Irish Semi-natural Grasslands Survey Annual Report No. 4: Western Seaboard Counties (Clare, Galway, Kerry, Limerick, Mayo) & County Tipperary F.M. Devaney, J.R. Martin, 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 and assisted in other ways during the project, especially Congella McGuire, Sharon Parr, Shane Casey and Jim Higgins. The assistance of Nick Hodgetts and Rory Hodd for identification of problematic bryophyte samples is also gratefully acknowledged. We are grateful to Simon Barron, John Brophy, Dolores Byrne, Orla Daly, Kristi Leyden, Maria Long, Chris MacMahon, Caitriona Maher, David McCormick, Derek McLoughlin, Kate McNutt, Michelle O’Neill, Caroline Sullivan and Sam Thomas for their hard work in the field. Finally, we thank the farmers and landowners of Connacht and Munster for giving us permission to survey their land and for the background information they provided. Cover photo: Calcareous grassland at Pollkeen, Co. Galway (Site 2280). Photo taken by Fiona Devaney. © NPWS. Irish Semi-natural Grasslands Survey: Western Seaboard Counties and Tipperary – BEC Consultants 2013 Executive Summary Between 2011 and 2012, 337 sites and 1288 relevés in Clare, Galway, Kerry, Limerick, Mayo and Tipperary were surveyed as part of the Irish Semi-natural Grasslands Survey (ISGS). 61.7% of these sites were associated with an NPWS conservation site (SAC, NHA, pNHA or SPA). Wet grassland was the most frequent semi-natural grassland habitat, recorded at 71.2% of sites and covering 49.4% of the total area of grassland surveyed. Freshwater marsh was the least frequent grassland habitat and represented less than 1% of the grassland area surveyed across these counties. The EU Habitats Directive Annex I grassland habitat with the highest frequency of occurrence was Orchid- rich/calcareous grassland (Festuco-Brometalia) ([*]6210), recorded at 60 sites, followed by Molinia meadows (6410), recorded at 33 sites, Species-rich Nardus grassland (*6230), recorded at 21 sites, and Lowland hay meadows (6510), recorded at 13 sites. Eight sites with Hydrophilous tall herb fringe communities (6430) were recorded in the western counties in 2011-2012. In terms of area, [*]6210 covered by far the greatest area, 222.5 ha, due to the large areas of this Annex I habitat recorded in Clare and Galway. This was followed by 6410 (110.6 ha), *6230 (46.8 ha) and 6510 (35.3 ha). The median area of the semi-natural grassland sites in Clare, Galway, Kerry, Limerick, Mayo and Tipperary was 9.9 ha and the county medians ranged from 5.9 ha in Galway to 21.6 ha in Limerick, with individual sites ranging in size from 0.3 ha to 103.0 ha. Conservation scores, based on factors such as habitat diversity and quality, species richness, site size and presence of plant species of conservation interest within a site, were calculated for all 337 sites. Of the 25 sites that scored highly (a score of 40% or over) in the conservation evaluation, 21 were associated with an NPWS conservation site. Threat scores were based on factors such as damaging activities, agricultural improvement, negative adjacent habitats and presence of negative species within a site. Of the 16 sites that received high threat evaluations (a score of over 50%), five were associated with an NPWS conservation site. The main category of habitat adjacent to surveyed sites was woodland, including hedges and treelines, scrub, and semi-natural woodland, adjacent to 78.3% of sites (with scrub adjacent to 60% of sites, and treelines and hedgerows adjacent to 45% of sites). Built land and coastal constructions were the next most frequent category, adjacent to 76% of sites. Primary areas of Annex I grassland have been identified which represent the best examples of Annex I grassland habitat surveyed during the ISGS; these provide a focus for semi-natural grassland conservation and monitoring in Ireland. Of the 337 western sites surveyed between 2011 and 2012, 54 primary areas of Annex I grassland habitat were identified. The main negative impacts recorded for Annex I grassland habitats surveyed in the six western counties in 2011 and 2012 were species composition change (succession) and problematic native species (e.g. bracken). Only 33 of the 135 areas of Annex I grassland surveyed received an overall assessment of Favourable (i.e., having favourable conservation assessments for area, structure and functions and future prospects), emphasising their vulnerability and the urgency with which they need Irish Semi-natural Grasslands Survey: Western Seaboard Counties and Tipperary – BEC Consultants 2013 to be studied and monitored. However, in most cases the implementation of appropriate management would improve the condition of the Annex I habitat, and assessment scores of Favourable could be attainable in the medium term. Irish Semi-natural Grasslands Survey: Western Seaboard Counties and Tipperary – BEC Consultants 2013 Table of Contents Page 1 Introduction 1 1.1 General background 1 1.2 Vegetation studies of Irish grasslands 1 1.3 Classification of Irish grasslands 2 1.4 Conservation of Irish grasslands 4 1.5 Assessment and monitoring of Irish grasslands 6 1.6 Scope of this report 7 1. 