Kinvara Local Nature Plan

2015 - 2020

Kinvara Local Nature Plan

Biodiversity, short for ‘biological diversity’ is the word used to describe the whole variety of life on earth. This includes all the different living organisms such as plants, animals and microbial life as well as the variety of habitats they live in and the ways in which the interact with each other and the world around them. Simply put, biodiversity can be described as the nature all around us. People too are a part of biodiversity and have a role to play in conserving the great variety of nature. A local nature or biodiversity plan sets out a number of agreed actions to help us to conserve, enhance and highlight the natural environment in our local area. This plan was developed by members of the local community in Kinvara in 2015. The project was led by Kinvara Tidy Towns and Community Council with the support of the Galway County Biodiversity Project. Over the course of several meetings, local people met and identified biodiversity features of interest, challenges and opportunities in the Kinvara area. From this, a list actions was drawn up and agreed upon. These are presented in the table on page 7/8. All members of the local community including individuals, families, schools, clubs and other organisations are welcome and encouraged to get involved in the Kinvara Local Nature Plan to enhance and celebrate our wonderful natural heritage

Memorial Garden in bloom

About Kinvara Kinvara is the anglicised name for Cinn Mhara, literally ‘The Head of the Sea’. It has always been a fishing village, market town and port. Today it is a major tourist destination along the Wild Atlantic Way standing at the gateway to the Burren. With its iconic castle Dun Guaire alongside its lovely bay, it represents all that is best in the West of Ireland.

As can be seen from this report it has a rich and unique natural history. But it is rich in other ways too. Its two great festivals in spring and summer, the Cruinniú na mBád and the Fleadh na gCuach attract people from all over the world. For years the Galway hookers plied their trade with Connemara across

Galway Bay and today they return as part of the Cruinniu celebrations. The town’s Heritage Trail tells of Kinvara’s fascinating and well-documented history in the context of the towns’ older buildings. There is much to enjoy in Kinvara. It is home to some of Ireland’s finest musicians and artists. Most nights there is a gig in at least one of the town’s ten pubs and bars while art exhibitions, literary events and other artistic ventures are a regular feature in Kinvara’s life. Kinvara also has a strong sporting tradition with a number of dynamic clubs in the area. The GAA club is very active at juvenile, intermediate and adult level in Hurling, Camogie and Football. Kinvara United is the local soccer club with mens, ladies , and girls and boys teams. There is also a ladies Hockey Club which has been enjoying success in recent years. The Kinvara bay Sailing Club has been afloat for over 10 years now. Running and cycling are both well represented in Kinvara and other organised sporting and leisure interests include Badminton, Aikido, bridge and yoga. All these are organised by the town’s local clubs and other organisations. Many of those although largely autonomous operate under the aegis and with the support of the Community Council. Tidy Town’s is amongst these and in recent years has made a huge improvement in the look and the feel of the town. But the Council also supports music from the Kinvara Area Music, (KAM), art exhibitions from Kinvara Area Visual Arts (KAVA) while associated local committees run the Cruinniu na mbad, and the Fleadh festivals and the local farmer’s market. KAVA is about to move into a permanent venue in what was the Court House and KAM supports and assists young local musicians.

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Recently formed is Kinvara Folklore Digital Archive (KFDA). This will be recording, collecting and preserving the town’s history. It is recording on video the reminiscences of older people, digitizing written records and filming for posterity life in KInvara today. It will also be assisting another new venture – a film club for teenagers. The Council itself built and runs along with a management committee of parents the local Children’s Centre providing care for children from 3 months of age to 12 years. It owns and administers the Community Centre. This is very well used – fully booked most weekday evenings providing a venue for activities ranging from dance for young children, a mother and baby group, keep fit classes, bingo, the Youth Club, the Scouts as well as regular one off events. It is used by Seamount College for physical training. Recently the building was refurbished at a cost 170,000 euro with grant aid of 110,000 from Galway Rural Development The Community has a long history of looking to its own interests and acting on its own behalf. For nearly two decades the Community has fought for a sewage works. Currently the town’s sewage goes directly into the bay. After a long and unremitting battle, plans and finance for this are now in place and hopefully it will be up and running within two years. The Kinvara Integrated Area Plan, the community's vision of the town's future, was commissioned and organised by the Council drawing on the views and aspirations of all sections of the community by wide consultation in a series of meetings. It won the Irish Planning Institute award for participatory planning in 2008 and Kinvara was second in the only year that it entered (2006) the all-Ireland ‘Pride of Place’ awards.

