Irish SemiSemi--naturalnatural Grasslands Survey Annual Report No. 5: Leinster (except Offaly, Longford, Dublin & Kildare) J.R. Martin, F.M. Devaney, F.H. O’Neill & A. Delaney November 2013 BOTANICAL , ENVIRONMENTAL & CONSERVATION CONSULTANTS LTD . www.botanicalenvironmental.com Ground Floor Offices, Loft 31, South Cumberland Street, Dublin 2 Tel: 01 6619713 Email:
[email protected] _______________________________________________________ Acknowledgements We are grateful to everyone who contributed to the planning and completion of this project. The work has been funded by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht). A number of people provided guidance throughout the earlier years of this project, notably the late Marie Dromey. We also thank Deirdre Lynn for her project support and for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this report. We acknowledge the assistance of NPWS field staff, local authority personnel and BSBI recorders who suggested sites for survey. The assistance of Nick Hodgetts and Rory Hodd for identification of problematic bryophyte samples is also gratefully acknowledged. We are grateful to John Brophy, Dolores Byrne, Deborah Darcy, Aoife Delaney, Jo Denyer, Kristi Leyden, Maria Long, Michelle O’Neill, Jenni Roche and Caroline Sullivan for their hard work in the field. Finally, we thank the farmers and landowners of Leinster for giving us permission to survey their land and for the background information they provided. Cover: Dry calcareous grassland (EU Annex I habitat 6210), Coolnacrutta, Co. Kilkenny. (Photo © Jim Martin, BEC Consultants) Irish Semi-natural Grasslands Survey: Leinster (except Offaly, Longford, Dublin and Kildare) – BEC Consultants 2013 Executive Summary Between 2011 and 2012, 71 sites and 237 relevés in the eight Leinster counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Laois, Louth, Meath, Westmeath, Wexford, and Wicklow were surveyed as part of the Irish Semi- natural Grasslands Survey (ISGS).