Green Initiative Wipes Out Corncrake

Sponge Bob

After years of non maintenance of drainage channels because nobody could afford the cost of all the enviro babble and nobody could stand dealing with teh NPWS and the never ending reports that were required before they could deploy a digger to dredge the channels we have sadly reached the logical conclusion.

http://www.galwaynews.ie/22083-environmental-protection-virtually-wipes-out-corncrake-callows

Just as the gross environmental overprotection of the Pollardstown fen, to save a snail, ACTUALLY led to the snail being wiped out by drowning, it turns out the NPWS did the exact same thing to the Corncrake in Irelands biggest SAC, the Shannon Callows SAC.

THE failure to carry out routine drainage and dredging work on the Shannon – frequently held up on environmental issues – has led to the virtual wipe-out of the corncrake over recent years, a prominent farm leader has claimed this week.

This is really very sad given the measures that farmers have agreed to, and supported, in relation to the preservation of the corncrake and other birds.

“Back in 2002, we had 58 calling males [corncrakes] and this year there has been none. What has happened here is that Summer after Summer, the floods have come and have just washed away the nests of the corncrakes that had been preserved in the meadows of the local farmers," he said.

Naturally no NPWS staff will have to take responsibility for their obscurantist obstructionism. Poor little bastids flew all the way from Mozambique only to be drowned by Irish Civil Servants.

Macha

[mod]Cut out the derogatory language please.[/mod]

Judgement Day

Slow news day and a farmer with his own agenda. No links to back up his assertions that Corncrakes, Lapwings etc have been wiped out. :rolleyes:

Oldtree

What a success then, 133 calling males in the core areas in 2010 see birdwatch ireland:

http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/Publications/eWings/eWingsIssue13October2010/AStingintheTale/tabid/1108/Default.aspx

Sponge Bob

Judgement Day wrote: »

Slow news day and a farmer with his own agenda. No links to back up his assertions that Corncrakes, Lapwings etc have been wiped out. :rolleyes:

Actually Birdwatch Ireland pointed this problem out clearly 5 years ago. Still no arterial drainage was done and now we see the results.

From 54 in 2001 to 17 in 2006 to 4 in 2008 0 in 2011. The farmers are an integral part of the conservation effort, of course they know what is going on JD.

http://www.bebo.com/BlogView.jsp?MemberId=1684910538&BlogId=2701016188

Farmers pull out all the stops for the Corncrake this year.
Davy Watson, Birdwatch Ireland Fieldworker.

No-one living along the River Shannon could be unaware of the summer flood this year. The plight of river-birds and the farmers made it onto national TV and radio this year. It was an unfortunately timed flood, catching most of the Shannon?s breeding bird population on eggs. Whilst a number of the birds will have been able to relocate to dryer meadows and replace their clutches a number of the birds will not have been able to do this. One of these birds is the globally threatened Corncrake.

The Shannon Callows are one of the last remaining inland sites in Europe for breeding Corncrake. The traditional late cutting of the callows has offered them a refuge whilst they have become extinct elsewhere. Most of Irelands Corncrake population are now restricted to the Islands and coastal zone of Mayo and Donegal, where agriculture is less intensive.

One of the problems that Corncrakes face is that they breed late into the summer, and require both broods of chicks to maintain a stable population. Most birds live for a number of years and have several years of breeding in which to successfully raise their young. The Corncrake is short-lived and may only get one or two attempts in it?s short life. Thus, if the chicks are killed or the eggs are lost then there may be no birds to return in the following year. Changes in agriculture, particularly the earlier cutting dates of meadows, have meant that these birds have not been able to breed safely away from the callows. The late winter flood traditionally has meant that the meadows are not able to be cut until later in the summer, allowing the birds the opportunity to raise more chicks than they are able to away from the river.

Prior to the 20th Century it was said that was a Corncrake in every field in Ireland. In 1988 there were almost 1000 still recorded in a national census. As recently as 2001 there were 54 calling males still along the Shannon Callows. In the flood of 2002 these numbers became much reduced, to 20 birds. The population had remained more or less stable at 22 or 23 birds until this year. This year there were only 17 birds recorded, south of Shannonbridge; Woodbank 1, Moystown 1, Lehinch 1, Bishop?s Island 3, Tower 3, Kilmeechon 1 and Baranagh, 1; north of the bridge there were 4 on the Clonmacnoise, Coolumber, Drumlosh, Curraghnaboll section and 2 at Clonburren (Fahn?s and Mather?s).

Traonach

It was catch 22 for the corncrakes in the Shannon Callows. The seasonal flooding kept destructive intensive farming at bay in the callows, but the summer flooding in the last decade caused there functional extinction. If the drianage scheme was carried out that probably have led to early-cut silage being able to be cut so the corncrakes would have been exterminated.
There was only one male calling this year in the Callows.