Bird box built by the Dolmen Centre

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The Nature of Kinvara Kinvara, located on Atlantic coast of South County Galway and the edge of the Burren has an extraordinarily rich natural heritage. To the South West is the awesome landscape of limestone rock with its unique flora, its wild life, caves and prehistoric sites of such unique importance that it is a proposed World Heritage Site. To the north is Kinvara Bay and to the northwest the shores of Inner Galway Bay. This is a world of sea and beach, salt lakes and lagoons, mud banks and salt marsh where its shoreline supports a great variety of water birds.

Coastal Kinvara

Kinvara benefits enormously from its coastal location and a range of interesting and important habitats and species are accessible from the centre of the village. Along the coast there are a wide variety of marine habitats. At low tide can be seen the seaweed covered rocks and shingle and gravel shores. At the end of the boreen leading down to Ballybranagan on the western side of the bay is a typical upper salt marsh with most of the plants associated with them. Elsewhere there are

mud banks, shingle and gravel banks and a sandy beach at Tracht best visited at low tide when you might see locals digging for clams. Traditionally seaweed has been harvested in Kinvara. It used to be bought ashore as a climin, raft of seaweed punted ashore by men using poles. At one time the trade in seaweed was an important part of Kinvara’s economy sold to be used in manufacture of perfume, cosmetics and medicine but it was and is mainly used as a fertiliser. Used as mulch, it is rich not only in nitrogen but in the trace elements that all plants need. After storms when it is tossed up along the shore, locals collect it to use on their gardens. The waters around Kinvara Bay are also important for shellfish aquaculture. Lagoons are saltwater ponds or lakes that are separated from the sea by some form of barrier such as a wall or gravel bank. They may also be fed by streams, groundwater so they may range from brackish to very saline water. They are special habitats as they support specialised plants such as widgeon grass and animals such as molluscs, worms and crustaceans that can survive in such an environment. There are several of these coastal lagoons around Kinvara Bay especially in Doorus and Aughinish. The coastline all around Kinvara Bay from Oranmore to Ballyvaughan is designated under European legislation as a Special Protection area (SPA) for birds. This is an area of huge ornithological importance. Here you find you can find breeding colonies of Cormorants, the Sandwich and Common Terns as well as the presence of the Red throated, Black Throated and Great Northern divers, golden plovers and Bar Tailed Godwits. Terns and the common gull are regulars around the inner bay. Other visitors

Autumn Colours, Catherine Cronin. Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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include lapwing, mallard, heron, Brent goose, shelduck and dunlin. Eelgrass, eaten by a wide variety of marine birds is also plentiful around the bay and is one of the reasons for their presence. Mute Swans nest along the shore and are common sight around the harbour. Near to Dunguaire castle there are breeding otters and seals that find sanctuary on the small islands in the bay and can sometimes be seen from or in and around the pier

Kinvara Village and Countryside Inland from the coast there is a different world and another story to be told. Due to the karst limestone bedrock of the region, much of the freshwater actually moves underground emerging in places in temporary rivers and lakes. Kinvara bay is an estuary fed by an underground river. You can see some the waters of this river running into the bay under the road bridge 300 yards east of Dunguaire Castle and at low tide coming through the habour walls in the town centre. But most of it goes up into

the bay emerging like culverts under water. This river makes the inner part of Kinvara Bay brackish supporting an unusual combination of water plants and creatures. Further inland between Kinvara and Gort there are number of turloughs. These habitats are unique to the west of Ireland. Turloughs are karstic lakes fed by groundwater which rises to the surface through swallow holes when the water table rises. They are seasonal in nature, dry in summer and flooded after heavy rain in autumn and winter. There is a large turlough at Caherglassaun about 5km south east of Kinvara that is home to some rare plants such as mudwort, northern yellow-cress and fen violet. It is also an important site for birds such as whooper swan and lapwing. Unusually, the water levels fluctuate up to 30cm during the day influenced by the tide at Kinvara. Behind the square in Kinvara there is another unusual turlough feature, a lake that fills up daily as the river water is forced above ground by the rising tide. On the walls, piers and jetties there is red and white Valerian notably along the wall at the bottom of Seamount College on the main road coming into the town. Elsewhere there is false oats grass, Herb Robert and the occasional sycamore that has lodged itself in walls where the rendering has gone. Protected to some degree from the prevailing westerly winds, the town is surprisingly rich in trees. These include beech, ash, sycamore, alder, willow and hawthorn.

