Ferbane Tidy Towns Wildlife Audit and Management Plan 31St March 2014

FERBANE TIDY TOWNS WILDLIFE AUDIT AND MANAGEMENT PLAN 31 ST MARCH 2014 24 Lisle Road, Walkinstown, Dublin 12 Church Street, Moate, Co. Westmeath T +353 86 1736075 [email protected] This report was prepared by Blackthorn Ecology on behalf of the Offaly Community Forum with funding from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the National Development Plan provided by the Offaly Local Development Company. Citation: Smith, G.F., Gittings, T., and Macklin, R. 2014. Ferbane Wildlife Audit and Management Plan. Report prepared for Offaly Community Forum. Ferbane Wildlife Audit & Management Plan Blackthorn Ecology ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to Amanda Pedlow (Heritage Officer, Offaly County Council) and Niamh Dowler (Offaly Community Forum) for advice and guidance throughout this project. We thank all those who generously provided species records and other information about the biodiversity of Ferbane, including: Fiona Devery (Botanical Society of the British Isles); Ciara Flynn, Noel Bugler and Colm Malone (National Parks and Wildlife Service); Tina Aughney (Bat Conservation Ireland); John Lucey and Catherine Bradley (EPA); and Loraine O' Donnell and Paul McCloone (Inland Fisheries Ireland). We thank John Connelly, Cathal Devery and Kieran Egan (Offaly County Council) for facilitating invertebrate sampling in the Wastewater Treatment Plant in Ferbane. We thank the Offaly Local Development Company for funding this project from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the National Development Plan. Lastly, the authors are most thankful for the enthusiasm, cooperation and hospitality of Ferbane Tidy Towns and all the residents of Ferbane who facilitated our survey work. ii Ferbane Wildlife Audit & Management Plan Blackthorn Ecology TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ii Table of Contents iii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 About This Report 1 1.3 About the Authors 2 2 Methods 3 2.1 Desk Study and Consultations 3 2.2 Field Survey 3 2.3 Preparing the Biodiversity Inventory 8 3 Wildlife of Ferbane 9 3.1 Overview 9 3.2 Local Wildlife Hotspots 12 4 Biodiversity Management Plan 17 4.1 Ongoing Actions 17 4.2 Five-Year Management Plan 21 4.3 Long Term Vision 26 5 References 28 Habitat and Management Maps 30 APPENDIX A Ferbane Biodiversity Inventory 41 iii Ferbane Wildlife Audit & Management Plan Blackthorn Ecology 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Blackthorn Ecology completed a project to record, communicate, manage and enhance wildlife in seven settlements in County Offaly. The project commenced in January 2013 and ran through September 2013. The project was managed by the Offaly Community Forum with funding from the Offaly Local Development Company. The seven settlements that took part in the project were: • Birr • Geashill • Clonbulloge • Tubber • Edenderry • Tullamore • Ferbane There were three main objectives for the project: • Recording – surveying the biodiversity of Ferbane • Communicating – sharing this knowledge with the community • Managing & Enhancing – developing practical measures to conserve and enhance biodiversity Blackthorn Ecology worked with the Tidy Towns groups in each settlement during the course of the project, especially in developing measures to conserve and enhance wildlife. 1.2 About This Report What is Biodiversity? This report is a wildlife audit and a management plan for wildlife in Biodiversity is the variety of all living things on earth, Ferbane. including plants, animals, fungi and even microorganisms. Biodiversity includes the variation among members of a Section 2 outlines the methods used single species of plant or animal, the number and variety to carry out the wildlife surveys and of species in a habitat, and the number and variety of put together the biodiversity habitats in a particular area. We humans depend on inventory. biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides as our Section 3 provides an overview of the life support system. Ecosystem services include breaking habitats, plants and animals in Ferbane down wastes and nutrient cycling, provision of food and and highlights the local biodiversity pollination, flood regulation, air and water purification, hotspots. opportunities for recreation and education, spiritual Section 4 contains the biodiversity well-being and many others. In this report, the terms management plan. This includes ways wildlife and biodiversity are used interchangeably. to conserve wildlife on an ongoing basis, a five-year management plan and a longer term vision for biodiversity in Ferbane. The Ferbane Biodiversity Inventory, a listing of all the plant and animal species recorded in Ferbane, is provided in Appendix A . The management plan and Biodiversity Inventory are living documents. The Biodiversity Inventory needs to be updated regularly to keep track of changes in the different wildlife species present in the community so that the success of management measures can be evaluated. The 1 Ferbane Wildlife Audit & Management Plan Blackthorn Ecology management plan also needs to be updated regularly as the long-term vision for Ferbane’s wildlife becomes a reality. 