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HUNDREDS OF TURF cutters have been using the upcoming presidential election as a means of showing the candidates how disappointed they are about the current turf-cutting restrictions.
But what are these restrictions, and why are turf cutters up in arms about them?
TheJournal.ie takes a look at this contentious issue from both sides.
The current state of our bogs
The government funded a four-year report, Boglands, by the European Protection Agency into Ireland’s peatland areas.
It found that though peat soils cover 20 per cent of the national land area, there are no more intact raised bogs in Ireland while very few peatlands remain in their natural state.
The current area of active raised bog stands at 2,000 ha, less than 6 per cent of the protected raised bog area.
It is estimated that between 2 per cent and 4 per cent (40–80 ha) of this active area is being lost every year mainly as a result of turf cutting.
Even if turf cutting was stopped, peat oxidation would continue (due to drainage) unless measures were employed to stop and revert this.
According to the document, peatlands are “Ireland’s last great area of wilderness” and the management of the peatlands was not sustainable in either past or present time.
It also says that disturbances in the form of industrial and domestic peat extraction, private afforestation, overgrazing, wind farms and recreational activities “have had and are having major negative impacts on the hydrology and ecology of these habitats”.
It says that people attach a social value to the domestic cutting of peat and “do not always recognise a contradiction with peatland preservation”.
The study identified:
considerable ambiguity and lack of understanding as to the significance of the peatland resource and, in particular, its role in provision of ecosystem services.
It suggests it is time to open the debate and actively involve the public; to form a Peatland Strategy Group and peatland awareness programmes.
It also believes the creation of a National Peatland Park deserves serious consideration and support from the Government.
EU Habitats Directive
The Habitats Directive forms the cornerstone of Europe’s nature conservation policy.
It is built around the Natura 2000 network of protected sites and the strict system of species protection.
There are over 1500 raised bogs in Ireland and only 139 of these have been designated for nature protection within 130 sites.
The European Commission has been critical of Ireland’s approach to the protection of peatland habitat and first initiated infringement proceedings against Ireland in 1999. It again began proceedings in January this year.
The Government took decisive action, in relation to the cessation of turf cutting on 53 designated Special Area of Conservation (SAC) raised bogs, to ensure that Ireland would not be subject to legal action and potentially serious fines in the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan has twice met with EU Environment Commissioner Potočnik to discuss the matter.
The Government has held a consistent line on this issue since taking office – that all cutting must cease on Ireland’s 53 designated raised bog SACs.
This was also what all members of the Peatlands Council (see below) agreed to in their statement of 1 June this year.
Biodiversity and the environment
The bogs support rare and threatened species and Boglands says the ongoing degradation of Irish peatlands “equates to a loss of biodiversity at regional, national and international levels”.
Natural peatlands act as a long-term carbon store, which means it helps actively remove carbon from the atmosphere.
However, this is reversed and carbon is actually released when the peatland is damaged.
The vast majority of Irish peatlands are critically at risk of future disturbances, such as climate change.
Half of Ireland’s raised bogs were destroyed (at a rate of 800,000 tons per year) between 1814 and 1946.
After World War 2, the government set up Bord na Móna to cut peat by mechanical means. In 1969, there were just 100,000 hectares of raised-bog left in Ireland, of which Bord na Móna owned 45,000 hectares.
The restrictions
In 1999, The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Sile de Valera TD, and the Minister of State at her department, Eamon O Cuiv TD, held a series of consultations with representatives of the farm organisations and turf cutters.
That year, they announced the arrangements for the cessation of turf cutting on raised bogs which are proposed as SACs.
In 2009, bog cutting was reversed by the then Minister for the Environment, John Gormley.
In May 2010, the Government confirmed the ending of the derogation which allowed a 10-year continuation of turf-cutting for domestic purposes on raised bog SACs and NHAs.
Cutting is no longer permitted on the first 31 of these sites without the express consent of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
The Government has also decided that cutting will cease on a further 24 raised bog SACs from the end of this year and on 75 raised bog NHAs in 2013.