7 Study area 7 2 Methods 11 2.1 Site selection 11 2.2 General site survey 12 2.3 Relevé survey 16 2.4 Assessment of Annex I grassland 17 2.5 Ranking of sites using conservation and threat evaluations 27 2.6 Vegetatio n data analysis 29 3 Results 30 3.1 General site survey 30 3.2 Assessment of Annex I grassland 41 3.3 Ranking of sites using conservation and threat evaluations 49 4 Discussion 52 4.1 Summary data and the ranking of all surveyed sites 52 4.2 Condition a ssessment of Annex I grassland 57 4.3 Vegetation classification 61 4. 4 Concluding remarks 61 5 References 63 Irish Semi-natural Grasslands Survey: Western Seaboard Counties and Tipperary – BEC Consultants 2013 List of Appendices Appendix 1: Maps showing the location of the 337 sites surveyed in the six western counties in 20 11-2012 Appendix 2 : Summary information for each of the 337 sites surveyed in the six western counties in 2011 - 2012 Appendix 3: Field sheets Appendix 4 : Summary grassland habitat information for each of the 337 sites surveyed in the six western counties in 2011-2012 Appendix 5 : Annex I assessment indicator species and criteria Appendix 6: Structure and functions assessment scores for areas of Annex I grassland habitat surveyed in the six western counties in 2011-2012 Appendix 7: Impacts and codes for f uture prospects assessment used in 2011 -2012 (Ssymank 2010) Appendix 8: Future prospects assessment scores for areas of Annex I grassland habitat surveyed in the six western counties in 2011-2012 Appendix 9: Condition assessment results for areas of An nex I grassland habitat surveyed in the six western counties in 2011-2012 Appendix 10: Conservation scores for the 337 sites surveyed in the six western counties in 2011 -2012 Appendix 11 : Threat scores for the 337 sites surveyed in the six western coun ties in 2011 -2012 List of Figures Page Figure 1.1 Map of Ireland showing the survey area of counties Clare, Galway, Kerry, Limerick, 8 Mayo and Tipperary Figure 3.1 Frequency of non -grassland Fossitt (2000) habitats within all surveyed sites, 36 differentiated by county. Figure 3.2 Frequency of habitats occurring adjacent to surveyed sites, differentiated by county. 37 Figure 3.3 Frequency of different management regimes at sites, differentiated by county. 38 Figure 3.4 Frequency of grazing animal s at sites, differentiated by county. 38 Figure 3. 5 Frequency of occurrence of different types of damaging activity at sites, differentiated 39 by county. Figure 3. 6 Frequency of agricultural activities recorded, differentiated by county. 40 Figure 3. 7 Frequency of different geographical features associated with sites, differentiated by 41 county. Irish Semi-natural Grasslands Survey: Western Seaboard Counties and Tipperary – BEC Consultants 2013 List of Tables Page Table 2.1 Summary matrix of the parameters and conditions required to assess the 18 conservation status of habitats (modified from Ryle et al . (2009)) Table 2.2 Monitoring stop scale for Annex I grassland habitats 19 Table 2.3 Positive indicator species used to assess the structure and functions of the Annex I 20 habitat [*]6210 Table 2.4 Positive indicator species used to assess the structure and functions of the Annex I 22 habitat *6230 Table 2.5 Positive indicator species used to assess the structure and functions of the Annex I 23 habitat 6410 Table 2.6 Positive indicator species used to assess the structure and functions of the Annex I 24 habitat 6430 Table 2.7 Positive indicator species used to assess the structure and functions of the Annex I 25 habitat 6510 Table 2.8 Scoring system used to calculate future prospects scores for Annex I grassland 26 habitats assessed in the six western counties surveyed in 2011-2012 Table 2.9 Criteria used in the calculation of the conservation score for each site 28 Table 2.10 Criteria used in the calculation of the threat score for each site 29 Table 3.1 The number of sites that were r ejected and the reasons for rejection 30 Table 3.2 Summary habitat statistics of sites surveyed in Clare, Galway, Kerry, Limerick, Mayo 31 and Tipperary in 2011-2012 Table 3.