Nature in the News

Capercaillie · 28-06-2016 05:54PM

cd07 wrote: »

As a bird enthusiast and a keen shooter is there anywhere in north Co.Dublin where they have been spotted? I wouldnt mind eradicating a few. I've been follow the mink reports and am appalled at the damage they do

You could contact https://www.facebook.com/RogerstownEstuaryTurveyPark/
Turvey nature park. Breeding waders there could do with mink been taken out.

whyulittle · 30-06-2016 06:15PM

Ten bogs in the Shannonside region are included in draft legislation to be de-designated as special areas of conservation.

It means that when enacted, potentially later this year, turf cutting will once again be permitted there, and other less contentious areas will become part of the European Directive instead.

In all, 39 raised bog Natural Heritage Areas (NHAs) and the part de-designation of 7 raised bog NHAs are included in the draft legislation.

In Roscommon, Bell bridge, Cornaveagh, Derrycanan, Lisnanarriagh and Tullaghan areas are listed.

Forthill in Longford and Corracramph in Leitrim are included and Cloonageeher bog on the border of both counties has also been negotiated successfully out of the cutting ban.

Carrickyanaughtan, Castlefrench bog, and the Suck River Callows all on the Galway-Roscommon border, and the Rinn River on the Leitrim-Longford border are set to be partially de-designated.

It’s expected the legislation – having gone through the necessary Dáil procedures – should be voted upon by the end of this Dáil term or make it to the top of the list for the Autumn sitting.

http://www.shannonside.ie/news/ten-bogs-in-shannonside-region-may-have-turf-cut-on-them-again-after-government-u-turn/

Capercaillie · 30-06-2016 06:23PM

whyulittle wrote: »

http://www.shannonside.ie/news/ten-bogs-in-shannonside-region-may-have-turf-cut-on-them-again-after-government-u-turn/

Shameful, you break the law you get rewarded. SAC's not affected though, yet hopefully.

Uriel. · 30-06-2016 06:26PM

whyulittle wrote: »

http://www.shannonside.ie/news/ten-bogs-in-shannonside-region-may-have-turf-cut-on-them-again-after-government-u-turn/

First paragraph is wrong, but corrects itself later. NHAs not SACs

recedite · 30-06-2016 06:44PM

..and other less contentious areas will become part of the European Directive..

By "less contentious" I presume they mean either
(a) areas where locals are more likely to obey the law
(b) areas where the local TD is not a turf-cutting TD holding the balance of power in govt.

Its a sad day when the actual environmental value of a place is irrelevant to its status as a NHA.

Keplar240B · 03-07-2016 10:54PM

hill sheep farmers maintain the countryside and keep it attractive for tourist apparently and that why we should give them free money for a unsustainable business

http://www.rte.ie/news/player/2016/0703/21015670-ifa-wants-the-survival-of-the-hill-sheep-farming-sector-prioritised/.

OpenYourEyes · 04-07-2016 09:00AM

Keplar240B wrote: »

hill sheep farmers maintain the countryside and keep it attractive for tourist apparently and that why we should give them free money for a unsustainable business

http://www.rte.ie/news/player/2016/0703/21015670-ifa-wants-the-survival-of-the-hill-sheep-farming-sector-prioritised/.

It's like when you get people saying "what a beautiful landscape etc" while looking out over miles and miles of improved ag grassland - if only they knew what used to be there in its place!

Capercaillie · 04-07-2016 09:06AM

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

It's like when you get people saying "what a beautiful landscape etc" while looking out over miles and miles of improved ag grassland - if only they knew what used to be there in its place!

Or the blanket bogs beside me, every one littered with drains, over-cut, infested with rhododendron/giant rhubarb, overgrazed by sheep. Silent of curlew/grouse/golden plover. Tis lovely though!

Interslice · 20-07-2016 01:21PM

As someone who is regularly in the sea, I've being hearing alot from people the last few days that there are new species of jellyfish off the east coast of Ireland. "Lions-mane I asked them..? They're always there." No one could answer.. That sounds like nonsense I thought so decided to investigate. Apparently they are breeding highly venomous jellyfish now . Must be the government or aliens..

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/swimmers-warned-of-highly-venomous-jellyfish-on-east-coast-1.2726983

Swimmers heading to the beach today have been warned to be careful about a new breed of jellyfish that is “highly venomous"

The jellyfish scare mongering has reached a new level of ignorance.

