Nature in the News

New Home · 18-09-2019 1:32pm

https://news.sky.com/story/giant-panda-chuang-chuang-dies-suddenly-at-thai-zoo-11812766

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 19-09-2019 9:29pm

3 billion fewer birds in the US and Canada today compared to 1970 -

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49744435

New Home · 19-09-2019 9:30pm

Once again,

magicbastarder · 21-09-2019 3:02pm

This is astounding and utterly utterly disgraceful.

https://twitter.com/collieennis/status/1175396828369567744

New Home · 21-09-2019 9:37pm

And it's not as if they can claim they didn't know what they were doing..... :mad: :mad: :mad:

Birdnuts · 22-09-2019 12:20am

State sponsored vandelism of our natural heritage has a long and ugly history in this country

Benny mcc · 22-09-2019 8:23am

Why did they dig it up? Is there planing for something?

New Home · 22-09-2019 4:30pm

I honestly don't know, but probably because it now looks "neat and tidy and clean".

magicbastarder · 22-09-2019 5:22pm

it's all over the news today at least; carried in the journal, on the irish times, and we had nova on the radio earlier which mentioned it on the news.

Benny mcc · 22-09-2019 6:09pm

Well if they would (after a lot of agro) reinstate the wet land it would bounce back in no time. I dug out a wet area on my land to form 5 good size ponds one of which is 60 ft × 60 ft. Dug it in early spring and by late spring early summer frogs and all sorts of water insects had moved in and now it's cleared and growing bull rush and has duck landing at night .

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 22-09-2019 6:45pm

Benny mcc wrote: »

Well if they would (after a lot of agro) reinstate the wet land it would bounce back in no time. I dug out a wet area on my land to form 5 good size ponds one of which is 60 ft × 60 ft. Dug it in early spring and by late spring early summer frogs and all sorts of water insects had moved in and now it's cleared and growing bull rush and has duck landing at night .

Benny, it would re-wild but it would not 'bounce back'. Some of the species lost will not easily recover or just repopulate the area because someone digs a few holes and fills them with water.

Benny mcc · 22-09-2019 6:59pm

Moses Faithful Slime wrote: »

Benny, it would re-wild but it would not 'bounce back'. Some of the species lost will not easily recover or just repopulate the area because someone digs a few holes and fills them with water.

You don't fill them with water you need to dig where the water is all ready. They will repopulate. If you build it they will come. People often need to find the negative but it's done now so find the positive! Don't dwell on the wrong someone did out of ignorance or pure stupidity, fight to have it put back in any way you can . We had nothing here only a wet area of land but when we created a habitat they all just showed up.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 22-09-2019 7:18pm

Benny mcc wrote: »

You don't fill them with water you need to dig where the water is all ready. They will repopulate. If you build it they will come. People often need to find the negative but it's done now so find the positive! Don't dwell on the wrong someone did out of ignorance or pure stupidity, fight to have it put back in any way you can . We had nothing here only a wet area of land but when we created a habitat they all just showed up.

I know how to build a wetland, I have done so over many hectares in my time. The point is, there was irrevocable damage done here and there were particular species that may never return. Don't underestimate the loss here. Another wetland can certainly be created but it will not be what was there before , by a long chalk.

Alun · 22-09-2019 8:23pm

Didn't I read somewhere though that the area wasn't actually 'built' as a wetland area in the first place, it was just a dumping site for silt from other ponds, possibly from building the ponds in the park itself and had been largely ignored until the various species were discovered there relatively recently?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 22-09-2019 8:27pm

Alun wrote: »

Didn't I read somewhere though that the area wasn't actually 'built' as a wetland area in the first place, it was just a dumping site for silt from other ponds, possibly from building the ponds in the park itself and had been largely ignored until the various species were discovered there relatively recently?

Absolutely. It was little known and unusual in it's wealth of species.

Benny mcc · 22-09-2019 8:53pm

I still didn't get the point of dwelling on it as tragic as it may be. Still fight for it and move forward. What's done is done

New Home · 22-09-2019 8:57pm

That, to me, is like saying "Oh well, another species became extinct/the Exxon Valdez II happened again. So be it, let's not dwell on it, and move on." This is irreparable damage, what I don't understand is how you can be so flippant about it - maybe you aren't being flippant, in which case I apologise, but that's how it sounds to me.

magicbastarder · 22-09-2019 9:20pm

Alun wrote: »

Didn't I read somewhere though that the area wasn't actually 'built' as a wetland area in the first place, it was just a dumping site for silt from other ponds, possibly from building the ponds in the park itself and had been largely ignored until the various species were discovered there relatively recently?

have you seen the latest video? they didn't just fill in the pond, they actually created a spoil heap about 4 foot high. and it's full of rubbish:

https://twitter.com/collieennis/status/1175826504770576385

collie is booked in for morning ireland tomorrow to talk about this.

re the 'it'll bounce back' - great, you built a pond and you're seeing new life on it. you've mentioned three specific species that have appeared, and a general reference to water insects. that's welcome, don't get me wrong, but that does not mean you've got a diverse habitat (yet). some species may take many years to reappear.

