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Welcome to the post-natural landscape of & #39;Wild Nephin& #39;/Ballycroy National Park in Co. Mayo. It offered so much promise, where did it all go wrong?
Launched in 2013 by taoiseach Enda Kenny it offered a "15 year restoration period during which the plantation forest will be remodelled with native pine & deciduous trees, drainage channels blocked, invasive rhododendron cleared & infrastructure removed...
https://www.wildeurope.org/wild-nephin-forestry-restoration/">https://www.wildeurope.org/wild-neph...
https://www.wildeurope.org/wild-nephin-forestry-restoration/">https://www.wildeurope.org/wild-neph...
...leaving the landscape governed entirely by natural processes. There are plans to reintroduce species such as golden plover, merlin and red squirrel, real possibilities of attracting white-tailed sea eagle... and perhaps osprey".
None of these things have happened...
None of these things have happened...
Like many I was enthusiastic at the time but cautious due to the lack of specifics. In 2016 we followed up with this piece by @lennyantonelli for @Irishwildlife magazine. He was told a management plan would be produced by summer 2017. That didn& #39;t happen. https://iwt.ie/wheres-wild-wild-nephin/">https://iwt.ie/wheres-wi...
An investigation by @GreenNews_ie
at the end of 2017 found that far from replacing the conifers, 260,000 *new* conifers had been planted since 2013. Some of these can be see in the photo.
https://greennews.ie/ireland-first-wilderness-zone-under-threat-commercial-forestry/">https://greennews.ie/ireland-f...
at the end of 2017 found that far from replacing the conifers, 260,000 *new* conifers had been planted since 2013. Some of these can be see in the photo.
https://greennews.ie/ireland-first-wilderness-zone-under-threat-commercial-forestry/">https://greennews.ie/ireland-f...
In 2018 the & #39;Wild Nephin& #39; area (purple) was added to to the Ballycroy National Park (green) so it& #39;s now massive. That year also saw the production of a & #39;Conversion Plan& #39;... which was only released to me under a Freedom of Information request. The plan is not bad...
However, 7 years into the 15 year plan virtually nothing has happened on the ground (though of course the signs went up nearly straight away)...
A trip to the & #39;non-plantation& #39; parts of the National Park, also a & #39;special area of conservation& #39; reveals some pretty serious landscape degradation. Nothing being done here either...
Although I& #39;m told things are moving ahead it& #39;s all very secretive. There& #39;s no website giving information. I have not been able to find any evidence of community/stakeholder outreach ever having been done. The B&B owner I stayed with recently in Newport had never even heard of it.
At what point can we declare the whole thing a sham? The thing is... it could be amazing. It needs serious investment to get things moving & a change in culture. It needs local community buy-in but it could be transformative for local employment never mind the wildlife potential
