Gorse fires in Kerry

1squidge

A huge gorse fire in Killarney national park is now under control. It started around 4pm yesterday afternoon. The fire spanned an area of 10kms. Taken from rte.
God knows we have very little protected areas in this country and to have major fires in them during the breeding season is quite devastating.

Rinker

I was thinking the same thing myself this morning looking at a gorse fire on Bray Head. It happens regularly in the Wicklow Uplands too:(

Funsterdelux

Yeah, just head down to West Cork/Kerry February/March most hillsides are on fire. Which if its after the first of March is an offence and should be reported!

johngalway

Put on my farmers hat here We had a lot of deliberately started fires last Spring. No doubt some started by farmers but a lot were started by serial arsonists, two young lads who were seen but not their reg number :rolleyes:

Anyway - getting to my point. Late October to Mid December is the best time to burn gorse, especially creeping/low gorse. That time of year it's much harder for the seeds to germinate. However, this time of year, burn that type of gorse and all that will replace one bush, is ten smaller ones. Kind of defeats the purpose of the idea, at least from an agricultural point of view.

I've seen this where gorse has been burnt late October/Mid December time frame, 99% of what comes up through the burnt out bush is grass or edible material of one shape or another. But, comparing that with some of the sites that were lit in Spring, the vast majority of those sites have hugely increased the individual gorse plant numbers.

Spreading that word, which is true, may be of benefit for everyone.

Traonach

johngalway wrote: »

Put on my farmers hat here We had a lot of deliberately started fires last Spring. No doubt some started by farmers but a lot were started by serial arsonists, two young lads who were seen but not their reg number :rolleyes:

Anyway - getting to my point. Late October to Mid December is the best time to burn gorse, especially creeping/low gorse. That time of year it's much harder for the seeds to germinate. However, this time of year, burn that type of gorse and all that will replace one bush, is ten smaller ones. Kind of defeats the purpose of the idea, at least from an agricultural point of view.

I've seen this where gorse has been burnt late October/Mid December time frame, 99% of what comes up through the burnt out bush is grass or edible material of one shape or another. But, comparing that with some of the sites that were lit in Spring, the vast majority of those sites have hugely increased the individual gorse plant numbers.

Spreading that word, which is true, may be of benefit for everyone.

Or farmers removing scrub in order to maximise their single farm payment.

At present, many farmers’ incomes rely upon EU subsidies (available through the Common Agricultural Policy). One condition of these supports is that land must be maintained for agricultural use. Land that is covered by scrub is not considered to be utilisable for agriculture, so therefore the subsidy that the farmer receives on this land is removed.

From the link:
http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/Publications/eWings/eWingsIssue18March2011/TheBurningIssue/tabid/1175/Default.aspx

johngalway

johngalway wrote: »

may be of benefit for everyone.

Traonach wrote: »

Or farmers removing scrub in order to maximise their single farm payment.

..................................

1squidge

Another Black day.:(:mad: http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0501/donegal.html

johngalway

"Another large fire broke out near Recess in Connemara and is causing extensive damage in the Lough Inagh Valley area."

Not far from me. Someone tried to light a forestry block there not so long ago. When you turn up the Inagh road and come to a little bridge there is a bank on the left hand side of the road which was covered in withered purple moor grass. The next time I was up that way, a few days later, it had been blackened but the forestry block had not caught fire thankfully. Seems they were more successful this time. We had a spate of this crap last year, someone and her mother/mother in law, actually saw two people lighting a place but thought nothing of it :rolleyes: Young lads in a car if I remember correctly but may have that bit wrong.

mountainy man

Fires broken out in Sligo and Leitrim as well, house burnt down near Dromahaire , co leitrim

Lumi

From today's Irish Times

- this is made all the worse when you consider that some of these fires have been started deliberately


"WILDLIFE UNDER THREAT FIRES WIPE OUT MANY BIRD SPECIES: A NUMBER of bird species are under threat from the gorse fires, Birdwatch Ireland has said.


Thousands of birds including stonechats, whitethroats, linnets, blackbirds, dunnocks and meadow pipits have been affected by the fires in the middle of the nesting season.


Niall Hatch of Birdwatch Ireland said the fires have wiped out many species and many will find it difficult to breed again."
“We have only got over two hard winters which have left the numbers of birds well down.
“But these fires have now decimated many species. We are in the middle of the nesting season and tens of thousands of chicks and eggs have been destroyed.
“Birds like the stonechat and the whitethroat, as well as more common birds like linnets and blackbirds, have been decimated because of the fires,” he said.


Another relatively rare bird, the cuckoo, which has large numbers in Donegal and Mayo, will also suffer because it nests in other birds’ nests.
“There’s no question that cuckoo numbers will now also be under threat,” he said.


Mr Hatch also revealed how birds which survived the fires will find food scarce after millions of insects and other food supplies were also destroyed in the gorse fires.


“These fires are going to have a huge knock-on effect for many years to come.


“Thankfully no human life has been lost but the impact on wildlife has been enormous and that is often overlooked,” he said.

Visitor2011

Will there have to be new thoughts on gorse management? I read somewhere (can't rem where) that in the olden days gorse was used for all kinds of things on the small farm, nothing wasted so there were not the vast acres of it spreading over the marginal lands. The moorlands full of the dead gorse from the frozen winter are just like tinderboxes.

I hope the cuckoos at Loughfad and Clooney, Co Donegal, escape the fires.