A helping hand for wildlife habitats

DOOR-TO-DOOR canvassing is a great eye-opener, you might even say an education, for politicians in regard to changes in the countryside.

Nearly every TD, potential TD and canvasser I met during the election campaign commented on huge changes in the landscape and in the streetscape of towns and villages since they last wore out their shoe leather in the quest for votes, five years ago.

Where they remembered green fields, one-off houses, sometimes estates, had mushroomed. New shops, American-style, glass-walled car salesrooms and sprawling retail units were also in evidence. All signs of the economic boom, they noted.

There’s also been a noticeable growth of villages within commuting distances of cities such as Cork, Limerick and Galway and larger towns.

A fit-looking Arts, Sport and Tourism Minister John O’Donoghue, who lost a stone-and-a-half in weight because of the rigours of his campaign, observed new housing estates in every town in his Kerry constituency.

“There are about eight new estates in Milltown alone. This is quite a small village which has expanded massively,” he said.

Some local authorities, including Kerry County Council, are drafting policies for village growth. The idea is to encourage people to move into existing settlements rather than build one-off houses in the countryside.

While some villages have expanded almost beyond recognition, others have been left behind and have actually suffered a population drop. New housing is seen as a means of reinvigorating declining villages.

Candidates also heard a good deal about the plight of farmers, many more of whom have given up on a way of life their families had been involved in for generations.

Since 2002 a lot of farmyards have been locked up. Places that echoed to the sounds of animals and the hum of machines have fallen silent. Many traditional farmers are looking at other ways of earning a crust from the land.

Last Tuesday was International Biodiversity Day, which marked the important work taking place on thousands of farms in regard to nature and wildlife.

Almost 60,000 farmers are taking part in the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS), which is helping to improve our native flora, fauna and habitats.

Teagasc countryside management specialist Catherine Keena said: “Everywhere on a farm is a habitat. A field of ryegrass or corn contains a small number of species. A hedgerow contains hundreds. Good habitats include field margins, native woodland, bogs and species rich grassland. Flora and fauna are adapted to live in different habitats.”

Hedgerow management dominates the options chosen in REPS with 28,648 farmers planting new, or rejuvenating old hedgerows. Something like 4,470kms of new native Irish hedgerows will be planted on 14,900 farms throughout every parish in Ireland in the next few years making it the largest planting in 200 years.

A further 2,650kms of our existing hedgerow will be rejuvenated.

A new habitat is being created on 14,913 farms. Additional stone wall maintenance is being carried out on 6,178 farms. Almost 50 are involved in projects to save the endangered corncrake. Candidates also observed a lot of needless destruction and a total disregard by developers for the environment and communities.

With a new government about to enter office, Heritage Council chief executive Michael Starrett has made a timely call for laws to protect our landscape before it is too late.

“At a European level, all countries bar Ireland have legislation dedicated to conservation, management and development of landscapes. Why not us?” he asked. He suggested our landscape was paid little or no respect.

“We rightly change and use our landscapes for a plethora of economic reasons, yet, no specific connection seems to be made between those economic values and the environmental and health values of our landscapes. There are lots of agencies and individuals doing lots in the landscape and, yet, the connections between them all from a landscape perspective are just not being made.”