The Government decision related to domestic cutting applies on selected raised bog protected sites – not blanket bogs, which are much more extensive in area. However, restrictions introduced in 1999 relating to turf-cutting on designated blanket bogs continue to apply.
It is not possible to reconsider this matter as Ireland has a clear legal obligation to protect these sites and to fail to do so would render the State liable to significant financial sanctions imposed by the European Court of Justice, the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht told TheJournal.ie.
Turf cutters
But what do the turf cutters think?
Turbary, or the right of private individuals to cut turf for domestic use, has taken place in Ireland since the 15th century.
The Irish Turf Cutters’ and Contractors’ Association was founded in 1998 by Paddy Concannon. Its members oppose the ban and have protested numerous times around Ireland about the situation.
The government has offered turf cutters compensation of €1000 per year for 15 years.
Just under €200,000 was paid out in 2010 to ensure those affected had the means to provide alternative winter fuel.
The ITCCA members are not happy with this compensation offer and say that some members have not yet been paid compensation they were promised under previous schemes.
The EPA Boglands report says that in the case of ongoing turf cutting on protected sites, acquisition would be a better option and better value for money than compensation.
Some members have said they are willing to go to jail in their fight for their land.
For them, turf cutting is a tradition handed down over centuries from family member to family member, and preventing people from cutting turf on their own land, for domestic use, is unfair and leaves people without fuel.
The TCCA proposes the following solution:
The Peatlands Council
In April of this year, the government established an independent Peatlands Council.
The Peatland Council is tasked with advising the Government on drawing up a national strategy on Peatlands conservation and management in consultation with bog owners and other stakeholders.
It is also drawing up an agreed national code of environmental practice in regard to turf-extraction in designated sites.
Turf cutters continue to protest the ban.
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Dredging the Shannon, if done in the correct way would solve most of the problems with flooding. A small handful of properties need to bite the bullet and accept demolition of their one-off bungalow bliss and be relocated to higher ground as nearby as possible.
The simple reality is that the volume of a river’s capacity needs to be at the maximum potential to swiftly move these amounts of water to the sea as quickly as possible. Once this has been addressed, we need to seriously look at land management in the western two-thirds of this island.
Long gone are the days of farming on low-yield soils and long gone are the days of cutting away bogs. Bog restoration would provide a natural sponge to hold back large rainfalls and release it slowly, whereas returning low-yield farmland to forestry (deciduous type) would help soak up ground water from soils already saturated for much of the year.
We need a land management agency and a waterways management agency under one roof planning and singing from the same hymn sheet. It can be done, it should be done, it needs to be done.
Otherwise stuff like this will continue to haunt the Shannon area: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CM9ZP-FWoAAS0LX.jpg
@Laois Weather: Just to add to the above piece:
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/image-117.png
A picture paints a thousand words.
@Laois Weather: eh, the expert in the article just explained why dredging would be of no benefit – whether it’s done ‘properly’ or not! At best it would move the problem to the people downriver. Dredging is needed on a tiny percent of the length of the Shannon, and it’s more to do with boat navigation than flooding.
@Laois Weather: That being true (bite the bullet) the government should relocate people and reimburse those with land as it was their planning departments that allowed it in the first place. Otherwise people will be ruined.
@Laois Weather: a little bit of hobest civil engineering with whiile lacking the the brown envelopes might do the trick as in. Ask Denmark
@Seamus Mc Nulty: the government doesn’t own or control planning departments, or make county-by-county planning policy.
@Laois Weather: it would solve nothing.
The shannon drops 100 feet from Carrick on shannon to Limerick, and most if that drop consists of four sudden steps at Jamestown, athlon, meelick and parteen. Tge river is essentially actually flat, and dredging it just deepens the channel and creates a hole that immediately fills up with water — it night as well be filled with concrete for all the effect it would have on the flow.
The shannon has a broad floodplain which floods when heavy rain falls on saturated ground. Any developments on flood plains will flood too.
Dredging the shannon is an effective tool for politicians seeking votes; it has worked in that way for as long as I remember. It does nothing for water levels though, you can’t defy gravity or make water flow up hills.
@John Mulligan: absolutely. It’s a flat river and, if you’ll excuse the pun, everything flows from that.
