stature.

Brian studied fine art in NCAD, Ecole des Beaux Art and TU Dublin. Originally from Dublin he lives in Wicklow with his wife and two young boys. His art explores the multifaceted aspects of our lives and the various roles we play. With many small pieces forming the bigger picture.

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SANCTUARY IN NATURE

 Seventy seven guests from seven countries of origin, outside the Sonairte

National Ecology Centre EcoShop after an excursion to Skerries in 2022.

Refugees finding sanctuary in

NATURE HERITAGE S and

By PADDY WOODWORTH and MUHAMMAD ACHOUR

By PADDY WOODWORTH and MUHAMMAD ACHOUR

 Stephanie Kirwan of Meath Partnership leads a story-telling

workshop on inclusion and identity in Sonairte’s heritage orchard

 A walk through the Porchfields area beside the Boyne, enjoying summer wildflowers and exploring medieval architecture, July 2022

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Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

anctuary in Nature & Heritage offers opportunities to migrants, refugees and asylum seekers to enjoy Irish wildlife, landscapes and built heritage, and to share their stories of nature and heritage in their own countries with Irish people.

We seek to use the natural world, and historical built heritage sites, both as a meeting point for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants and Irish people, and as a refuge from the stress and tedium often inherent in the predicament of those in Direct Provision.

There is compelling evidence worldwide that direct contact with nature is vital for physical and mental health, and that engagement with local historical and cultural heritage assists immigrants to understand the society in which they have come to live. It is also clear that pleasurable informal contacts between immigrants and citizens breaks down barriers, dissolves fears, resolves misunderstandings and contributes to building a vibrant society that is both diverse and harmonious.

Our encounters also create channels to discuss global, national and local issues relating to sustainable living, and the climate and biodiversity crises, and meets criteria for several

SANCTUARY IN NATURE of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The project was initiated in 2017 as Sanctuary in Nature by environmental writer (and IWT member) Paddy Woodworth, inspired by the Sanctuary movement, and within the framework of the Dublin City of Sanctuary committee, which provided the initial nucleus of Irish volunteer participants.

The project developed a partnership with Sonairte, the National Ecology Centre, and also received invaluable support from Meath Partnership, the Heritage Council, the Fingal Branch of BirdWatch Ireland, the OPW, nature and heritage writers Zoe Devlin, Michael Fewer and Aidan Heron, the artist Garrett Phelan, the chef Abraham Phelan, and three county councils: Meath, Fingal and Dublin. It has twice been funded by the Dept of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth under the Community Integration Fund.

The Syrian architect Muhammad Achour, himself a migrant who arrived in Ireland in 2015 through the Syrian Humanitarian Admission Programme, was an active participant and volunteer from an early stage. In 2019, he suggested to Paddy Woodworth that excursions should include historic built heritage as well as natural sites. He suggested a visit to Castletown House in Co Kildare. The OPW staff kindly guided us around the magnificent building, and Paddy led a walk along the banks of the Liffey in the Castletown Estate.

Our nature walks and heritage visits do not set out to be specialist, or information heavy, but we try to provide our guests with as much – or as little – detail about birds, plants, buildings and history as they themselves want, and language differences permit. So we are not likely to be distinguishing willow warblers and chiffchaffs, but we will be pointing out flocks of winter waterfowl and waders.

And specialists have had a role on our excursions. On a visit to Newgrange, the archaeologist (and BirdWatch member) Frank Prendergast greatly enriched the trip with his deep but accessible account of the ancient monuments. On a trip to the estuary of the Nanny river, at Sonairte, Barney Johnson, also of Fingal, gave an illustrated talk on the estuaries birds, and then led us down to see them.

The trip to Castletown was a big success, and at that point Paddy invited Muhammad to join him as co-organiser, and we changed the name to Sanctuary in Nature & Heritage.

Because we see the project as an exchange between equals, we also stress the opportunity it gives participants to inform

 Volunteers and

collaborators after a visit to Christ Church Cathedral and Liffeyside birdwatching in 2021: Andrew Lynch, BirdWatchIreland; Lorcan Scott, the Heritage Council; Mike Finn, Playwright; Muhammad Achour, Co-director of Sanctuary in Nature & Heritage: Kate Kavanagh, art workshop facilitator; Tian Yu Lloyd, Dublin City of Sanctuary; Rev Abigail Sines, Christ Church Cathedral of Sanctuary.

