WE HEAR a lot these days about a condition known as nature deficit disorder — the ill effects on children resulting from lack of direct contact with the natural world — while at the same time there were never more school programmes on the environment, writes Donal Hickey.

AN elderly nun of our acquaintance, long since living overseas, likes to whimsically recall the days when she could look out the front door of her old home and watch geese in the bog below, writes Donal Hickey

THERE’S an old saying about people whose word is dodgy — that they’d promise you blackberries for Christmas.

Let’s start the early days of 2016 on a positive note. There’s still hope for nature — if it’s only given chance. And, it can get on fine without humans.

ONE of the first jobs Bord na Móna had to do prior to the commencement of commercial turfcutting, in the 1930s, was to drain the bogs. Now, there are calls to reverse the process and to “rewet” bogs as part of a process to combat the effects of climate change.

The latest technology is being used to learn more about the vulnerable bass species in Irish waters. Bass in Cork Harbour have been fitted with tags to help determine where and how they spawn.