Keplar240B · 20-07-2016 02:27PM

Central to the strategy is a programme to establish almost 7,000 acres (2,700 hectares) of new native woodland and restore 4,800 acres (1,950 hectares) of existing woodland

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/native-woodlands-strategy-aims-for-7-000-acres-of-new-trees-1.2725075#.V497UNgdocl.twitter

7.0273 million ha area of ROI

Capercaillie · 20-07-2016 05:05PM

Keplar240B wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/native-woodlands-strategy-aims-for-7-000-acres-of-new-trees-1.2725075#.V497UNgdocl.twitter

7.0273 million ha area of ROI

pathetic effort. I wonder how much rubbish (conifers) will be planted

Keplar240B · 20-07-2016 09:03PM

Capercaillie wrote: »

pathetic effort. I wonder how much rubbish (conifers) will be planted

They really think small don't they look at the millennium forest project back in 2000 across 16 forests just 607 hectares.

Over 607 hectares, (fifteen hundred acres) of native Irish woodland were restored and designated as 16 'Millennium Forests

http://www.millenniumforests.com/about_intro.html

magicbastarder · 20-07-2016 09:06PM

it's equivalent to ten phoenix parks, or about 1.5% the area of land in coillte ownership.

Dair76 · 20-07-2016 09:19PM

Pathetic effort indeed. :mad:

_Tombstone_ · 20-07-2016 11:13PM

^^^^

India Plants 50 Million Trees in One Day, Smashing World Record

Although the feat has yet to be certified by Guinness World Records, Indian officials have reported that volunteers planted a whopping 49.3 million tree saplings on July 11, blowing past the previous record for most trees planted in a single day.

That record, a mere 847,275 trees, was set by Pakistan in 2013.

A reported 800,000 volunteers from Uttar Pradesh worked for 24 hours planting 80 different species of trees along roads, railways, and on public land. The saplings were raised on local nurseries.

The effort is part of the commitment India made at the Paris Climate Conference in December 2015. In the agreement, signed on Earth Day 2016, India agreed to spend $6 billion to reforest 12 percent of its land (bringing total forest cover to 235 million acres by 2030, or about 29 percent of the country's territory).

Lepidoptera · 23-07-2016 08:42PM

Why are conifers bad?

magicbastarder · 23-07-2016 09:13PM

they're not good for other wildlife generally; non-native trees would not necessarily support the same level of other flora and fauna, and conifers especially as they cast a permanent shade, which means the forest floor is usually bare.

keps · 24-07-2016 01:17AM

Citybound

today's NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/24/opinion/sunday/evolution-is-happening-faster-than-we-thought.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

keps · 25-07-2016 09:01AM

NZ to exterminate all introduced predators.

Today's Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/25/no-more-rats-new-zealand-to-exterminate-all-introduced-predators

Capercaillie · 25-07-2016 09:11AM

keps wrote: »

NZ to exterminate all introduced predators.

Today's Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/25/no-more-rats-new-zealand-to-exterminate-all-introduced-predators

Good, wish we could do the same with mink. Also deer!

recedite · 25-07-2016 05:25PM

And don't forget the rats and mice. When the New Zealand Pied Pipers have succeeded in luring them all into the sea, they can come over here and get rid of ours. When, and if..

I suspect they will unleash a toxic armageddon of state-subsidised poison for a year or too, and then the whole project will be quietly shelved. Hopefully they don't do too much damage.

OpenYourEyes · 29-07-2016 07:46PM

RSPB reaction to Natural England issuing license to control up to 10 buzzards

http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/martinharper/archive/2016/07/29/bad-news-for-a-friday-rspb-reaction-to-natural-england-issuing-license-to-control-up-to-10-buzzards.aspx#.V5s5MxJKOhM.twitter

recedite · 31-07-2016 01:01PM

IMO the level of protection they should get all comes down to how rare they are. Why should foxes be treated as vermin, and buzzards treated as sacred?

OpenYourEyes · 31-07-2016 02:07PM

recedite wrote: »

IMO the level of protection they should get all comes down to how rare they are. Why should foxes be treated as vermin, and buzzards treated as sacred?

Surely the reason for culling/controlling them also needs to be taken into account? Is there a good reason for it? Is it likely to be effective of are the controlled individuals likely to just be replaced by others?

