To conserve habitat for wild species and prevent their extinction or reduction in range is a priority of a great many groups that cannot be easily characterized in terms of any one ideology.

All wildlife needs a habitat, and therefore all habitats have some form of wildlife. In general a habitat is somewhere that provides shelter, food and somewhere to breed. Over the centuries wildlife has evolved through adaptation to live in a variety of habitats, some of which are now scarce and those birds and other wildlife that have become dependant on them are equally as scarce.

Very often, to maintain these habitats in their best possible condition they need some form of management whether it be from a farmer managing his fields or a nature reserve warden managing a conservation area.

The majority of Ireland has been, and still is being, farmed in some way thereby making up the countryside that we live in and supporting the wide variety of wildlife that has evolved through adaptation to live in these habitats. Whether rearing livestock or growing crops, farmland supports wildlife some of which is declining at an alarming rate.

Farming methodologies used to consist of a low input, mixed system with both crops, and cattle and sheep and these less intensively managed farms were good for wildlife. But with the gradual move away from these towards a more specialised and intensive livestock or arable system has resulted in a less varied landscape with important habitats removed as uneconomic, resulting in major losses of many countryside birds and other wildlife.

Fen Habitats

Fen habitats include areas of open water fringed by sedge and marsh plants, reed swamps and fen woodland. In these many and varied habitats up to two hundred different plants have been recorded.

The wooded areas on a fen are the driest parts. In the areas where sedge and marsh species dominate, the ground is soft and quaking and there is usually abundant surface water all year round. This vegetation is fragile and a group of people or animals crossing a fen can cause considerable damage, which takes a long time to repair.

Wetland Habitats

"A wetland is land that is saturated with water long enough to promote wetland or aquatic processes as indicated by poorly drained soils, hydrophytic vegetation and various kinds of biological activity which are adapted to a wet environment. "(Wetlands of Canada, Tarnocai et al., 1988).

The wetlands familiar to us in Ireland consist essentially of swamps, marshes and bogs. Irish bogs are among some of the most ancient Irish habitats, with some of the oldest examples dating back more than 10,000 years.

The first step towards taking action to protect a wetland wildlife habitat involves determining what habitats and habitat values exist on a given parcel of land.
Wetlands are rich in flora, insects and vertebras and on these, hundreds of thousands of migrating geese, duck and waders feed. Ireland plays host to some of the world's most important winter colonies of geese, especially in the South East, which is one of Ireland's drier regions. Generally where land or soil, and water meet, wetlands are one of the world's most productive and important ecosystems.

Wetlands are often being drained and turned into grasslands or filled in for development purposes. The importance of Irish wetlands is now gaining prominence as environmental agencies continue to promote the necessity of these habitats. If wetland plants are not grazed regularly by animals or wildlife or cropped for biomass, they soon form peats, mulls and humus. This natural compost of dead vegetation builds up and is highly valued as a natural sponge which retains water on the landscape instead of it flowing quickly to the sea causing erosion and flooding on the way. In Ireland, while some people are still draining or afforesting wetlands, others are blocking up drains and recreating tomorrow's wet places.

In particular, one important new change occurring in the landscape is the re-emergence of wetland meadows. On cutaway bogs after the peat has been extracted, the land remaining is often of little use and reverts to wilderness as it is abandoned. The soil is often so wet that it cannot be cultivated or cropped for hay, wild flowers then grow and get a chance to flower and set seed. Even if cattle graze some of the grass, many flowers avoid being eaten.

During wet summers, these fields are flooded and cannot be cut for silage or hay as again it is difficult to cut the grass, using a tractor. Uncut flowers then set seed. Once, even in wet winters, these meadows were cut by hand with a "scythe" but those days are long gone, although hand cutting is still practised in fields too small to turn a tractor. These new and subtle changes in the landscape combined with our new awareness for the environmental benefits of wetlands has lead to once rapidly diminishing wild flowers, again finding a new habitat in which to flourish. Even orchids find a place in the wetland ecosystem where cattle are free to roam and graze. Filled with moths and butterflies, insects breed to huge quantities in the warm wet conditions and migrating and breeding birds fill the air with their joyous calls. Yet again, Irish wetlands are one of our noisiest and most colourful communities and must be protected.

Copyright © Conservation.ie 2008