Swans on the slipway

Bee Orchid, Ballycleary Graveyard

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On the outskirts of to the town there are substantial areas of scrub and hazel amidst outcrops of limestone rock and alongside areas only occasionally grazed by cattle and horses. Here in the undergrowth are found devils bit scabious, wild majoram, lady’s bedstraw, potentilla, wild garlic and even the occasional spotted orchid. Some endangered and protected plants can be found too including the small white and the purple orchid, saltmarsh grass, pennyroyal, mudwort, round leaved wintergreen and the oyster plant. Like many wild flowers most of these plants have evolved and adapted over the millennia to find their niche on nature’s scant and depleted soils. So they like nutrient poor habitats and aren’t found and don’t grow on rich or fertilised land where they are unable to compete with larger, greedier and more robust plants. Around Kinvara, on cultivated land there are animals such as rabbits, foxes and stoats. There have even been sightings adjacent to the town of pine martens now, across Europe, a threatened and endangered species. Utilising the caves and old buildings in the area are bats, including the pipistrelle and lesser horseshoe. Among the butterflies, the common blue is widespread and seen too is the rarer dingy skipper. The latter lays its eggs on bird’s foot trefoil growing on local dry grasslands and is only found in the mid west of Ireland. In the town and countryside around Kinvara there are regular sightings of birds such as redshank, woodcock, magpie, grebe and curlew along with common garden birds. There are two large colonies of rooks, one in the trees above the ruins of St Coman’s Church behind Connolly’s pub and the other around Seamount College. Many of the habitats described above are either on private land or involve crossing it and are not accessible to the public. However much of what is described above can be seen on two public walks south of town about three miles up the Moy road and across the New Line. One leads to St Coman’s cave and a ruined chapel at the foot of Eagle’s Rock one of Burren’s most dramatic locations. The other is a walk of about 30 minutes across a typical Burren landscape as it weaves its way through hazel scrub and across the lime stone pavement and rough pasture grazed only in winter. There is an explanatory notice at the beginning of the walk and it is discretely sign posted. About a mile up the Gort Road at Cloonasee there is the Burren Nature Sanctuary, an interpretive centre for the flora and fauna of the Burren with an exhibition, nature walks and limestone rock garden.

Dunguire Castle, Nicholas Raymond. Flickr ( CC BY 2.0)

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The Burren

Travelling out of the town towards the Burren the vegetation changes. The fields adjacent to the town gradually give way to areas of scrub, rough pasture and open limestone pavement. In some places the fields envelop these wild island habitats and as you approach the Burren proper they open out into tracts of pavement, moraine and patches of poorer, native grasses. It is in these areas where much of Ireland’s wild flora, orchids, burnet rose gentians, dog daisies, violets, heather, Bloody Cranesbill can be seen including some very rare plants, Bearberry, Dropwort, Mountain Avens and Maidenhair fern. In this rich refuge for wildlife, hares are abundant and lizards slither off sun-baked rocks. Stonechats, snipe, pheasant and the now scarce Yellowhammer grace the sky while clambering across the rocks are wild goats and if you look carefully there are the unmistakable

