Fern stops bypass!

mike65

Agh! Here we go again! The N25 Dungarvan outer bypass is on-hold due to the discovery of a "rare" fern The Killarney Fern

A €150,0000 study of a rare fern is delaying a final decision being reached on the preferred route for Dungarvan’s 7km long outer bypass for a year.

The year-old study of the protected Killarney Fern’s habitat in the Glendine Valley near Dungarvan is underway to establish whether building the bypass along any of the land corridors through the valley would endanger the plant’s survival in the area.

The study began last month and will take until September to complete. According to County Engineer John O’Flynn, the selection of the preferred route for the bypass can’t be finalised until the outcome of the study is known.

“The difficulty with this is that people living along the various routes or who want to get planning permission for developments in these areas are currently left high and dry for another year until a final decision is made. That is unsatisfactory and I have a lot of sympathy for them,” he said. A preferred route for the bypass, which runs roughly parallel to the Military Road and is not a habitat for the fern, was provisionally selected last year.

The Council discounted several land corridors that were home to the fern because it believed the bypass would be blocked by a legal challenge if one of them was chosen.

But the preferred route that was selected in 2003 sparked outcry among local public representatives because it was estimated the route would cost an estimated €9m more than if the route was located along any of the land corridors that are home to the Killarney Fern.

Fianna Fail TD Ollie Wilkinson told a Co. Council meeting at the time that the situation was “ludicrous” and declared it was hard to imagine that when finances were scarce millions of extra money had to be spent on a road because of a fern. Mr O’Flynn said the land corridors where the fern grows were better options for the bypass route on engineering grounds as well as economic grounds.

In view of this, Council officials met with Duchas, the Heritage Service, in February to find out if there was any way the road could be built through the valley without endangering the fern’s habitat or whether measures could be put in place to lessen the road’s impact on the plant. Duchas, which had objected to the bypass crossing the fern’s habitat, proposed that a study be carried out on the fern’s habitat that would last a year so that the plant’s full life cycle over all the seasonal weather changes could be monitored.

“We have now commissioned that study and the National Roads Authority has given funding for it,” Mr. Flynn told the Waterford News & Star.

He pointed out that if the study clearly established well before next September that the bypass couldn’t be routed along any of the land corridors through the Glendine Valley it would be abandoned before its deadline and the Council would stick with the original preferred route selected last year.

• The Dungarvan area is one of only ten sites in Ireland where the Killarney Fern grows.

• It’s the only location in Co. Waterford where the rare plant is to be found.

• The largest population of the fern is found in Kerry where it grows in three sites in the county.

• It is also found in single sites in counties Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Carlow, Sligo and Antrim.

• Environmental consultants have advised Waterford Co. Council that the fern is not a fern that can be relocated to a different area.

Mike.