Sponge Bob

It is a tragedy really. The fear of tackling the NPWS has led to a huge backlog of maintenance drainage in rivers such as the Suck Clare Brosna Shannon and Moy and this has tipped meadowland into swampland.

The Curlew is another bird that is also taking a hammering from this misguided policy.

As ever, none of the senior NPWS staff will have to account for their actions and they know it. The Rangers in the field may have opinions and solutions but they are too junior to get their fossilised bosses to listen and act. Birdwatch, despite their efforts are simply ignored as a nuisance. From October 2010.

http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/Publications/eWings/eWingsIssue13October2010/AStingintheTale/tabid/1108/Default.aspx

Dr. Donaghy continued, “The largest declines in recent history have occurred on the Shannon Callows where, despite an abundance of natural early cover, the problem of frequent summer flooding has allowed little opportunity for the bird to take advantage of the better land management which has been put in place since 2002.”

Traonach

The corncrake is finished in the callows:(. It would be better to try and improve the situation in West Connaght and Donegal. The Corncrake Grant Scheme (now run by the NPWS) has one major flaw. It's a reactive scheme and relies on Farmers taking up the grant. It they don't and they cut silage (early-cut) the corncrakes are killed.

The way forward is buying up land and managing it specifically for the corncrake ie provision of early cover, control of predator (foxes, mink, hooded crows and magpies) and late harvest of hay (september). Birdwatch Ireland have a small reserve near Belmullet and attract Corncrakes every year.

Sponge Bob

I found 2 of them in Donegal last year , dunno if the atlas has them, I PM'd you where one of them was because he went off as I passed on the boreen outside the wall. The other was maybe 200m west of there.

Traonach

Sponge Bob wrote: »

I found 2 of them in Donegal last year , dunno if the atlas has them, I PM'd you where one of them was because he went off as I passed on the boreen outside the wall. The other was maybe 200m west of there.

Good stuff Sponge Bob:)
If you find any Corncrakes you should ring the Corncrake Grant scheme to notify them Corncrake Hotline at 071-9666700.
http://www.npws.ie/farmerslandowners/schemes/corncrakegrantscheme/
I'm in the process of buying 24 of coastal grassland beside Birdwatch Ireland's corncrake reserve near Belmullet. The land will be used exclusively for corncrakes ie provision of early cover and hay will be cut not until mid September. There were six calling Corncrakes in the area this year, so hopefully I will have a corncrake of my own come next summer:)

Birdnuts

Corncrakes have survived many a wet spring over many thousands of years - long before the JCB craze hit rural Ireland. The problem for Corncrakes in the Callows is that the population became isolated there recently due to the wipeout of traditional hay meadows in surrounding areas which meant that there was no resevoir of birds to repopulate the Callows after late flooding. This was an unfortunate outcome of the the adoption of intensive farming methods in this country since the 50's that saw the population plummet from 30,000 pairs in 1950 to barely 100 by the early 90's.This was at the very time that Arterial drainage schemes were all the rage - the idea that the halting of these destructive schemes is somehow linked to the situation in the Callows is laughable:rolleyes:

The facts are that arterial drainage schemes over the past centuary have torn the guts out of numerious river/streams leading to the destruction of game fish spawning grounds and the nesting sites of birds like kingfishers,dippers and various wildfowl. Not to mention the total extinction of species like the Bittern in this country.

Birdwatch Ireland has never recommended such practices despite some very selective quotes by the OP and heres a discussion among anglers on boards about it http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=63492829

Birdnuts

Sponge Bob wrote: »

It is a tragedy really. The fear of tackling the NPWS has led to a huge backlog of maintenance drainage in rivers such as the Suck Clare Brosna Shannon and Moy and this has tipped meadowland into swampland.

The Curlew is another bird that is also taking a hammering from this misguided policy.

As ever, none of the senior NPWS staff will have to account for their actions and they know it. The Rangers in the field may have opinions and solutions but they are too junior to get their fossilised bosses to listen and act. Birdwatch, despite their efforts are simply ignored as a nuisance. From October 2010.

http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/Publications/eWings/eWingsIssue13October2010/AStingintheTale/tabid/1108/Default.aspx

That is simply untrue:rolleyes: - my people are originally from the Turlough country near Hollymount Co. Mayo and I have seen in the last 10 years with my own eyes the destruction of at least half a dozen sites for these birds by the "drainage" using heavy machinery of once prime breeding areas adjacent to bogs and Turloughs.

Birdnuts

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Just as the gross environmental overprotection of the Pollardstown fen, to save a snail, ACTUALLY led to the snail being wiped out by drowning.

Do you have any link for that assertion?? - this species requires a high water table to survive http://www.docstoc.com/docs/45772538/Groundwater-surface-water-interactions-at-a-fen-margin-hydrological

SleepAtNight

This has absolutely nothing to do with drainage on the Callows and everything to do with bad upstream river management. The reason downstream flooding on rivers has become so problematic recently is because land up stream that once acted as a natural sponge for water has now been improved and drained, not to mention all the excess water once soaked up by the bogs. Now, that drained water upstream has to go somewhere so we end up with bigger flooding downstream.