@John Mulligan: while you are right in a way increasing capacity by deepening the channel means less water spills out of the channel. If you pour a litre of water into a pint glass it spils out, if you pour it into a litre jug none spills out. By dredging the shannon you also increase capacity by helping the water thats in it to escape to the sea quicker. The main thing is the water needs to be able to get to the sea and that dredging happens from the sea back up to the source. You would still likely get flooding but it wouldn’t be as high as it is currently
@Brian Burke: Brian you don’t think logic. Dredging should be done by Dutch experts. Dredging can not be done here and there only than is it becoming a problem.
@Laois Weather: “long gone are the days of farming on low yield soils “
You do realise that most of the farmland around the Shannon region is some of the best soil around ? Most of the lands are under limestone . It ain’t Connemara
@Dino: and if you pour a 5 gallon container of water into the jug it spills over. The amount of water in these floods can’t be contained in the main river channel. The only solution is to slow down the water getting into the main river channel
@Dino: the additional capacity achieved by dredging the channel is insignificant in the context of the problem.
@Laois Weather: Sure in the 1960s when there was far less rain, so not a valid comparison.
The headline really says it all , as in it would seem they don’t know their arse from their elbow. So many of these places were never suitable for building homes on in the first place, so how did they get PP? Then you have other homes that have been in the family for generations & being flooded for the first time. Perhaps that’s down to doggie drainage as a result of bad planning.
@Colette Kearns: In the general case, planners often refuse permission, but a word is had with a local TD or councillor, and it is granted. Family land, help the elderly parents, can’t afford a house in town, etc.
@George Salter: remember that Councillors decide planning policy, not planners. The planning system is not there to prevent people making decisions which turn out to be unwise.
It’s hilarious the denial. We’ve had an unprecedented number of storms bringing rain in from the Atlantic on a continuous conveyer belt. This isn’t normal rainfall for Ireland, it’s climate change. It was predicted by climate modelling decades ago. Dredging won’t fix it. Many of these houses are built in areas that have never flooded in the past. It’s exactly the same story in the UK. Blaming and pointing fingers is like Australians blaming policymakers for the forest fires instead of 5 consecutive years of heatwaves caused by climate change. If you want to blame someone, it’s YOUR fault having such a dependency on fossil fuel.
@Paraic: You know more than the experts then?
From: https://www.met.ie/cms/assets/uploads/2020/02/FebRain.pdf (Met Eireann)
“In Met Éireann, basic trend analysis has been performed on a number of high quality rainfall stations over a fifty year period. Some stations show an increase in the frequency of heavy precipitation (>10mm) / very heavy precipitation (>20mm) days over the past decades, however other stations show a decrease, there is large regional variation and occasionally conflicting trends from stations that are geographically relatively close. The fact that rainfall displays such a high degree
of variability, both temporally and spatially makes it difficult to be definitive about trends.”
And from: https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/0227/1117988-storms-ireland
“The causes of the high storminess during the Little Ice Age continue to be debated, but one theory is that powerful storms were produced by a strong cooling of the North Atlantic. There are several pieces of evidence supporting this North Atlantic cooling. Records from Iceland show that there was a greater persistence of sea ice around the coastline at this time. There were recurrent collapses of the cod fishery on the Faroe Islands during the Little Ice Age, which is an indication of colder temperatures as cod do not survive in water below 2°C”
I wonder what fossil fuels were burned around 1400AD to cause those storms? The green loons trying to link *every* weather event to Climate Change and slurring people who argue against this as “deniers” is as dishonest as one can be. Climate Change always happened – and to say that humans are 100% responsible for this is pure folly.
The endless list of failed predictions by the Climate Change Alarmists should be enough evidence for people to see through the agenda – apparently not though, 12 voted in TDs shows how gullible the youth are.
@Daniel Dunne: Cherry pick much?
” Human-caused climate change intensifies the heaviest downpours. More than 70% of the planet’s surface is water, and as the world warms, more water evaporates from oceans, lakes, and soils. Every 1°F rise also allows the atmosphere to hold 4% more water vapor. So when weather patterns lead to heavy rain, there is even more moisture available for stronger downpours, increasing the risk and severity of flooding.” I don’t claim to know more than the experts, I just know how to listen to them.
