Where to now for rewilding in Ireland? – World Sensorium / Conservancy

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Just visited one of the most stunning islands – County Kerry, Ireland. Everyone outside of where I live talks about Valentia, Puffin, Skellig and Blasket Islands, but for those of us in the know, especially those of us who live in To those who live on the southern tip of the Iverra Peninsula on the coast of Kenmare Bay, these are the islands of Scariff, Dinish, Moiraun, Two Heads, Bull Rock, Shelki Island and Ross Dohan Island Most fascinating. They are dotted along large shallow bays and bays throughout their range and consist of coral reefs, rocky shores and cliffs with permanent vegetation, salt meadows, sea caves, and wet and dry heather. It is home to colonies of nesting seabirds including northern gannets, Manx shearwaters, storm petrels, common, arctic and sandwich terns, several species of gulls, cormorants and cormorants, and puffins ( including puffins, razorbills, and guillemots). Dive underwater and you’ll come into contact with countless species living in kelp forests, seagrass and kelp beds. The islands are often nature reserves and are frequented by whale and dolphin species, shark species such as basking sharks, local seal populations, and otters. In fact, the island’s flora is like a carpet of wet and dry heather species, including heather, heather, western gorse, bracken and huckleberry. Flowering plants include hyacinth, sheepshead, creeping willow, purple bog grass, thrift grass, scurvy grass, rock samphire, rock sea spine, sea aster and sea campion to name a few. Many of the habitats and species mentioned are listed in Annex 1 of the EU Habitats Directive.

Of all the islands mentioned above, the charming island of Rossdohan tells one of the most interesting stories, a story that has shaped not only the island’s flora, but also its insect flora. Like the other islands mentioned, Ross Dohan is a private island, shaped like the others by thousands of years of climate change, from the post-glacial period to warming, cooling, and then changing again. warm period. Its unique marine flora and fauna evolved largely after the end of the last Ice Age (approximately 11,500 years ago). In modern times, the warming waters of the Gulf Stream have had its most lasting impact.

Today the resulting microclimate at Rosdohan seems alien to the climate of those islands more exposed to the sea. In the 1870s, Samuel Heard, a retired surgeon who had worked in India, purchased the island. Inspired by the horticultural gardens of Madras, India, he began planting exotic Southern Hemisphere species on the seemingly barren island, first covering the bare earth with native plants such as gorse, and then with Chilean escaronhas. and rhododendron hybrid hedges. One of the most successful shelter plant species is the Australian blackwood—Blackwood Acacia. Monterey pine and Monterey cypress were later planted. Australian tree fern (Antarctic Dixon) added Silver Tree Fern (Callis alba) and eucalyptus species.

Hurd built a fine house on the island, and as he saw his gardens growing and maturing, the house burned down a year after his death (1921), a move aimed at ridding the area of ​​its powerful British colonial rule. The new house, designed by architect Michael Scott, was built in 1946 but was also destroyed by fire in an accident in 1955. The garden brought new life and by the 1970s the garden was in its heyday. In 1991, the island was sold to East German Manfred Wolfert. After his death in 2001, the garden was restored to its original state, and by 2024, it was a wilderness with species such as eucalyptus, subtropical evergreens such as kratom, the coniferous Rimu and the Bhutanese pine. is a wild testament to its exotic past.

I first visited these gardens in 1985. They are beautifully manicured and thriving. I have not been to Southeast Asia or Australia and New Zealand, and this was the first time I had seen these plant species, including exotic trees and tree ferns. One thing I always remember throughout these decades is the smell from the plantation, and to this day when I walk into the garden from the island’s semi-natural woodland, I can smell the difference. Another really interesting observation is the presence of the defenseless stick insect – native to New Zealand, where it can be found.

The island is currently owned by the Parknasilla Estate, and while it is best known for its subtropical botanical gardens, two-thirds of the 132 acres are predominantly planted with native Irish trees and plants. Trees include oak, ash, hazel, willow, birch, alder, holly, hawthorn and crabapple. Gorse and heather grow on the exposed shore facing the sea. Bitter vines and ground plants such as ivy, toussaint, lesser celandine, amaranth and purple loosestrife fill the woodland edges. Before abandonment, some ancient meadows provided ground cover including sweetgrass, buttercups, dandelions, Robbery plantain, clover and yellow rattle. The pockets are still there. Orchids bloom here in summer, too.