Alun · 22-09-2019 9:50pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

have you seen the latest video? they didn't just fill in the pond, they actually created a spoil heap about 4 foot high. and it's full of rubbish

I was referring to how the wetland area came into being in the first place not recent events. It was a pond some time ago but was filled in with silt resulting in what was there until very recently. That's what's been levelled and dumped on top of.

There's still a pond to the north of that area that's survived relatively intact.

Benny mcc · 22-09-2019 9:51pm

New Home wrote: »

That, to me, is like saying "Oh well, another species became extinct/the Exxon Valdez II happened again. So be it, let's not dwell on it, and move on." This is irreparable damage, what I don't understand is how you can be so flippant about it - maybe you aren't being flippant, in which case I apologise, but that's how it sounds to me.

Not being flippant at all. Just saying it's done gone but not irreparable. It won't be the same again but could be put back some how. Maybe not as great as was and maybe better . Just saying they can stand crying over it or deep breath and fight on. I do see it as a great shame too.

New Home · 22-09-2019 10:07pm

Benny mcc wrote: »

Not being flippant at all. Just saying it's done gone but not irreparable. It won't be the same again but could be put back some how. Maybe not as great as was and maybe better . Just saying they can stand crying over it or deep breath and fight on. I do see it as a great shame too.

Austria! · 22-09-2019 10:16pm

Benny mcc wrote: »

I still didn't get the point of dwelling on it as tragic as it may be. Still fight for it and move forward. What's done is done

Word of advice, if anyone ever asks you to perform a eulogy: decline.

magicbastarder · 22-09-2019 10:37pm

it's interesting timing too, in that the wetlands beside the NCT centre in ballymun are also in danger of being destroyed; for pipelines for the treatment plant planned for clonshaugh.

standard institutional reaction here, really; they're not in 'productive' use so have no financial value to worry about - no one to buy off - so they're the low hanging fruit when it comes to 'what land will we pick on to disrupt when we need to get something done'.

Benny mcc · 22-09-2019 10:40pm

Austria! wrote: »

Word of advice, if anyone ever asks you to perform a eulogy: decline.

Well ok so. I'll look on in wait for this to fix it's self. Good luck with that

bernard0368 · 23-09-2019 2:37pm

Its a disgrace the council should be held to task (unlikely) Can only imagine that the woodlands in Rathcool will be next on their radar.

magicbastarder · 23-09-2019 3:07pm

to summarise (in spirit, not in letter), SDCC's official response was essentially 'yeah we did it. whatcha gonna do about it?'

bernard0368 · 23-09-2019 8:04pm

@magicbastardar certainly reads like that.
Frogs and newts are protected under the wildlife act and a European directive if I remember rightly.
As the eels are on the endangered list surely there must be some protection afforded to them?
Surely then this would fall into Npws's remittance to prosecute, or is that wishful thinking?

bkrangle · 24-09-2019 9:38am

On the Tallaght wetlands front this is an odd, and worrying, development

https://www.broadsheet.ie/2019/09/24/all-a-blur/

magicbastarder · 24-09-2019 9:42am

they don't mention a source for the claim made, which would give the claim a little more gravitas.

bkrangle · 24-09-2019 9:58am

magicbastarder wrote: »

they don't mention a source for the claim made, which would give the claim a little more gravitas.

There's no source quoted but I checked google maps myself and the area is blurred out which seems odd

magicbastarder · 24-09-2019 10:08am

could be older imagery on the google source; i'm not aware of google blurring satellite imagery like that, you'd see it far more often.
also, the image quality is poorer compared to the apple one, which again might be older imaging.

to compare, try looking at the google street view imagery of the german embassy, compared to the satellite view; from a security point of view, you'd expect the satellite imagery to be more sensitive than the street view one, but it's street view in which thye offer the ability to blur the imagery:

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.3106045,-6.2029578,3a,60y,320.04h,90.92t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sEV1XSv5Aj-8PjWBT8huoEQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

bkrangle · 24-09-2019 10:56am

magicbastarder wrote: »

could be older imagery on the google source; i'm not aware of google blurring satellite imagery like that, you'd see it far more often.
also, the image quality is poorer compared to the apple one, which again might be older imaging.

to compare, try looking at the google street view imagery of the german embassy, compared to the satellite view; from a security point of view, you'd expect the satellite imagery to be more sensitive than the street view one, but it's street view in which thye offer the ability to blur the imagery:

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.3106045,-6.2029578,3a,60y,320.04h,90.92t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sEV1XSv5Aj-8PjWBT8huoEQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Thanks for the info, I'll take my tin foil hat off so!

magicbastarder · 24-09-2019 11:07am

you can see from the OSI.ie mapviewer (one of my favourite online resources in ireland) that that particular pond started to fill in sometime after 2011 or 2012. it wasn't there in 2000, but was there in 2005 - and had just started to fill in with vegetation between 2011 and 2013.

