Biodiversity decline new report- what can we do?

ttnov77

Just came across this report: More than half of Ireland’s native plant species are in decline

Read more: https://www.growtrade.ie/over-half-of-irelands-native-plant-species-are-in-decline/#ixzz7vUNYIbzQ

We have sowed irish native wildflowers, put up bee hotels, bird boxes and feeders, plant native trees and pollinator friendly plants, have a small pond in our small garden and many log piles and messy corners, grow organically. What else can we do? I was thinking purchasing some agriculture land to re-wild but with current prices is not an option.

Any other ideas?

ttnov77

forgot to add we have 2 bat houses too

macraignil

All sounds like very positive actions you have taken to help work against the decline in native plant species outlined in the report. Rather than buying in wildflower mixes one of the steps I have taken in the garden here is to let plants I don't recognise continue to grow when weeding and deliberately spread some of the wildflowers already present. By letting what I don't recognise mature naturally I have got some nice plants that are naturally adapted to grow in the garden with no assistance to continue to play a part and I only focus on a much more restricted group of plants to treat as weeds like brambles and stinging nettle which would simply become too dominant if I did nothing to control them.

I think there would be a lot of people enthusiastic about helping in the type of work you are talking about and maybe you should look to see if there is any sort of horticulture or gardening related community groups in your area. If there is nothing already working in your area maybe you could try get something like this established. Even the tidy towns committee groups in the country do a very good job in places to improve unused pieces of land in the area they are based and I have read about groups of houses taking little steps like allowing hedge hog paths through the fences between individual gardens so the total area they can move between can support a healthy population. You may need to study the wildlife in your area to see what can be done to help the specific types of wildlife already there. This I think can be done much better at a community level rather than as an individual.

Where I live is on a small family farm and I have helped increase the amount of mixed hedgerow on the land by almost a kilometer in length over the last few years with the weeding of the young hedge plants done by myself manually so I have been able to preserve some of the more interesting plants that have colonised the area. Clover, bird's foot trefoil, foxglove, dead nettle and chamomile are some of the self seeding wildflowers that I have been able to encourage in between the young hedge plants while digging out doc leaves, stinging nettle and some others. Plants that produce food of some sort are good ones to introduce for wildlife as something will make use of what we don't harvest ourselves and I've planted over a thousand hawthorns that I saw you promoting in another thread. I think they are one of the best plants to help wildlife but variety is the spice of life as the saying goes. For pollinators I have read that the RHS did a study that found pollinators would often make use of non native species as food and I think variety is key to making a garden supportive of wildlife. I started to post videos from my own garden in playlists based on what is flowering in particular months of the year here in case that can help anyone get some ideas for what to plant to fill parts of the year when their own garden may not have as many blooms as they might like.

Happy gardening!

What about a pond?

Something else I try to do wherever possible is buy organic, the more people use organic the more the market will grow for it and therefore less chemicals used in producing our food. I know that’s not an option for everyone with the cost of living atm I source everything from local farmers and Aldi, their range of organic is amazing and not too expensive.

Ive often had dreamt of doing something like that. Buy some land, add as many native species as I can that suit the site, somehow have its carbon off setting value or ‘green value’ quantified and then sell shares or something on to businesses who what to offset their carbon. A bit of a mad piped dream for me!

ttnov77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120343208#Comment_120343208

Thanks, that`s very encouraging to see others helping biodiversity.

I actually volunteer as Biodiversity ambassador in my town and run/promote various initiatives to help biodiversity. We are building and installing barn owl and bird boxes, working on eco-estates, planting 10 000 native trees in different ways (as hedgerows, micro-forests and riparian habitats, fruit trees), planting wildflowers and leaving many areas grow wild. We want to install sand martin wall near river that flows trough the town and do bat survey. Some of these protect are in collaboration with council.

