June 29th - Ireland's Eye Trip

Saturday June 29th saw the first of two of the Dublin Branch's annual trip to Ireland's Eye led by Sean Hogan. As usual a large number of people turned out for the short boat ride, and the weather was perfect. Lots of seabirds were seen including puffins, kittiwakes and great black backed gulls. However, along with the enjoyment of seeing so many amazing birds in their natural element there was the distressing sight of a herring gull with fishing tackle stuck in its mouth and foot. Although it is unpleasant, after a debate it was agreed to show the picture to highlight the issue of discarded fishing tackle causing death and injury to seabirds. Photos are by IWT member John Fox.

Puffins, also known as sea parrots

Kittiwake

Great Black Backed Gull 

Herring Gull with fishing tackle caught in its mouth and foot

June 26th Dublin Branch Pub Quiz

On Wednesday June 26th, there was a big turn out for the Dublin Branch IWT quiz in Doyles Pub, opposite Trinity College. About twenty teams with names like 'The Nudey Newts' and the 'Guilty Badgers' competed  to win a variety of great prizes, including a raffle. Everyone also sampled the tempting food that was on offer. As well as general knowledge questions like 'what popular chain of stores is named after the first mate in Moby Dick?' (Starbucks) and (of course) lots of nature questions like 'what is the oldest breed of dog?' (greyhound) there was also a Simpsons round to separate the men/women from the boys/girls . Questions like 'what is the name of Mr Burns teddy bear?' (bubu), 'what does Smithers collect?' (barbie dolls) and 'what is Principal Seymour Skinner's real name?' (can't remember this one) kept the competition fierce. A lot of fun was had by all and €242 was raised for the IWT - so all in all a good night's work.

June 4th - Green Drinks - turf cutting

This month the Irish Wildlife Trust Dublin Branch heard Andrew Jackson, An Taisce's Natural Heritage Officer talk about the 'History and the Future of EU nature conservation policy'. Andrew also discussed the controversial topic of the turf cutting ban in raised bog SACs, attempts at resolving the conflict, and the light this dispute sheds on the future of EU biodiversity policy. In 2012 at least a third of the protected 53 raised bog Natura 2000 sites were cut, and the indications are that cutting is continuing in 2013. Efforts to enforce the protection of the bogs are still failing and matters are urgent at this stage. 36% of the remaining raised bog was lost between 1994 and 2005 and it is estimated that one third of the remaining 1% of the original raised bogs will be lost in the next ten years.

An Taisce, The National Trust for Ireland is one of Ireland’s oldest environmental and NGOs which serves to protect Ireland’s built and natural environment. Those of you familiar with IWT will know that this fits wonderfully into our Turf cutting campaign and our SAC watch program.

Turf Cutting at Monivea, Co. Galway Picture - Friends of the Irish environment

May 7th Green Drinks - Green Divers

On Tuesday May 7th the Irish Wildlife Trust Dublin Branch gathered in the top floor of J.W. Sweetman (formerly Messrs Maguires) to hear Seamus Heffernan talk about the Green Divers initiative. Green Divers aim is to encourage the protection of coastal areas and raise awareness of Irish marine life, and to organise monthly underwater and shoreline clean ups in the Dublin area. Most people may not realise that as well as litter on land, there is also a lot of litter underwater, both from boats and litter washed out to sea, and  that marine litter is a major problem along our coasts. The Green Divers initiative aims to do something about this by encouraging divers to do a bit of litter picking when they dive and take some litter ashore with them. This involves a monthly shoreline and underwater clean up in a scenic coastal area, with a barbeque afterwards where the hard working volunteers can unwind. The litter that is removed is recorded so that the kinds of litter can be better known and the impact of marine debris better understood.

Seamus went through all the different types of litter that can be found on the sea floor, and also talked about the amazing diversity of Irish marine life found in the Irish sea.  As well as the usual problems from glass and plastic bottles and drink cans, a major source of littering comes from old car tyres, which are used by boats to prevent damage from bumping into harbour walls and each other. Inevitably many become detached and are lost overboard. It was once thought that dumping old car tyres would help to create underwater reefs, but this idea didn't work and now in places like Florida, millions of old car tyres litter the sea floor and have to be expensively removed. Old fishing lines and nets are also a major problem as they become a major problem for wildlife. 

To save us all from getting too depressed, Seamus interspersed his pictures of litter with some of the amazing and colourful wildlife to be seen around our coastline. As well as unusual fish like the butterfish and common dragonet, Seamus' passion for wildlife made us see the beauty in creatures like sponges, worms and echinderms (starfish, sea-urchins etc). And who knew that the octupus was a kind of mollusc! Everyone was much better informed about our marine wildlife, and those of you familiar with IWT will know that the Green Diver initiative fits wonderfully into ourSustainable Seas and Pretty Litter Campaigns

Some litter from 40 foot clean up

Double spiral worm

Seamus explains Green Divers to RTE

April 2nd Green Drinks Dublin Cycling Campaign

This month Green Drinks heard Muireann O'Dea from the Dublin Cycling Campaign tell us why cycling is good for both you AND the environment, what the Dublin Cycling Campaign has been doing on the behalf of cyclists for the last 20 years, and new initiatives that will make cycling in Dublin even better!

