Wetlands Day celebrated in Tipperary

Leading up to World Wetlands Day, Wednesday, January 17, saw the Irish RAMSAR Wetland Committee meet in Gurteen College. The IRWC is a government committee charged with the protections of and advocacy for the internationally recognised RAMSAR wetlands sites in Ireland. The committee represents agencies and departments such as the EPA, NPWS, OPW, Agriculture, Housing etc.

At the Gurteen meet the committee advanced the new national wetlands position document and explored possible collaborations between state agencies and the Gurteen and TUS Thurles sustainability in farming degree programme. The committee visited Nahinch Lough and Bog where Gurteen have been supporting ecological assessments of this key and nationally rare example of a Marl wetland site.

Along with the restoration programme at closeby Scohaboy Bog SAC, the Cloughjordan Community Development Association play a supportive role in the ecological assessments and monitoring of both sites.

The IRWC would like to thank the staff at Gurteen College for their warm welcome and hospitality and to Jon Parry and Gearóid Ó Foighil for their Nahinch lake facilitation.

Also in the run-up to World Wetlands Day 2024 Peter Foss from Wetlands Surveys Ireland gave an online presentation from Berlin on the current status of the Tipperary Wetlands Survey project. The project is funded by the Tipperary Heritage Office and seeks to gather information on and assess status of wetlands sites throughout the county.

Recent survey works had a focus on wetlands sites in the wider Cloughjordan area as part of a Cloughjordan Conservation Cluster approach supported by the Cloughjordan Heritage Group and the Cloughjordan Community Development Association. Our wetlands play key eco-system service roles including well-being and flood protections, their value for nature and climate is increasingly being recognised as essentially important.