 Kate Kavanagh leads a nature

artworkshop, March 2022

"WE ARE CURRENTLY INVITING PEOPLE TO ESTABLISH SELFORGANISING SANCTUARY IN NATURE AND HERITAGE GROUPS IN AT LEAST THREE COUNTIES, WICKLOW, GALWAY AND CORK"

A young guest looking at flowers, and an impromptu gallery of trees drawn from nature, at the National Botanic Gardens, May 2023

Irish people about nature and heritage in their home countries. A very important by-product is the informal socialisation between individuals and small groups over meals and while walking.

We have organised 22 excursions up to August 2023, ranging from local nature walks around Mosney to visits to Sonairte, the Bull Island and Turvey Nature Reserves, the Hide Project at Rogerstown, Castletown House and Ardgillan Castle and Desmesne, Causey Farm and Girley Bog, the Boyne Heritage Centre, Lullymore Heritage and Discovery Park, the Irish Peatlands Conservation Council Centre, and medieval monuments and nature trails at Trim.

These events have attracted more than 200 adults and children from Syria, Albania, Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Mongolia.

We have had the support of a group of some 20 Irish and ‘new Irish’ volunteers. Up to now we have focused mainly, but not exclusively, on residents and ex-residents of Mosney Direct Provision Centre.

We are currently inviting people to establish self-organising Sanctuary in Nature and Heritage groups in at least three counties, Wicklow, Galway and Cork. We are able to do this thanks to a generous capacity building grant from the Heritage Council. Muhammad is working on this expansion project full-time until mid-November, offering information days and participation in an excursion. To learn more, please contact us at natureheritage@ireland.cityofsanctuary.org.

You can also find more information on https://www.facebook.com/SanctuaryInNature And a video funded by the Heritage Council: https://youtu. be/Bk37tWv_hWk Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

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PESTICIDES

PESTICIDES applied in AGRICULTURE P

By DR ELENA ZIOGA

esticides play a central role in modern agriculture by safeguarding crops and contributing to global food security. They are chemicals designed to control or eliminate pests, including insects, plants, and fungi, that can damage crops and decrease crop yields. Pesticides are classified as insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides respectively.

Pesticide use in agriculture has significantly increased over the past century due "INSECT to the expansion of intensive farming POLLINATORS PLAY practices and the desire to maximize A CRUCIAL ROLE IN crop yields. However, this excessive CROP POLLINATION and sometimes indiscriminate use of AND IN MAINTAINING pesticides has raised concerns about their potential negative impacts on PLANT DIVERSITY" human health and the environment.

Some pesticides can stay present in the environment for several months or years, leading to long-term exposure with potential impacts on ecosystem and human health.

Prolonged or excessive exposure to pesticides has been associated with various human health issues, including respiratory problems, neurological disorders, and certain types of cancer. Certain populations, such as farmers, agricultural workers, residents close to agricultural areas and vulnerable groups like children and pregnant women, may be more susceptible to the negative effects of pesticide exposure.

Pesticide chemicals can also have unintended

32

Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

consequences on the environment as they may harm other organisms, including natural enemies of crop pests, and pollinators like bees, butterflies, and other insects. Insect pollinators play a crucial role in crop pollination and in maintaining plant diversity. Pesticides may reduce insect pollinator’s lifespans, compromise their immune systems, and decrease their reproductive success. This leads to a decline in populations with potentially negative impacts on agricultural productivity.

EVIDENCE OF PESTICIDES IN POLLINATOR’S FOOD Residues of pesticides can be detected in various parts of flowering plants, including in the pollen and nectar, which are a vital food source for bees and other pollinators. When pollinators visit these contaminated floral resources, they can unintentionally consume pesticide residues along with their food. This poses a direct risk to pollinators, as they may be exposed to lethal doses of pesticides over time (Figure 1).

Because pesticides may negatively impact bees, a research was performed by Dr Elena Zioga (Trinity College Dublin), and Professors Jane Stout (Trinity College Dublin) and Blánaid White (Dublin City University) (https://doi.org/10.1016/j. scitotenv.2023.162971), to study what levels of pesticide bees are exposed to in the Irish agricultural environment. Samples were taken from ten oilseed rape crop fields in Southeast Ireland during 2019

PESTICIDES and examined for pesticide residues in pollen and nectar of both crops and wild flowers (brambles) growing near those crops.

Pesticide residues were found in all the fields, and wild flowers near the crops were also contaminated in the majority of the fields (80%).

