Heath-bog habitat protection for endangered Hen Harrier

The blanket ban on planting forestry in certain areas important to the survival of the endangered hen harrier has been lifted (March 2007). Instead, the Government has established a new forestry management protocol for the forestry and farming groups who had objected to the ban.

Under the protocol, six Special Protection Areas (SPA), important to the hen harrier, have been designated. In these, limited sustainable and quota-based afforestation will be allowed . It is thought that this will facilitate the protection and enhancement of the hen harrier's preferred habitat, including heath and bog. The National Parks and Wildlife Service will monitor the protocol's impact on habitat.

The Special Protection Areas include the:

• Slieve Bloom mountains (Laois and Offaly);
• Stack's to Mullaghareirk mountains, West Limerick hills and Mount Eagle (Cork, Kerry and Limerick);
• Mullaghanish to Musheramore (Cork);
• Slieve Felim to Silvermines (Limerick and Tipperary);
• Slieve Beagh (Monaghan) and
• Slieve Aughty mountains (Clare and Galway).

Read more:

• UCC research project: Optimum scenarios for Hen Harrier conservation in Ireland
• Bird net: Related news, hen harrier information and controversy over new SPAs
• Coillte's Biodiversity Action Plan for the Hen Harrier
  
  

Europe’s first Marine Nature Reserve

Lough Hyne, south west of Skibereen in West Cork, was designated Europe’s first Marine Nature Reserve in 1981, thus also making it Ireland’s first Marine Nature Reserve.

This marine lake is both unusual and important due to its extraordinary diversity of species in its relatively small area – over 1000 species in less than 1 sq km. Some of its plants and animals are more commonly found in the deeper ocean. Others are historically of Mediterranean origin. The site contains several rare species including two fish; the Red-mouthed Goby and Couch’s Goby and two sea slug. One of these sea slugs, the 2cm long Facelina dubia, is only found in Lough Hyne, the Mediterranean and one site in the Bay of Biscay.

Lough Hyne’s biodiversity is partly due to its variety of habitats – including cliffs, boulders, gravel and mud slopes which experience varying exposure to waves and tidal currents. The average depth of water is around 25 metres increasing to 45 metres in places. It is fed from the sea by a narrow tidal channel known as 'The Rapids'.

• Find out about the Lough Hyne Interpretative Centre


• Research at Lough Hyne

Book: Images of Irish Nature

By photographer Mike Brown, self-published, November 2006. Available in Easons.
According to an Irish Times review, this book is "full of images of dimensions of nature that happen so quickly we rarely get a chance to observe them properly". Many of the photos were taken in Counties Cork and Kerry between 2004 and 2006. His subjects include foxes, the wood white butterfly, basking shark, whitethroat, convolvulus hawkmoth, cuckoo pint plant, otter and hen harrier.
This follows Mike Brown's first book 'Ireland's Wildlife' published in 2004, and his subsequent involvement in RTÉ's Wild Trial series which, with varying degrees of success, challenged Irish personalities to master the art of wildlife photography.