I also have a small business and plant native trees for every order. I just still feels there is something more I can do so looking for other projects to add. I still see this obsession here with large golf lawns and habitat destruction. I mean there is nothing wrong with bit of lawn for kids to play etc but if that`s all there is....

ttnov77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120343816#Comment_120343816

Yea we have a small half barrel pond, unfortunately we only rent house so not allowed to dig but still its better than nothing. We do grow and buy lots of organic, not all tho but as much as we can afford and is available.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058287598/biodiversity-decline-new-report-what-can-we-do

Get farm land, stock with cattle at a lower intensity, long grazing rotation and cut hay in July.

Remember most wildlife and biodiversity in Ireland is in dependent on permanent pasture grass, not woodlands.

ttnov77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120346093#Comment_120346093

If that would be the case we would not have biodiversity crisis, as large part of the agriculture land here are green pastures? Meadows and grasslands are important habitat (provided they are left to flower and seed) but so does native forests as many song birds rely on caterpillars as food source for chicks that feed on tree leaves, native forests have amazing biodiversity, and Ireland has only 1% covered by native forests. I would love some land and definitely sow meadow but would not stock with cattle, Ireland have enough of them already. Just the land prices are ridiculously high atm.

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120350661#Comment_120350661

Meadow diversity dies without cattle to graze it, timing is different.

Native woodlands have a lot of diversity but it could be easily argued that it is surprisingly small as well.

With regard to birds there are very few bird species, indeed across most wildlife in Ireland that are solely dependent on woodlands, even the wood dwelling ones tend to be on the edges and needing pasture for feed.

A traditional grass meadow, unfertilised or rarely fertilized, and even less topping or mowing is a different beast to a productive grass Field.

Given that society in general is completely unwilling to pay the price of food production, more farm land is going low intensity and organic, purely for the payments.

You would be a brave man to farm thinking society, even just green voters would be buying organic or chose food with any standards at all over the cheapest.

iniscealtra

You seem to be doing a lot @ttnov77 with your garden, business and community. If you want to buy land you will have to have the money to do so or inherit as many do. My advice would be to save towards your goals - whether that is house ownership or buying some land.

Get involved with more volunteer work like Galway Conservation Volunteers or Rhodo Rangers. I’m based in the West but i’m sure similar exist where you are. Rhododenron is a curse for Biodiversity.

Retrain and work in the environmemtal field. Although I’m sure that comes with its own frustrations.

@Danzy Agree regarding meadow and grazing /mowing. A traditional hay meadow is a wonderful thing for biodiverity.

iniscealtra

The county council provide free Native trees to community groups during National Tree Week. I’ve applied for this for a few years now and they are then distributed to those who want them for planting at home. Schools can also do this through staff or the parents council. So if you have kids that might be an option.

A friend of mine got married and they have a field that they may/might not build on. It has a block walk on one boundary and a wire fence on the other as two houses are on either side. My wedding present was a wildlife hedge. Myself, other half and two friends planted it where my friend advised. Its a mix of whitethorn, holly and spindle. The hedge is now there five years and growing well.

Deub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120351074#Comment_120351074

It is normal that there are few birds (and wildlife in general) that are native to woodland because it is few centuries that the forest cover in Ireland is tiny. These animals are simply not there anymore. Changing that would take decades, if not centuries.

Well managed meadows can be a first step to at least make the current wildlife thrive and protect what we have.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120346093#Comment_120346093

do you have a source for that claim? i'm not denying that some wildlife will be meadow specific, but the claim of 'most' is one i'd be curious to see verified.

anyway, we've so little actual old growth native woodland left, that would be the first place to start; letting woodland re-establish and leaving it be. i don't buy into the 'nature needs a steering hand' narrative. (except in the obvious case of removal of invasive species)

ttnov77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120351074#Comment_120351074

You don’t really need grazing just simple management of cutting down the meadow in autumn will do.

As someone coming from country with tree coverage of over 40% I simply miss the forests, but as magicbastarder said that claim is overgeneralised and many naturalists, biologists and people smarter than me point out and connect the lack of forests and scrubland coverage with irish biodiversity loss. Then of course you have the production of oxygen and carbon sequestration. But I don’t want to start arguments what is better this or that, I think all habitats need restoration and mix of various habitats is best.