@Paraic: Should we add that to the list of failed predictions?
https://cei.org/blog/wrong-again-50-years-failed-eco-pocalyptic-predictions
@Daniel Dunne: I don’t see any specific reference in either of the articles you posted that supports the idea that the increased precipitation we are witnessing is not due to climate change. Basically what you are trying to imply is that variation between rainfall measuring stations = no unusual rainfall happening. Storms thousands of years ago = No climate change now. Really weak arguments. Classic confirmation bias at work in fact.
@Paraic: the climate changes constantly, the reasons for it are whats debatable. In this article alone the “expert” mentions a drough that lasted a decade in Ireland in the 1800s, I guess that was caused by global warming too? I was reading about a pre incan civilisation in south America a couple of weeks ago and it is thought that they were wiped out by floods followed by extended drought back in 1100 or so. I understand your fear and feel sorry for the alarmists running around telling everyone the end is nigh but its not, its just nature. I bet you’re one of the people in a panic over this corona viris too? Some people just like to panic I guess
@Daniel Dunne: If you want to get your facts from a denialist blog, suit yourself. Literally nobody is saying that tabloid newspapers should be treated like peer reviewed research papers. But it’s typical of denialist loons to argue a point that nobody made. Personally, I listen to 100% of climatologists.
@Dino: The “I read about stuff that happened before” argument is more denialist tripe. Don’t you think that climatologists know about climatological events in the past and take them into account? The Shannon basin is very badly flooded, the worst in my living memory and there’s no sign of the rain abating. How does that fit into the “they said stuff would happen but it didn’t” argument? How about “They said there would be more flooding, more forest fires, polar ice melting, rising seas, more intense storms, more heatwave and that’s exactly what we are seeing”?
@Paraic: read my comment again, I never said the climate wasn’t changing, it is and always has. The reasons for it are whats debatable and there is absolutely nothing anyone in Ireland can do to reverse it despite your ridiculous crusade!
@Daniel Dunne: Rubbish you think that burning millions of years of stored carbon oil gas in just 200 years has not changed our climate is utter nonsense.
@Dino: It’s not debatable. The science and debating was done decades ago, it came to the conclusion that man is the cause of the rapid climate change we are witnessing. The science is irrefutable. Only fools will still try to insist something is false that we already know for sure to be true. I mean you’ve got Daniel there asking if I should add the prediction that the Shannon basin will experience more and intense flooding to the “list of failed predictions”. Do you realise how utterly idiotic that is?
What else can you expect when you place an almost 100ft dam across the
the Shannon which then discharges within a couple miles of the sea, the
continued use of the ESB Hydro Station to generate 84 odd Megawatts
on the Shannon is no longer feasible or indeed viable as its output in
respect of the national load demand 4400 Mw, couple this with the systems
design which envisaged 6 turbines with a design flow of 600 Cm/s of which
only four were installed, yet the storage or design was not adjusted to
take account of the reduced discharge at 400 Cm/s, there is also the
issue of giving of permission almost in secret to the ESB in the mid 70′s
to further raise levels at the time of the Oil Crisis, how much has this
contributed to flooding, is the Shannon system and other Hydro Stations
being used as a spinning reserve to deal with wind generation flucuations
and for peaking morning and evening, the time has come to take the ESB
and the ir 95% shareholder the Government and never mind all this nonsense
about flood barriers
I think the problem is far bigger than the dam ~ @Clonagh Ri:
@Clonagh Ri: the dam has no impact on the shannon floodplain. If you looked at the river profile in detail you would see the height of the dam relative to the flooded areas. If it was an issue, the water would be twenty to thirty feet over the top of the dam.
The problem is that the channel between ree and derg can’t take the flood because it’s too flat. Tge water can only go sideways after heavy rain, across the flood plain.
The dam is an easy target for simplistic answers, but it isn’t the problem.
@Clonagh Ri: should be pulled down like other dams accross Europe as it is a barrier to fish migration.
