9 fields become 3. hedges are one of the last refuges for wildlife in our sterilised countryside, and the 1st thing new landowner does here is gouge them out. i reported this to @daera_ni when it was happening but see they've done sweet FA about it @UFUHQ #thankthefarmer *thread*

wildlife isn't 'declining' in Ireland, its being exterminated. the main perpetrators are intensive and intensifying farmers, enabled by poor to non-existent monitoring and enforcement- itself enabled by absence of scrutiny in media @BBCnireland @BelTel @News_Letter @irish_news

no one is doing their job properly, and i'm running around like an absolute mug reporting incident after incident with very little success.
i came back to Ireland from work in Scotland on 22nd March. this is what i've seen since then:

25th March. this field was a bluebell wood when i last visited. dairy farmer started clearing it a few years ago but managed to get him stopped. he then went back and finished the job in 2019. reported to @ForestServiceNI, don't know outcome yet

31st March. hedge mutilation and clearance of small shrubby wood. felled trees piled up in multiple places. aren't hedges away from roads meant to be big and bushy? would love to see some someday

same day. dumping of farm waste into ancient woodland

1st April. infilling woodland with mountains of rubble and waste, inc (empty?) drum of some nasty looking hazardous stuff

2nd April. infilling ancient woodland with mixed waste. look at how beautiful that wood is in pic 2, an absolute sea of wood anemones. reported multiple times over the years, nothing done, dumping continues*

*my understanding is that dumping by an external party is fly-tipping, in which case the council have enforcement responsibility (sometimes successful). harmful dumping by the landowner themselves is DAERA's responsibility (have never had success)

11th April. partial clearance of woodland and hedge boundary removed. reported and followed up. apparently no woodland was cleared according to official... but i was literally standing in a cleared area. the whole thing would likely be gone if not for that departmental site visit

25th April. ripping out scrub during bird nesting season, preparing 'unimproved' (aka nature rich) grassland for 'improvement' (aka sterilisation). should have applied for EIA screening, reported

most success i've had over years is with @ForestServiceNI- there are ancient woods that still exist specifically because i called them and they took action. but what about the ones i didn't see?
we need monitoring. we need enforcement. until then gov is complicit in destruction

amidst all of this there are still some wonderful pro-nature farmers out there who've rejected the idea that exterminating wildlife is progress. you are the reason many species still cling on, yet your work is greatly undervalued. thank you