The State is to spend over €130,000 this year to halt and reverse the decline of breeding wader birds in the Shannon Callows.

A SERIES of wet summers has impaired the growth of wild flowers in wetland areas along the River Shannon, according to recent research.

WE’VE been running out of national superlatives here in Ireland in recent years: we’re no longer the richest/fastest-growing/youngest/friendliest and more island, ever since our economic bubble inflated and burst its banks.

A BIRD in the hand is worth... €382,000 actually.

FARMERS say the imposition of planning laws on the draining of land is “bureaucracy gone mad” and an assault on property rights.

THE battle to save the endangered corncrake from extinction received a major boost last year with the first increase in numbers since 2005.

THE wild and factually incorrect assertions by Roderic O’Sullivan (Letters, May 31) show a complete failure to recognise the efforts by farmers to enhance the rural environment.

ENVIRONMENTAL maintenance works to ease summer flooding which is having a serious impact on farming and habitats in the Shannon Callows region is to begin shortly, Minister of State Tom Parlon has announced.

A PILOT scheme to help relieve summer flooding along the Shannon Callows in the West of Ireland is to be examined.

FARMERS are hoping for a dramatic improvement in the weather so that thousands of acres of flooded land can return to something near normal conditions.