Our salmon, eels and lampreys were nearly wipes out.
Castleconnel was the greatest salmon fishery in the world at one time
@Ciarán FitzGerald: but no impact on flooding
@John Mulligan: The system is dammed incrementally from Lough
Allen to Parteen and water is released in stages from one holding
basin to the next ,what is held back at the various basins as far as
Jamestown weir cannot be released until each stage is spilled and
released until it eventually reaches the Parteen Dam, from the late
1920′s and into the 30′s the ESB were given Statutory Authority by
Act and Statutory Order/Instrument to raise water levels and impuond
it, there is also an additional Instrument made in the Mid 70′s further
raising levels in response to ’73 Oil Crisis, all level raising has to be
referenced to the historic levels pertaining at the commencement of
the Shannon Navigation Works in the 1840′s, you simplistic assertion
that the Pateen Dam would have to be at the same level as the Jamestown Sluice is somewhat ridiculous, when in fact the system
is controlled in stages, as it stands the entire original project has
now to reassessed in light of current energy requirements,which
is of today 4400 Mw of which Ardnacrusha is just under 84 Mw, all
those affected need to take a class action against the Government
and the ESB for damages, what other Nation would allow one of
its largest rivers to put lives and property at risk for a project that
did fulfill an energy requirement initially but is longer feasible or
viable under the current conditions
In the 1600s they brought in a Dutch man to deal with a major problem on the Ouse and he supervised the construction of what’s known as the Ouse Wash.
Sometimes its best to look for a known expert in the field and the Dutch have all the people we need.
What we don’t have is the willingness of some State agencies to surrender their patch and maybe dont have the willingness of politicians to provide .the money.
Totally incorrect ~~ Dredging on a schedule would enable the the engineering and flood specialists to mitigate flooding in many areas ~~ Dredging must be a constant not an emergency operation ~~ Planting trees and flooding bogs would also be pertinent ~~ Stopping greedy politicians egos might help ~ Maybe !
@JP Pilibin: Don’t build houses beside/on flood plains!
@JP Pilibin:
If you “mitigate” flooding in one area, you create or exaserbate flooding in another. The dredging campaign is misinformed nonsense, the Healy Raes are behind it, that should be warning enough.
There’s a simple solution:
STOP BUILDING HOUSES ON FLOOD PLANES
jesus, use floodplanes to plant forests or something, not ever scrap of land needs to be developed, the population is sparse enough as it is.
That headline is totally wrong, Dr Mary Burke was on the Pat Kenny show yesterday and stated that dredging is not the solution in any form for the Shannon.
@Frank Carty: we had her visit us inishowen in the wake of the 2017 floods. She is an excellent authority figure on the issue of flooding and natural flood mamagment
If you build houses on a flood plane, expect floods.
If you take measures to stop flooding in a flood plane, you create flooding somewhere else.
Feel bad for the suckers who bough houses on a flood plane not knowing any better, but they should direct their anger at the local gombeens who allowed houses to be built on a flood plane, not “dem ‘uns up in Dublin ignoring us”.
Some of these flood planes are on maps from the middle ages, we have a serious problem with planning in Ireland where local gombeens have too much power, and civil engineers have too little.
All talk and excuses as usual. We should have thousands of years data on Ireland biggest river maybe even ask the locals instead of downloading data sets. The plan seems to be protect towns and industry with peace meal defences. Identify farmland to flood and refuse to dredge because some plants and tiny aminals may loose their home. Blocking rivers that feed into the Shannon further up so more farmland can flood.
Dredging will bring more activity maybe jobs. Build up banks to plant trees.
You would swear that councils along the Shannon are more interested in using it to dispose of human sewage than listening and acting on locals concern. Rural Ireland forgotton while Dublin gets a metro line.
Dredging the Shannon it brings back memories of years gone by it was always a big topic in the daily and more recently when it was mooted that some of the water would be piped to Dublin there was uproar how times have changed
@Sean Doheny: It’s not in constant flood you have to realise…the river can get very low in the summer months especially in a drought. Navigation gets very difficult.
have your say