Purchase would kickstart exciting and ambitious nature restoration project
The government should buy the lands beside Glen of the Downs nature reserve to kickstart Ireland’s efforts to restore nature under the recently passed Nature Restoration Law. This project should kickstart an ambitious and exciting plan to restore Old Oak Woodlands across Wicklow using State lands, supportive private landowners and the existing network of Natura 2000 sites in the county.
In a letter to Minister Noonan, Irish Environmental Network Members An Taisce, the Irish Wildlife Trust, the Native Woodland Trust, along with ReWild Wicklow said that the sale of lands at Kindlestown Road Upper, Bellevue, Delgany, Co. Wicklow, presents a unique opportunity for the state to more than double the size of this ancient oak woodland and connect it with Kindlestown Woods.
“This is a rare opportunity to protect and enhance one of Ireland’s oldest nature reserves and a site of international significance as recognised by its designation as a Special Area of Conservation,” they said.
The expansion of the Glen of the Downs is not only desirable, it would also help Ireland deliver on our legal obligations under the EU Habitats Directive and the Nature Restoration Law. Old oak woodlands are an extremely rare habitat in Ireland today. Under the EU’s Nature Restoration Law must achieve an almost seven-fold increase in the area of Oak woodland habitat on an incremental basis up to 2050.
The most ecologically sound way for the state to achieve this would be to expand and connect remnant ancient and long-established woodlands, of which the Glen of the Downs is one of the most significant, they said, adding that this approach has been supported by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
The environmental groups said the purchase of the lands should be part of a much broader landscape-based approach to nature restoration that looks to utilise the existing network of Natura 2000 sites, public lands and supportive private landowners in East Wicklow to re-connect remnant ancient woodlands across the hills and foothills of the Wicklow Mountains from Knocksink Woods in the North to Glendalough and the Devils Glen in the South.
The project should form part of Ireland’s National Restoration Plan, under which the State must restore old Oak woodland to favourable conservation status, according to the environmental groups.
“While this plan may seem ambitious, we believe it is a necessary and prudent investment into Wicklow’s and Ireland’s future. The State will not be alone in this endeavour as there is immense support for nature restoration within communities across Wicklow for Nature Restoration. We have seen this in the local support for an associated petition and in the growing grass-roots conservation movement in the county, including the now regular collaboration between ReWild Wicklow and the NPWS,” said the environmental NGOs.
Letter to Minister Noonan regarding the purchase of lands adjacent to the Glen of the Downs SAC.docx
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