It's absolutely astounding that people think building hotels on floodplains in Ballinasloe and draining the sh1te out of land in the Shannon catchment in north Roscommon won't have consequences downstream. Instead we think we have to drain the Callows...really is this what the Irish education system has brought us to? Or maybe it's the blind faith mentality whipped into us by the church, don't question why something is happening, just blame the NPWS because they're the devil.

SleepAtNight

Traonach wrote: »

It was catch 22 for the corncrakes in the Shannon Callows. The seasonal flooding kept destructive intensive farming at bay in the callows, but the summer flooding in the last decade caused there functional extinction. If the drianage scheme was carried out that probably have led to early-cut silage being able to be cut so the corncrakes would have been exterminated.
There was only one male calling this year in the Callows.

Exactly, no one is up in arms about the fact that places like the Callows (until now) are the few spots where the Corncrake has not been pushed to extiction. The elephant in the room that no one wants to challenge of course is intensive farming.

Sponge Bob

I don't want to DRAIN the Callows, I only want to do MAINTENANCE arterial drainage on the Shannon itself which is slowly silting up.....as are many other rivers in Ireland.

SleepAtNight

Sponge Bob wrote: »

I don't want to DRAIN the Callows, I only want to do MAINTENANCE arterial drainage on the Shannon itself which is slowly silting up.....as are many other rivers in Ireland.

Why are they silting up? Where could this excess river load be possibly coming from?

Sponge Bob

SleepAtNight wrote: »

Why are they silting up? Where could this excess river load be possibly coming from?

Rivers always silt up. So normal countires deal with it. Not wet old Ireland of course.

Normal countries use a technology called "Dredging" . Dredging removes excess silt thereby leaving room for water in the river.

Where did you get your "excess river load" phrase from...that phrase normally refers to water not silt.

SleepAtNight

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Rivers always silt up. So normal countires deal with it. Not wet old Ireland of course.

Normal countries use a technology called "Dredging" . Dredging removes excess silt thereby leaving room for water in the river.

Where did you get your "excess river load" phrase from...that phrase normally refers to water not silt.

The Callows isn't normal...that's why it is a priority habitat. I think it's the largest habitat of its kind in Europe, I'm open to correction there. Are you suggesting the Shannon be dredged? Seeing as the problem is further upstream on the river what use is dredging it? Rivers naturally carry silt but now they carry more than normal because of a variety of upstream management practices.

As far as I'm aware in environmental science it refers to the particles being carried by the water.

Birdnuts

Sponge Bob wrote: »

I don't want to DRAIN the Callows, I only want to do MAINTENANCE arterial drainage on the Shannon itself which is slowly silting up.....as are many other rivers in Ireland.

Its silting up thanx to the activities of Bord na Mona - the sooner their cut-over bogs are restored as functioning wetlands the sooner most of the problems with silting and excessive flooding will cease.

Sponge Bob

We know why it is silting and where the silt is coming from and yet we deliberately drown the poor old Corncrakes by refusing to deal with the silt.

We hire loads of Bird people and pay farmers all the same....when we should be dredging. I'm sorry but this is absurd. Deal with the NPWS and dredge the thing.

Jim Martin

Sponge Bob wrote: »

We know why it is silting and where the silt is coming from and yet we deliberately drown the poor old Corncrakes by refusing to deal with the silt.

We hire loads of Bird people and pay farmers all the same....when we should be dredging. I'm sorry but this is absurd. Deal with the NPWS and dredge the thing.

It's no good dealing with the symptoms (dredging) - you have to deal with the cause (Bord na Mona)!

joela

Can all siltation really be blamed on Bord na Mona? Inappropriate farming and development practices? Removal of bankside vegetation resulting in loss of natural silt trapping and erosion and collapse of banks. Canalisation of many watercourses and dredging of same also playing in a large part of same. Bord na Mona may well play a part, although I would suspect their working practices are more closely policed than most, but the biggest problem of all has been our continued interference with the natural processes and flows in our rivers combined with run off from inappropriate development works and farming practices.

Dredging will not solve this, merely exacerbate a problem.

Sponge Bob

Dredging is a "maintenance" solution as I always said. It is not a permanent fix. Stop conflating necessary short term maintenance with necessary long term solutions which will inevitably involve reducing silt at source.

But for now the lack of short term solutions has drowned the poor little baby corncrakes and wiped them out in the Callows. Again I thank the NPWS for their visionary stance.

joela

Again I say, rivers don't need maintenance! They maintain themselves if we can just keep our human selves away from interfering with them and stop polluting and discharging excessively. Stop building on floodplains etc. etc.