This means there is a high chance that bee pollinators will encounter pesticides when foraging for food, and more often they will encounter mixtures of more than one pesticide type. Worryingly, some pesticides were found in fields where they hadn’t been sprayed, which leads to a potentially widespread, prolonged exposure, and in some cases to pesticides no longer approved for use within the European Union. Therefore, there are potential long-term risks to pollinators, and given some pesticides are highly mobile through water and air, they may reach areas beyond where they were applied.

Finding a mix of pesticides was more the rule rather than the exception and this intensifies the need for a more complex regulatory approach to pollinator protection, which considers pesticide mixes. Overall, residues of certain pesticides were higher when sample collection was performed soon after the spraying event. This is rather good news as it shows that exposure to pesticides decreases over time for most pesticides.

HOW CAN WE PROTECT POLLINATORS? The negative impacts of pesticides on pollinators highlight the need for sustainable farming practices that minimize pesticide use and prioritize the conservation of pollinator habitats. Encouraging

"PROTECTING POLLINATORS IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE FOR CONSERVING BIODIVERSITY, ENSURING ROBUST AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS, AND SAFEGUARDING FOOD SECURITY"

the use of Integrated Pest Management practices, which aim to minimize pesticide use and prioritize non-chemical pest control strategies, is essential.

Integrated Pest Management practices combines various approaches, such as encouraging natural enemies of crop pests for biological control, crop rotation, and cultural practices, to manage pests effectively while minimizing harm to beneficial organisms like pollinators.

Moreover, supporting organic farming practices and organic products removes reliance on synthetic pesticides and encourages the use of environmentally friendly pest control methods.

However, non-synthetic pesticides can still be used in organic systems.

Maintaining and increasing the establishment of pollinator-friendly habitats, such as wildflower meadows, hedgerows, or flowering plants in your own garden or community spaces, while avoiding or minimizing the use of pesticides in those areas would be ideal for helping pollinator populations.

See www.pollinators.ie for more guidelines on encouraging pollinators.

Protecting pollinators is of utmost importance for conserving biodiversity, ensuring robust agricultural systems, and safeguarding food security. By promoting pollinator-friendly approaches and raising awareness about the importance of these vital species, we can work towards a healthier and more sustainable environment for both pollinators and humans alike.

The research was part of PROTECTS project (https:// protects.ucd.ie/) and was funded by the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine.

 Figure 1: Pesticide movement in an agricultural field, contamination of pollen and nectar and bee exposure.

Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

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PHOTO OF THE MONTH

IWT PHOTOS OF THE MONTH

1

2

1.

3

Common Lizard by Marie O Sullivan

2. Sleeping foxes by Padraig Barron 3. Common Blue by Jim Kenny 4. Quack of Dawn by Anne Marie Mockler 5. Hoverfly by Kieran Near y 6. Forest Fungai by Sharon Foley 7. Ladybird feeding on aphids by Ger Connel 34

Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

PHOTO OF THE MONTH 4

5

6

5

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Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

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COMPETITION

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

We have three copies of ‘The language of Trees’ and five T-shirts to give away

The Language of Trees

by Katie Holtenun A stunning international collaboration that reveals how trees make our world, change our minds and rewild our lives – from root to branch to seed.

Holten guides us on a journey from prehistoric cave paintings and creation myths to the death of a 3,500 year-old cypress tree, from Tree Clocks in Mongolia and forest fragments in the Amazon to the language of fossil poetry.

In doing so, she unearths a new way of seeing the natural beauty that surrounds us and creates an urgent reminder of what could happen if we allow it to slip away.

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.

To win one of these great prizes just answer this question: What’s the name of the new period of time proposed by geologists to define the era of significant human impacts on the global environment?

The answer is somewhere in this issue!

Send your answer, name, address and prize preference (a book OR a t-shirt - if you choose the t-shirt, tell us the size, colour and design preference) to magazinecomp@iwt.ie by 31st October.

You can view our t-shirt selection on https://iwtclothing.com/ 36

Irish Wildlife Autumn ‘23

Introducing the new Irish Wildlife Trust membership card.

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 2023.

Membership Card 2023

Individual members, please fill in your full name. Family members, please fill in your family name. Card valid until end of 2023.

The Badger Club

Our Junior IWT Membership subscription

€15 Only

r

per yea

Join the Badger Club to receive our quarterly Junior Magazine Full of fun facts and features about nature PLUS an A3 poster each issue