County Offaly County OffalyCounty THE STATE OF THE WILD 2007 THE STATE OF THE WILD 2007 THE OF THE STATE John Feehan Offaly County Council in association with the School of Biology and Environmental Science at UCD and the Heritage Council Compiled by ISBN -13: 978-1-905254-21-7 John Feehan 1 - foreword:Layout 1 10/05/2007 15:27 Page 1 County Offaly THE STATE OF THE WILD 2007 Compiled by John Feehan Offaly County Council in association with the School of Biology and Environmental Science at UCD and the Heritage Council ISBN -13: 978-1-905254-21-7 1 - foreword:Layout 1 10/05/2007 15:27 Page 2 Foreword If we are to be effective custodians of our heritage of at hand. But they are so well hidden, and the wild nature, we need to know what plants and ani- naturalist is so blind, that it is only when he mals share the county with us, and where they live. sees the swarms of winged Insects that he be- This report attempts to provide an outline sketch of comes conscious of the multitude of larvae and that diversity – or, more accurately, of what we know pupae which he has overlooked.1 about it. It is written as an introductory overview for What we know is only a fraction of what remains to a general readership of Offaly people who have an in- be discovered. This highlights the endless scope there terest in and concern for the wild life and wild places is for further exploration. We need to know an awful of the county. It is not really intended for those who lot more if we are to ensure proper conservation of the would describe themselves as specialists. flora and fauna of the county. I have included checklists of species in different It has been hard to keep track of all the people who groups of plants and animals recorded for the county have provided information or helped in other ways where they could be compiled with some confidence. in the preparation of the Report. I hope I can remem- For many readers these lists will be mysterious-look- ber them all: Annette Anderson, Roy Anderson, Barry ing assemblages of Latin binomials before which the Cregg, Jim Curry, Jane Feehan, Garth Foster, Hubert eyes inevitably lose focus. But just remember that Fuller, Jeremy Gray, Alvin Helden, Fran Igoe, Daniel every one of these names stands for a unique species, Kelly, Ferdia Marnell, Roland McHugh, Barry McMa- whose structure has been carefully and meticulously hon, Brian Nelson, Mary O’Connell, Rita O’Shea, John described and published according to rigid interna- Prior, Gordon Purvis, Colm Ronayne, Olaf Schmidt, tionally agreed guidelines. Each is a creature of im- Mark Seaward, Michael Sheehy, Helen Sheridan, John mense complexity, and every one of them occupies a Smith, Martin Speight, Niall Sweeney, Val Trodd, unique corner of the natural world. All of these Wayne Trodd, John Whelan. The photographs on the species live out their lives in our midst, all enriching front cover are by Tom Egan and Gordon Purvis, that our human world on some level. on the back cover by Eddie Dunne. In most cases the checklists are little more The Report owes more to the enthusiasm and effi- informative than records of attendance. With the ciency of Amanda Pedlow, Heritage Officer for Offaly, exception of a very few groups such as flowering than it does to anybody else, myself included. plants, birds and mammals, we know little about the We hope this overview will help to inspire a new detailed distribution and status in the county of the generation of Offaly field naturalists to take up the different species – or their individual lives. Very often study of the wild creatures of the county, and begin the record of a species is based on nothing more than to experience for themselves at first hand the endless one or a few specimens captured on a few occasions in fascination and sense of fulfillment their study can just a few places. Read what one of the greatest of bring to people of every age and background. entomologists had to say about how little even he knew about the insects he studied so assiduously: I have made it my business for some years to John Feehan hunt out the larvae of our common Insects. I have searched the waters, both stagnant and flowing, and have pried into all accumulations of decaying organic matter that I have come across. I have particularly attended to the early stages of the Diptera [flies]. But I have to con- fess that nineteen-twentieths of the Diptera now buzzing about in my garden are known to me, if at all, only as items in a catalogue. No doubt a large proportion have been reared close ____________________________________ 1 L.C. Miall (1896). Round the Year. A Series of Short Nature-Studies. 2 COUNTY OFFALY: THE STATE OF THE WILD 2007 2 - Introduction:Layout 1 10/05/2007 15:28 Page 3 Introduction Wild places Offaly’s Wild World Web When people first settled in Offaly over 9,000 years Offaly has many wild places, which are home to a ago everywhere was wild. Only very gradually did tremendous variety of different plant and animal we begin to make any serious inroads on Nature’s species. Some of these wild places, such as the bogs rule. At first our impact was little more than that of of Slieve Bloom and the Shannon Basin, cover large the animals with which we shared this world, but this areas. Woods are among the most important places for impact increased greatly with the advent of farming wild plants and animals. At one time native woods 6,000 years or so ago, when we started to make fields covered much of the county, but these disappeared for our crops and herds at the expense of natural gradually over the course of history; today we have a woodland. Long before modern times nearly all the large number of much smaller deciduous woods, all land that could be made productive or developed to the more precious because of their small size and carry our infrastructure had been taken from Nature. number. Hedgerows are like narrow strips of wood- So few natural places are left to us now that we need land, weaving a green web over the entire county that to treasure those that remain and do what we can to provides a place to live for countless species, many of extend their hold. them one-time woodland species. Waterways and All through our long prehistory and history, Nature has been on our doorstep – no longer it is true the untamed wilderness that was there be- fore we started to farm, but the experience of trees and flow- ers, birds and wind and stars, rocks and the sight and sound of rivers and the sea – that sat- isfied a deep psychological need in us. The places where Nature still breathes awake in us memories of that deeper childhood of our human species. The flowers and trees in every hedgerow awake them, the singing of the birds, other wetlands – of all sizes and shapes from the every rock outcrop shaped by time and the elements, Shannon to the smallest pond – are inhabited by a every stream that follows the form of the land. great variety of wild plants and animals. In fact every Some of the most significant places in the county, part of the county has its own unique mixture of some of those richest in species, have already been places where wild species live. designated as such and receive statutory protection Some of these wild species are large and familiar, (see map on pages 6-7). These however are relatively such as birds and mammals, trees and flowers, but the few and far between, and except for the National Na- vast majority are small creatures of which the most ture Reserve in Slieve Bloom cover a tiny area. But numerous are insects. What these lack in size they alongside these is a much larger number of places make up for in the amazing complexity of their struc- that, although they are not considered to be of suffi- ture and habits. There is more to amaze – make no cient importance to merit formal designation, are im- mistake about it, there is truly more to wonder at, portant reservoirs of natural diversity. They include more to bring us to our knees, than our short lifetimes all the woods and bogs in the county – especially the can ever encompass, in the lives of the wild things vast area of bog in production by Bord na Móna, found in the local pond, and along the fringe of the which has the potential to become the most extensive bog, and in the last bit of woodland in the parish. and important reservoir of natural diversity in Offaly once production ceases. COUNTY OFFALY: THE STATE OF THE WILD 2007 3 2 - Introduction:Layout 1 10/05/2007 15:29 Page 4 INTRODUCTION The infrastructure of our human world is spread On the map on pages 6-7 you can see what this web across the county like a net. It is made up of dense of wild places might look from a great distance. What hubs – towns and villages – all linked together by a you cannot see on this scale is the cobweb of fine trellis of roads of different sizes, interspersed among threads linking all these geographically distinct areas. the smaller nodes of individual houses and the occa- The finest of these threads are the hedgerows and sional factory.