"Less than 0.1% – one thousandth – of Ireland is now ancient forest. That figure compares, for eg, to 2.5% in England, ie over 25x less. But it’s even worse: here, most of these tiny refuges are being killed off by overgrazing." My piece in today's Irish Times. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2024... - ThreadSky

irishrainforest.bsky.social • 66 days ago

"Less than 0.1% – one thousandth – of Ireland is now ancient forest. That figure compares, for eg, to 2.5% in England, ie over 25x less.

But it’s even worse: here, most of these tiny refuges are being killed off by overgrazing."

My piece in today's Irish Times.
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2024/12/24/overgrazing-eats-up-the-last-of-irelands-ancient-rainforest/

Comments

smollestbunny2.bsky.social•66 days ago

Incredibly depressing

jardinpolitique.bsky.social•65 days ago

📌

jrkelly.bsky.social•65 days ago

Not for nothing, why do people write "over 25x less" rather than "less than 1/25th"?

lbartsandmedia.bsky.social•65 days ago

💔

irishwoodlandtrust.bsky.social•65 days ago

It gets worse - there are woodlands out there, not on any inventory, effectively unknown. If we don't know they're there, we can't protect them.
Of those we do know, many have no legal protection - proposed as Natural Heritage Areas, the weakest form of protection, but never formalised.

irishwoodlandtrust.bsky.social•65 days ago

It's our greatest disappointment in the last government which included the Green Party. Instead of protecting all of those known woodlands, they initiated another survey. Will the next government protect them? Very unlikely.
Is there a point at which we will draw the line? We've already lost 99.9%.

irishrainforest.bsky.social•66 days ago

Coincidentally, after I wrote and submitted the above piece, I had the chance to spend a day at Uragh with the NPWS personnel who'll be culling the invasive sika + goats.

If any 2 people working at ground level can pull off ecosystem restoration there, they will. We'll see.
https://bsky.app/profile/irishrainforest.bsky.social/post/3ldnh6htygs2u

shelleyxgardens.bsky.social•66 days ago

Just finished reading the article. Uragh sounds like an utterly magical place, and I think that you and others who realise the importance of the ancient woodland need to keep banging on the door of government to improve understanding in the general public. All the best

irishrainforest.bsky.social•66 days ago

@whittledaway.bsky.social
@danpathfinder.bsky.social

gerardharbison.bsky.social•65 days ago

My family came from one of the last stretches of primeval forest in Ireland, in SE Derry. The O Neills kept it as a hunting preserve. There were wolves into the 18th century. Sadly, overpopulation and the exiling of Catholics to forested land led it to being cut down. Now it's mostly bog.

cloudng.bsky.social•66 days ago

And in England, ever more powerful and frequent flailing of hedges around agricultural fields is decimating the remaining habitats of rural birds and other wildlife. Their refuges are now few, and disconnected. “Tidiness” is reducing our biodiversity very quickly.

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