The Dublin Cycling Campaign is an independent voluntary lobby group that has been campaigning for a decade and a half to make Dublin city a better place for cyclists. Among their campaigns are for 30km/h speed limits between the canals, as international research shows that lower speeds are a major factor in increasing road safety; much better enforcement of existing laws on speeding and dangerous driving, with a much greater garda presence; and cycle-friendly traffic calming measures, such as ramps and barriers that can be bypassed by cyclists. The campaign also wants redesign of large junctions where 75% of accidents occur, and the provision of more cycle lanes that conform to best practice. Some of the cycle lanes provided at the moment are substandard and actually worse than nothing because they provide no additional safety at all, but can lull riders into a false sense of security. Cycle lanes on footpaths are also unacceptable as they make conditions worse for cyclists and pedestrians.

The campaign has achieved some notable successes, such as restrictions on heavy vehicles in the city centre, better public bicycle parking provision in the city centre, and the establishment of the cycle forum for Dublin City. The Dublin Cycling campaign also works to promote the benefits of cycling to the public, trying to get across not only the environmental and health benefits, but  that cycling can be incredibly cool and stylish!

Dublin Cycling Campaign Logo

On Yer Bike!

                                                 

March 24th - Woodland walk in Massey Woods

On March 24th the Dublin Branch of IWT brought 70th Porterstown Beaver Scouts on a woodland walk in Massey Woods. The scouts really enjoyed themselves and their leaders sent the Dublin Branch this report telling us about all the nature they saw:

Despite the cold, once we started the hike all the young minds were focused on the wonders of the woods with some general chit chat with their friends! With the cold weather the air borne insects and birds ( we did see one robin!) mostly stayed at home but we found some mayfly larvae and shrimp bugs on the river bed using kick sampling method. We also found some spiders living on the branches of trees using the beating trays and the pooters. We learned about some of the fantastic trees in the woods ( hazel tree - no sign of any nuts - the squirrels did a good job taking the nuts into storage for the winter); king of the forest - sessile oak, the silver birch, the olde Yew tree, the Monterrey pine, the redwood/ sequoia trees and the 'kind of bearded' lime trees ( not to be confused with the ones that actually produce limes) and found out lots of interesting things - there was a dead deer on the path - most likely died of natural causes as deers don't have any predators; red squirrels eat the acorns from pine trees not preferred by grey squirrels, and much more.

We all had a great time - thanks to Roisin, Claire, Niall and Phil for making it so interesting and fun for the Beavers and the 3 cubs who joined us on the hike. Some parents joined us on the hike too - we were all heartened and impressed with the Irish Wildlife Trust Volunteers spending their time with us on a cold Sunday afternoon.

Many thanks.

Yours in Scouting,

Friday night Beaver Scouts - 70th Porterstown

talking about trees

Under the old oak tree

5th March Green Drinks - Sustainable Seas and Badgers

This month Irish Wildlife Trust Dublin Branch heard about the Irish Wildlife Trust's key campaigns for sustainable seas and an end to the cull of Irish badgers.

Sustainable Seas – a lot done more to do
Pádraic Fogarty, IWT Campaigns Officer, outlined the situation so far. The good news is that European fisheries ministers have agreed to end the practice of discards, the wasteful practice of fishermen being forced to throw away any fish they catch for which they do not have a quota. As much as 80% of what a fisherman can catch has to be discarded this way, so banning discards is a big step forward.

The devil is in the detail however, as there are still issues to be worked out. For example, paying fishermen for the discarded catch would create a market, leading to even more overfishing, so the best (or least worst) option is for the fisherman to simply 'donate' the fish free to the state for research. Also, a blanket ban on discards in all circumstances means that a fisherman would have to bring ashore protected species of fish that were still alive, instead of returning them to the sea.

Already the impact of the decision is being limited by the proposed ban only focussing on edible fish species, even though inedible marine life caught up in trawling can be equally important to a healthy marine environment. There has been significant progress towards ending overfishing since the IWT first started our Sustainable Seas campaign in 2010 – but we’re not there yet.

Typical net of a prawn fisherman -
everything that is not prawn has to be discarded
- even though it is most of the catch

Ireland's Badgers - fighting a losing battle?
Fintan Kelly explained the IWT's campaign to end the culling of badger in Ireland, which is meant to prevent BovineTb (Btb). Despite almost continuous culling of badgers for many years, the level of bovine Tb remains stubbornly high. Fintan explained how the level fluctuated more with the intensity of farm inspections than with any change in badger culling, yet despite this the IWT faces an uphill struggle to convince the government to change course in favour of a vaccination programme.

Government lack of action is partly due to hostility from farmers, who are firmly in favour of culling, and partly because trying to achieve pressure at EU level has so far proven to be ineffective.This is despite  Ireland's total disregard for the Bern convention, the failure of the Bern Standing Committee to carry out its mandate to protect the badger, and how the issue is being tackled by our nearest neighbours.

Fintan gave an example of how the Bern convention is being disregarded. While the convention does allow a protected species to be culled if it is a threat to agriculture, it specifies that this must be done with the minimum disturbance to the species. Yet despite this badger culling in Ireland continues all year round, even in breeding season, meaning that adult badgers are being caught, leaving their young to die of starvation underground.

At present 6,000 snares are set for badgers every night. The snares are legal because they do not kill the badger (usually), but they can cause injuries and do cause distress. Hours later in the morning the trapper then comes and shoots the badger. The war on Btb and badgers has always been an emotive issue. It has pitted farmers and conservationists against each other since Btb was first discovered in badgers in the early seventies and no early resolution is in sight.

Badger by Jaroslav Vogeltanz
www.worldnaturephoto.com