But as son of ex-farmer I do agree that making living from farming is hard, for that and personal reasons I wouldn’t want animals, but I would want small organic fruit and veg farm even just to be self sufficient and maybe sell some produce, we learned to live on little well :)

looksee

Well the new heather plants I put in recently have made a good contribution - last weekend in a patch of sunshine there were numerous big fat bumblebees on all the plants 😀

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355009#Comment_120355009

one of the main issues here is that nature has been pushed to the edge, but for nature to push back significantly would result in the change in land use of a significant amount of our land - and there's so much money wrapped up in that, that that is a very uphill struggle. major changes to subsidies, much from a european level, i suspect.

someone above mentioned land not being cheap - and one of the issues is that the value of land here is usually inflated by the subsidies available on it; a buyer would usually factor in the subsidies when buying land, most of which would not be available to someone interested in just leaving it for nature.

bored_newbie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120351865#Comment_120351865

Where would you apply for that? Local county council?

looksee

You have to be a community group, school etc to get free trees. However it might be worth asking as they are fairly generous so long as the trees get planted. A tidy towns group near me has been proactively given some 300 trees and are now desperately looking for somewhere to plant them - delighted to have them but its not as easy as it looks to find the space.

Check out National Tree Week (which is next week).

The trees are tiny though and will need significant care for a few years till they develop. You might be as well to buy the bare root stock from the likes of Future Forests (and other nurseries), though it will probably be next November as most have been sold at this stage. For around 3 - 4 euros each you will get well grown young trees that will be easier to care for. I have a good few 1-3ft whips in for 2 years that are now 3 to 6foot tall (depending on type) and doing very well.

I did hedge laying on our hedge in the backyard, I can see how brilliant a habitat it can be. Already birds in & out of it like crazy!

have a couple areas in the garden that I leave grow wild & trim back a bit in winter. I’ve observed it’s Important to cut & let sunlight hit the soil & seeds. Whatever grows grows but if some plants are getting dominant I cut them out.

There’s an all Ireland pollinator plan group.

It is a massive issue that nobody’s really aware of.

iniscealtra

Environment section of local county council. E-mail or ring them.

magicbastarder

the native woodland trust seem to have trees still available in the 'trees for communities' scheme, but i suspect you'd need to move quickly.

https://www.treesforcommunities.ie/

RainInSummer

I've a half acre of wildflower meadow with four years now. Apart from a couple of frogs there's been no real uptake by the local bird and bug life. It's surprisingly quiet.

That said, if frogs have taken up residence then I guess there must be something for them to live on.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120382066#Comment_120382066

I’ve noticed a marked difference myself in the amount of insects in my garden particularly in the past 3 or so years. Even though I go out of my way to provide for them, I find the air almost sterile. I live in the countryside. When I first moved here you couldn’t move without having to swat yourself down. I often wonder if I’m imagining it but I really don’t think I am!

ttnov77

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120382066#Comment_120382066

Well the biodiversity crisis is real. In terms of birds, meadow would provide habitat for very few, like meadow pipit. Birds will benefit from insect and seeds but they really need good quality hedgerow and native woodland. But the bug life should be definitely up, maybe you just need to observe closer, they are not really visible apart of bees and butterflies. When I look close on my 5x2 m meadow there is large amount of bugs and insects crawling or resting on stems.

There might be possible issues with nearby farms, if they use pesticides.

RainInSummer

I have about 150m of hedgerow too. Whitethorn, hornbeam, willow and ash.

It's not a matter of looking closer either. I get right down into it and see very little.

The 30+ acre field next to me hadn't been touched in 40 years and coincidentally was cleared and oats/wheat planted there around the same time I started on the wildflowers.

I know they apply fertiliser in pellet form, and I have seen them spray too.

magicbastarder

my wife grew up beside a 60 acre field which was left go fallow for a few years - this is 35 years ago, i think. she was saying that within a couple of years, the place was absolutely buzzing with life.