New Home · 24-09-2019 1:41pm

More photos/clips here.

https://www.broadsheet.ie/2019/09/23/like-the-surface-of-the-moon/

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/ecologists-outraged-as-dublin-nature-reserve-is-flattened-like-a-car-park-1.4026444

US2 · 27-09-2019 8:42am

Sad to see the Curlew is almost gone. I was looking enough to see one and hear one, my favorite bird.

https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1177485581418254336?s=19

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 27-09-2019 8:47am

US2 wrote: »

Sad to see the Curlew is almost gone. I was looking enough to see one and hear one, my favorite bird.

https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1177485581418254336?s=19

The full piece is here . https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0927/1078536-curlew-task-force/

Just to be clear, as the article isn't, they mean Irish breeding birds and not all Curlew. We still get many thousands wintering here every year. While the news is bad, it most certainly does not mean you won't see or hear one. In fact they are an easy bird to see and hear in Winter.

magicbastarder · 27-09-2019 9:47am

Keplar240B wrote: »

I have seen this reported as 100 or 150 million ,350 million.

Whats the actual number. Who counted?

If we take 150 million its the equivalent of 0.06792 % of Ethiopia land area planted.

given a population of ~100 million. That's 1.5 trees per person.

A step in the right direction ,

Taken in the context Ethiopia explosive population growth and the destruction of its forests over last 50 years its rather meaningless.

,

BBC's 'more or less' radio show (they analyse stats relevant to current affairs, etc.) looked at this topic, raised some of the same concerns mentioned in this thread:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07lh06y

Capercaillie · 27-09-2019 12:56pm

Moses Faithful Slime wrote: »

The full piece is here . https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0927/1078536-curlew-task-force/

Just to be clear, as the article isn't, they mean Irish breeding birds and not all Curlew. We still get many thousands wintering here every year. While the news is bad, it most certainly does not mean you won't see or hear one. In fact they are an easy bird to see and hear in Winter.

Productivity in Curlew task force core area up to 0.8 this year. Two years ago it was only at 0.15 . 0.6 needed to maintain a stable population.

New Home · 01-10-2019 10:42pm

Not precisely news, but...

bkrangle · 02-10-2019 3:29pm

Not sure if there's any truth to this but the guy tweeting is a journalist with RTE and RTE retweeted it

https://twitter.com/conorfhunt/status/1179399808546725889

bkrangle · 02-10-2019 4:51pm

Videos of it now, looks like a Minke

https://twitter.com/conorfhunt/status/1179417204581916672?s=20

https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2019/1002/1080696-whale-dublin-port/

OpenYourEyes · 03-10-2019 1:13pm

BirdWatch Ireland have been getting a lot of reports of newly arrived, and over-flying, geese and swans this week, and the Wexford Wildfowl Reserve facebook page has been updating with new arrivals too:

https://birdwatchireland.ie/geese-return-for-the-winter/

tricky D · 03-10-2019 3:04pm

bkrangle wrote: »

Not sure if there's any truth to this but the guy tweeting is a journalist with RTE and RTE retweeted it

https://twitter.com/conorfhunt/status/1179399808546725889

It's been around Howth for the last few days. Probably a Minke.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 03-10-2019 8:23pm

UK State of Nature Report.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49892209

Alun · 04-10-2019 11:51am

tricky D wrote: »

It's been around Howth for the last few days. Probably a Minke.

Unfortunately it's been found dead.

Whale spotted in River Liffey found dead in Dublin port
http://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2019/1004/1081064-whale-dublin/

New Home · 04-10-2019 11:55am

Nooo...

That's a damn shame...

Kamili · 04-10-2019 11:55am

Aww that is sad news. I had hoped that when it was originally spotted that this wouldn't be the outcome. Such a pity. the poor creature.

Alun · 04-10-2019 12:01pm

New Home wrote: »

Nooo... That's a damn shame...

The footage of it swimming around earlier in the week seemed to show it was fairly healthy so it comes as a bit of a surprise certainly. Very sad.

New Home · 04-10-2019 12:02pm

Could it have eaten something nasty while in the Liffey, or could pollution have harmed it? Or could it have collided with something?

Alun · 04-10-2019 12:46pm

New Home wrote: »

Could it have eaten something nasty while in the Liffey, or could pollution have harmed it? Or could it have collided with something?

That's what I was thinking, i.e. a collision of some sort. It's pretty busy there, shipping wise. I see they're saying they'll just leave it there and not remove it, so maybe we'll never know which would be a shame.

Nature in the News

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