At what scale should their numbers be taken into account? Parish level? County? Province? National?

Throughout history until the last 40 years or so we had a free-for-all on species that were common at the time and many of those species went extinct, with others still struggling to recover.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 31-07-2016 06:48PM

recedite wrote: »

IMO the level of protection they should get all comes down to how rare they are. Why should foxes be treated as vermin, and buzzards treated as sacred?

Rarity, or abundance, should not be factors per se. All bird and animals should be protected. Only if a species has been proven a 'menace' or to have a detrimental impact or is alien should protection be relaxed.

Control to conserve private Pheasant stocks is not a sufficient reason to allow culls of a recovering species.

recedite · 31-07-2016 09:17PM

Moses Faithful Slime wrote: »

Only if a species has been proven a 'menace' or to have a detrimental impact or is alien should protection be relaxed.
Control to conserve private Pheasant stocks is not a sufficient reason to allow culls of a recovering species.

The shooting estates obviously regard buzzards as a menace. The idea that because the gamebirds are "privately owned" they should not be protected by their owners against native predators is fallacious. Think of the gamebirds as farmed stock, similar to lambs for example.

If foxes were extremely rare, it would be appropriate to protect them, even if they took a small toll on native species and on non-native farmed prey.
The same goes for buzzards. As they become more common, they need less special protection, especially if they become a nuisance for some section of society.

OpenYourEyes · 31-07-2016 10:24PM

Should those estate owners not accept a certain level of risk with their hobby? Especially when, across the board, Buzzard predation is a minor cause of mortality for Pheasants?

Similarly, should pigeon fanciers be given free reign to clear out the East coast of Peregrines so it doesn't interfere with their hobby?

In your scenario where a common species like Buzzard isn't protected, what is there to prevent them becoming rare again?

magicbastarder · 31-07-2016 10:29PM

one way of looking at it; what is the productivity of the land, in terms of KG of grouse per acre, compared to sheep farming?
if (as i suspect) it's noticeably lower; are we ('we' used advisedly) giving licence to kill a recovering species to protect a form of agriculture which is tenuous at best in terms of it's ability to create food, compared to its impact upon the environment?

grouse farming does not strike me as the sort of thing a small farmer would want to venture into, more so the likes of the landed gentry in britain who have thousands of acres, and hundreds of thousands in subsidies, at their disposal.

Woodville56 · 01-08-2016 10:15AM

[quote=Moses Faithful Slime;100529060Control to conserve private Pheasant stocks is not a sufficient reason to allow culls of a recovering species.[/quote]

On the issue of reared pheasant stock and buzzard predation, it often strikes me how tame those reared pheasants are that you see meandering along roadsides and in fields at this time of year. I've no scientific evidence of this but it's as though these hand reared birds have no inate or instinctive concept of danger or predators, the way most other wild birds sense danger when a raptor is about ? If this is the case, buzzards or other native predators can hardly be blamed for predating species that don't have the self preservation instinct in the first place ? Aside from the predation issue, I don't see much sport or marksmanship skills in shooting pheasants that are so tame that you have to sometimes slow down the car to avoid hitting them along roadsides or being able to approach them quite freely in fields and them apparently not sensing any danger ? At the end of the day, why should buzzard (or fox for that matter) suffer persecution for the preservation of an introduced species such as pheasant propagated for the edification of the shooting community ?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 01-08-2016 11:46AM

Woodville56 wrote: »

On the issue of reared pheasant stock and buzzard predation, it often strikes me how tame those reared pheasants are that you see meandering along roadsides and in fields at this time of year. I've no scientific evidence of this but it's as though these hand reared birds have no inate or instinctive concept of danger or predators, the way most other wild birds sense danger when a raptor is about ? If this is the case, buzzards or other native predators can hardly be blamed for predating species that don't have the self preservation instinct in the first place ? Aside from the predation issue, I don't see much sport or marksmanship skills in shooting pheasants that are so tame that you have to sometimes slow down the car to avoid hitting them along roadsides or being able to approach them quite freely in fields and them apparently not sensing any danger ? At the end of the day, why should buzzard (or fox for that matter) suffer persecution for the preservation of an introduced species such as pheasant propagated for the edification of the shooting community ?

Too true. They are so tame that I once saw a hunter shouting at a Pheasant to get it to fly off. When it didn't, he fired a shot in the air and then shot the Pheasant as it fly off. What's the point?

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