The first 80 farmers, with 4,134 hectares designated for breeding hen harrier, have been selected from expressions of interest submitted in December.

A dispute over a planned new Aldi supermarket in Laytown, Co Meath, has come before the High Court.

A POD of bottlenose dolphins, which many people believed were confined to the lower reaches of the Shannon Estuary, have been found up to 30km outside that range, a new study shows.

US President-elect Donald Trump has pulled plans for one of his walls - a barrier to stop the Atlantic battering his exclusive golf resort on Ireland's west coast.

A company that formed part of the consortium that introduced Eircode has denied that a new delivery code it has offered the courier industry is an alternative to the controversial postcode system.

Independent TD, Michael Fitzmaurice’s criticism of President Michael D Higgins (Irish Examiner, January 7) for his work in transposing the EU Habitats Directives into Irish law, in 1997, which he claims is impeding efforts to dredge the rivers, is typical hot air as the elections near.

A scheme that has paid Burren farmers over €2.1m in the past five years to create the conditions for rare and wild flowers to prosper is set to be extended.

A mother is launching a legal battle for possession of her dead daughter’s frozen eggs so that she can become pregnant with her own grandchild.

An Bord Pleanála has given the go-ahead for contentious plans for a whiskey distillery in the Burren.

A political row has flared over a long-running programme to stop the spread of the invasive rhododendron plant in one of the country’s prime tourist attractions.

AS people tuck into mountains of smoked salmon — most of which is the farmed variety — over the festive season, the wild Atlantic salmon will continue its long battle for survival.

GET the point? It might cost you a bit, but West Cork’s €1.5m Drishane Point is a sort of place apart, while also anchored to a Special Area of Conservation, near famed marine lake Lough Hyne.

Arts and Heritage Minister Jimmy Deenihan last night said progress was being made in resolving the vexed, illegal turf-cutting row.

Protection of dolphins and other wildlife was among the key conditions under which planning permission was recently granted for a combined heat and power plant on the Shannon Estuary.

THE vast majority of children view wildlife on television, before they see it in reality. But there’s still something magical about the moment a child sees for the first time an animal up close and which they also love to touch, if possible.

SOME angler friends tell us they are seeing otters in rivers where they have been very scarce, if observed at all, for many years.

An environmental lobby is to appeal the granting of 34 aquaculture licences in a Kerry harbour designated as a special area of conservation.

SAC Capital Advisors, the hedge fund firm founded by Steven Cohen, owes Elan shareholders at least $685.6m (€533.3m) as a result of alleged insider trades in the drugmaker’s stock, investors said in a lawsuit.

The Department of the Environment has taken the unprecedented move of directing a local authority to reverse a rezoning due to concerns over a roost of rare and protected species of bats.

Amendments to the EU-funded Disadvantaged Area Scheme could see thousands of hard-pressed Irish farmers excluded from payments, farm groups have cautioned.

A 2012 AEOS scheme which farmers can apply for before the end of September is the objective of Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney.

The unusual circumstances causing the recent death of four cattle from toxic gas produced by a slurry store has caused the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) to issue a hazard warning to farmers.

God loves a trier and on the salmon season’s opening day last Wednesday Peter Wolstenholme hooked the first salmon of the 2012 season on the Bandon Salmon & Trout Anglers club waters.

A TRAINING programme was rolled out this week to the farmers in The Burren in County Clare who are participating in the BFCP (Burren Farming for Conservation Programme) scheme.

FARMERS can repair stone walls, maintain hedgerows for cross compliance, and remove post and wire fencing without permission from the Department of Agriculture, according to the Department’s guidance document.

A BREAKTHROUGH has been achieved in the battle to save one of Ireland’s protected fish species, the sea lamprey.

ARTS, Heritage and Gaeltacht Minister Jimmy Deenihan has said the Shannon estuary will not be “frozen for development” in spite of the estuary being designated a Special Protection Area (SPA) for birds.

YOUR report of last week’s meeting of Kerry County Council treated us to a re-run of the ‘environmentalist and the snail’ story (Snail blamed for delays to Cork-Kerry road plan, June 22). We were told a judicial review on behalf of the snail by “environmentalists” was holding up the road.

A MOVE to demolish buildings containing popular seaweed baths in Ballybunion, Co Kerry, has been turned down by An Bord Pleanála.

THE money spent on renovating a derelict house and the construction of an underground chamber to protect bats at Coole Park along the route of the next phase of the Atlantic Corridor is to come to €90,000.

THE chairman of the Green Party has admitted people living along the shoreline of Cork harbour may have concerns about eight proposed wind turbines which could be as high as 139 metres.

BUSINESS people in Kerry were yesterday urged to get behind a campaign to build a golf links, projected to create 65 jobs.

THE European Commission approved a grant last week towards restoration of water quality in the Upper Blackwater in Co Cork.

THE Environment Department will provide funding for fuel costs next winter of up to 750 people who must stop harvesting turf on protected nature habitats.

BUDGETARY constraints have led the Department of the Environment to curtail the Farm Plan Scheme run by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

I AM writing to object to the proposed M20 motorway.

A DEFENCE solicitor used a woman’s Facebook posts to help clear his dentist client of sexual assault.

APPLICANTS with commonage or Natura land (designated Special Protection Areas, Special Areas of Conservations) will have a higher priority for acceptance into the Agri-environment Options Scheme (AEOS).