1.3 About the Authors The wildlife surveys were carried out by consultant ecologists Dr George F Smith, Dr Tom Gittings and Ross Macklin, who also prepared the management plan in collaboration with Ferbane Tidy Towns. George and Tom are members of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management. George is a plant ecologist with special interests in mosses and liverworts, habitat mapping, woodlands and peatlands. Tom specialises in bird, invertebrate, wetland and woodland ecology. Ross is a freshwater ecologist with expertise in fish, aquatic invertebrates and plants, and riverside habitats. 2 Ferbane Wildlife Audit & Management Plan Blackthorn Ecology 2 METHODS 2.1 Desk Study and Consultations We sourced existing information on the biodiversity of Ferbane from a number of sources. These included reports, maps and datasets. Specific data sources we reviewed included: • Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI) maps, including historical 1st edition 6-inch mapping from the 1830s and 25-inch mapping from the early 1900s • OSI aerial photographs • National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) maps and other information on areas specifically designated for nature conservation • The An Foras Forbatha report for Offaly (Farrell, 1972) • NPWS mapping data on habitats of conservation interest and records of species of conservation interest • Teagasc / EPA National Soils dataset • Geological Survey of Ireland bedrock geology dataset • National Biodiversity Data Centre records • Bat Conservation Ireland records • Botanical Society of the British Isles records • British Bryological Society records We also consulted several knowledgeable individuals and organisations listed in the Acknowledgements , who provided lots of helpful information on the wildlife of Ferbane. 2.2 Field Survey The study area encompassed by the field surveys was generally the area of Ferbane within the 50 kph speed limit markers, to a maximum of 1 km from the centre of the settlement, as defined in the Tidy Towns Handbook (Tidy Towns Unit, 2010). 2.2.1 Habitat Surveys We mapped the habitats in Ferbane as a baseline for the biodiversity management plans. We named and classified habitats following the Heritage Council system (Fossitt, 2000). Where there were habitats of conservation value at a European scale, we mapped and classified these according to the EU Habitats Directive list (Annex I) (European Commission, 2007). The habitat survey methodology followed the Heritage Council’s Best Practice Guidance (Smith et al. , 2011). In the field, we noted the location of different habitat types on paper baseline maps (OSI vector mapping), using aerial photography and historical (1 st edition 6-inch) OS mapping as references. We used GPS where required to aid in delineating habitat boundaries in the field and in recording the location of notable species or other ecological features. After the initial habitat survey (Table 1), the habitat map was edited as needed during the plant surveys. 3 Ferbane Wildlife Audit & Management Plan Blackthorn Ecology 2.2.2 Plant Surveys We used the results of desk What Is That Green Fuzz? studies and habitat mapping to Though everyone appreciates big, brightly coloured target a number of sites within wildflowers, the beauty of smaller plants is often not Ferbane for more detailed appreciated simply because we can’t see them very recording of vascular plants, well without a magnifying glass. Mosses and liverworts bryophytes (mosses and are small plants that reproduce by spores rather than liverworts) and lichens. We by seeds. Instead of flowers, their spores develop in a compiled comprehensive lists round or cylindrical capsule. Lichens are actually for each site. Where symbiotic organisms: a fungus and an alga living in necessary, we collected samples partnership together. The fungus provides the for microscopic examination structure to protect the alga and the alga produces and identification in the lab. food by photosynthesis. Mosses, liverworts and The identification of species and lichens often grow in environments that flowering their names followed the most plants find too challenging, like stone walls, wetlands up-to-date, widely accepted and treetops, so they can escape competition from classifications (Paton, 1999, their bigger cousins. They provide food and habitat Smith, 2004, Smith et al. , 2009, for invertebrates, lining for birds’ nests and help Stace, 2010,

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