Among native Irish trees, moss, bryophytes and ferns cover the ground and lower tree trunks. Epiphytic ferns and lichens grow high on tree trunks and branches. Also found here are branches covered with lungwort, a large-leaved lichen that is a composite species of algae, fungi and bacteria. Its presence represents ancient woodland with pure air and water. Their range is rapidly disappearing across Europe, but the west of Ireland remains the species’ stronghold. What a joy to find it! The island also has a large number of introduced trees, including beech, sycamore, horse tree and sweet chestnut. These species were introduced to Ireland between the 15th and 17th centuries and have become naturalized ever since. Sitka spruce is also found here. It was introduced to Ireland in the 1830s and currently accounts for approximately 40% of the total forest cover on Irish plantations.

Ireland’s tree cover has declined dramatically since Mesolithic people first cleared forests (around 7,000 years ago). From 4,500 years ago to the present, native woodlands account for less than 1% of the remaining area covered. Such fragmentation is inappropriate in an environment where biodiversity, from insects to birds and bats, has declined significantly. Pressure from agriculture, land clearing, planting of non-native Sitka spruce creating dead zones that reduce biodiversity, hedge clearing and pollution of waterways have all exacerbated this decline. Add to this the fact that non-native plants are somewhat colonizing and overtaking our native species, and you have a picture of irreversible change taking place. Garden escape plants, including Crocosmia (native to South Africa), have taken over the curb; fuchsia has taken over our hedges. Along the river banks, non-native knotweed has taken over the entire channel, shading out native wildflowers. Himalayan balsam has also taken over riverbanks since its introduction to Ireland in the Victorian era. Like knotweed, when it loses its leaves in the fall, it can cause soil erosion. Gunnera (native to South America) can also cause detrimental shading of native wildflowers. In our national parks, particularly the crown jewel Killarney National Park, rhododendron infestations and herbivores such as sika deer, ibex and sheep are creating the conditions for the natural regeneration of oak forests to have stalled.

There is still much work to be done if we are to undo the legacy of the past. The rewilding movement began in North America to protect wildlife habitats and corridors and spread to Europe in 2011. By 2021, it has taken root in Ireland.

In 2010, when I started doing research for my book “Wild Drinan”– A visual natural history of the Skellig Coast (published August 2023) – I consulted the National Archives’ photographic record of South Derry. Most of the black-and-white photos of the period were taken in the second half of the 19th century and show coastal landscapes that are mostly farmland. Tree cover at the time was mainly limited to the perimeter of the house, gardens and neighboring Dunraven Estate. The six-inch Ordnance Survey map published in 1829 confirms this. When Derrynane House was finally brought into public ownership and opened to the public in 1967, the formal gardens were expanded and, like Rossdohan, exotic plants including South American plants were planted. As my research continued, I quickly realized that much of the former farmland had reverted to native woodland. Is this an example of rewilding? I think so. Many rewilding advocates in Ireland believe that if we leave the land alone, it will return to its original state. It does seem possible that the complex relationships between soils, biomes and woodland regeneration may benefit from our inaction. But then again, in some cases, achieving self-regulation in woodlands may require a helping hand. This is certainly the case in Killarney National Park.

As for where we are today? We are indeed in a state of flux and nature recovery requires changes in legislation, policies at European and national levels, compensatory and beneficial commitments to land managers, and a participatory role for the public.

We may well have to live side by side with the subtropical gardens of the Southern Hemisphere and see them for what they were, as relics of the 19th century.^thThe gardening obsession of the century. As I stood on the edge of a woodland in south Delhi, I heard the high-pitched “hissssssss” of a flock of beautiful long-tailed tits. These small birds require healthy woodland habitat.

The future is in our hands.

Vincent Hyland, Based in Drinan, Ireland, he is a passionate environmentalist, multimedia artist and educator dedicated to protecting and promoting the natural beauty of the Kerry coastline. A renowned expert on the Derrynan coastal ecosystem, he pioneered the first nature walks of its kind in Ireland: the Derrynan Seaside Nature Trail and the Wild Derrynan Underwater Nature Trail for scuba divers. Hyland also played a key role in the establishment of the Kerry UNESCO International Dark Sky Reserve and has written Wild Drinana natural history book illustrated with his photographs.

For more information:
Wild Drinan: the natural history of Ireland’s Great Skellig Coast and Kerry Marine National Park Author: Vincent Hyland

Photos and videos by Gayil Nalls and John Steele