Report Cover Vol I - Clare County Library

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The County Clare Wetlands Survey Patrick Crushell & Peter Foss 2008 ____________________________________________________________________________________ 7.6 Damage to County Clare wetlands The majority of, if not all, Irish wetland sites have been subject to some degree of human damage or modification from their natural state in the past, and continue to be threatened by such activities. Wetlands, and bog, fen and marsh areas in particular have historically been regarded as less productive than adjacent agricultural land and measures have been taken to ‘improve’ their quality for agriculture. The principal method of land improvement has usually involved some form of drainage, burning clearance or addition of nutrients so as to facilitate the removal of peat, the planting of trees, or the creation of new grazing areas, pasture or farmland. In addition, a more recent trend has been the use of wetlands as areas to illegally dispose of rubbish and landfill materials. Reclamation and drainage works are an ongoing agricultural management tool which affect the hydrological condition of wetland habitats. During the course of the CWS, past and existing damage to wetlands were noted when these were reported in third party reports, surveys and data sources, and an overall assessment of the severity was undertaken where data was provided. The scale for the severity of damage used was: Not serious; Serious; Very Serious and Unknown. The damaging operation (based on the list of damaging operations recorded as part of the NHA surveys by NPWS (Lockhart et al. 1993), and the main habitats likely to be affected are detailed in Table 7.5 below. This list of damaging operations on wetlands is by no means exhaustive (i.e. wind farm developments and their impact on upland bog and wet heath areas are not included) and might be expanded in the future should a detailed survey of damage to wetland sites be undertaken or based on the results of field surveys. Although insufficient time was available to undertake any detailed aerial photographic survey to record damage on sites recorded in the CWS, published reports indicate that 28 of the sites recorded in the CWS site database (see CWS Site Database on the report CD) were being damaged. It was clear from the GIS survey that extensive damage has been caused to the Clare wetland resource by past planting of conifers in upland bog areas, peat cutting throughout the bog areas and drainage activities across most wetland types. It is likely that the final number of sites being negatively affected by damaging activities will be much higher, as the 2008 NPWS report on the conservation status of EU Habitat Directive sites in Ireland (NPWS 2008), many of which are wetlands, found that the conservation status of these habitats is far from satisfactory. In fact the overall assessment for wetland habitat types listed under the EU Habitats Directive (see Appendix 6a) found that only 4 habitats were in favourable conservation status, while 7 were poor and 16 habitat types were deemed to have a bad conservation status overall. Included in the latter bad conservation status category were priority habitats such as Lagoons, Calcareous springs, Raised bogs, Blanket bogs, Rich fens and Wet woodland; while habitats defined as poorly conserved included Dune slacks, Turloughs, Tall herb swamps, Marsh, Bog woodland and Scrub. These habitats account for a significant part of the wetland habitat resource in County Clare. 65
The County Clare Wetlands Survey Patrick Crushell & Peter Foss 2008 ____________________________________________________________________________________ Table 7.5: Damaging operations recorded on sites as part of the CWS. The damaging operations marked with an * are especially associated and likely to impact negatively on wetland sites. Damaging Operation Code Damaging Operation 001 Coastal Infilling or Reclamation * Lagoons, Dune slacks Broad Wetland habitats most at threat from damaging operation 002 Wetland Infilling * Fens, Marsh, Bog, Reed Swamp 003 Agricultural Improvement * Fen, Marsh, Wet Grassland 004 Clearance of scrub * Wet woodland, Bog Woodland 005 Hedgerow removal 006 Felling of native or mixed woodland 007 Drainage * Bogs, Fens, Marsh, Reedbed, Lakes, Wet Grassland 008 Modifications to Watercourses * Rivers, Drainage channels 009 Grazing * Bogs, Lake margins, Fen, Marsh, Reedbed, Turloughs 010 Mowing / Cutting 011 Burning * Wet heath, Bogs 012 Application of Fertilizers * Lakes, Rivers, Turloughs 013 Application of Pesticides 014 Bait Digging 015 Hunting and Fishing * Lakes, Rivers 016 Golfing 017 Camping / Caravaning Lagoons, Dune Slacks 018 Other Recreational 019 Littering 020 Dumping * Bog, Fen, Marsh 021 Building / Civil Engineering 022 Water Polluting Operations * Lakes, Rivers 023 Aquaculture 024 Peat Cutting / Hand * Bogs, Dystrophic lakes 025 Peat Cutting / Mechanical * Bogs, Dystrophic lakes 026 Inland Mineral Extraction 027 Removal of Beach Material * Lagoons, Dune slacks 028 Collection of Biological Material 029 Collection of Geological Material 030 Introduction of Exotic Species 031 Natural Spread of Unwanted Species 032 Afforestation * Bogs, Wet Heaths, Wet Grassland 66
Page 1 and 2:
The County Clare Wetlands Survey 20
Page 3 and 4:
The County Clare Wetlands Survey Pa
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18: The County Clare Wetlands Survey Pa
Page 67: The County Clare Wetlands Survey Pa
Page 103 and 104: Fossitt Classification Level Fossit
Page 105 and 106: Fossitt Classification Level Fossit
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Appendix 8. The County Clare Wetlan
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
show all

Report Cover Vol I - Clare County Library

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?