signs of the presence of the shy and elusive Pine Marten. Nothing on the Burren is unique. But the Burren is. Known as ‘The Fertile Rock’, the Burren supports over 600 species of flowering plants. What makes the flora of the Burren truly unique is the assemblages of plants occurring here that should not normally be found growing together in the wild. Mountain Avens and Spring Gentians, at home in sub-arctic and alpine habitats, grow alongside Mediterranean species such as the Dense Flowered Orchid and Maidenhair Fern. These plants of very different origins arrived in the Burren as the ice ages came and receded. Found side by side are acid loving and lime loving plants. Flowers like the bloody cranesbill thrive on the thin, limy soils of the pavement while acid loving plants, like heathers, grow in the acidic humus that collects in the grikes. It is this climatic and geological history alongside the unusual combination of habitats that makes the flora of the Burren unique and a paradise for botanists. This flora is also dependant on the farming system in the Burren known as ‘winterage’. Acting like a storage heater, the limestone absorbs the heat of summer and slowly releases it through the winter months. This makes its mountain terrain warmer and more productive in the winter than the surrounding area. So traditionally in the Burren, cattle put out to graze on the hills in the Burren for the winter months. As result by the spring the vegetation is cropped back allowing the small flowers so typical of the Burren to prosper in late April/early May. Without this grazing the competition from the larger and more vigorous plants and grasses would swamp them and eventually would turn to scrub. In all in all then Kinvara is uniquely rich in natural history. Placed between the rock of the Burren and waters of Galway Bay, it enjoys the flora and fauna of both one of the most unique places on earth and along its coast a rich variety of habitats with not just unusual, rare and interesting plants but attracting a wide diversity of animals and, especially, birds.

Action Plan

Action Potential partners

Timeframe

1 Develop and implement a tree plan for the village to include: a survey of trees in the village, a health assessment of the mature trees. Identify suitable sites for tree planting in Kinvara. Identify suitable species for planting in and around village.

Tidy Towns, Scouts, Kinvara Tree group

2015 on

2 Encourage biodiversity friendly gardening at green areas in the village including in estates, public areas and sports grounds.

Tidy Towns, Local residents, GAA

Ongoing

3 Promote awareness and knowledge of the birds of Kinvara by: -Developing information signage about the birds of the bay - Identify suitable sites for bird watching spots or hides - Identify rookeries within the village

Tidy Towns, BirdWatch Ireland Galway, Kinvara Community Council, Shannon Heritage

Medium term

4 Develop a biodiversity trail to complement the heritage trail

Community Council

Long term

5 Erect bat boxes, bird boxes, bird feeders, insect nest boxes etc at suitable sites in Kinvara

Galway Bat Group, Birdwatch Ireland, Schools, Creche

Short-medium

6 Provide information and promote awareness of nature in Kinvara to homes and businesses as well as clubs and other groups in the area

Tidy Towns ongoing

7 Work with local schools on biodiversity projects in the area.

Schools, parents associations, Doorus community orchard.

Short – medium term

8 Identify and seek to develop looped walks to enjoy biodiversity in the area in partnership with landowners and the local community

Kinvara Community Council, IFA, landowners,

Long term

9 Identify and eradicate infestations of invasive alien weeds in the area according to best practice.

Land owners, volunteers, GCC

2015 on

10 Support local bee-keepers by planting areas for bees and creating awareness of bees and other pollinating insects.

Local bee keepers, Doorus community orchard

Medium term

11 Provide information on the interesting Burren Nature Medium

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hydrology of the area and highlight the connection between Kinvara and the underground river system of the Gort River, Caherglassaun tidal turlough etc.

Sanctuary, NUIG

term

Biodiversity Walk with Gordon D’Arcy

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Resources and Further information Key Contacts

1. Elaine O’Riordan, County Galway Biodiversity Project Manager.

E-mail elaine.oriordan@nuigalway.ie; Tel 091 495921,

https://www.facebook.com/peopleandnature/

2. Marie Mannion, County Heritage Officer, Galway County Council.

E-mail mmannion@galwaycoco.ie; Tel. (091)509198

http://galwaycommunityheritage.org/

3. Christy Cunniffe, Community Archaeologist. E-mail

galwaycommunityarchaeology@gmail.com

http://field-monuments.galwaycommunityheritage.org/

4. Mark Molloy and Sinead Ní Mhainnin, Environmental Awareness Officers,

Galway County Council (Co-ordinate green schools, composting demos,

annual spring cleans, stop food waste etc.

http://www.galway.ie/en/services/environment/ ).

mkmolloy@galwaycoco.ie, snimhain@galwaycoco.ie, Tel. 091-509510

5. Rosaleen Ní Shúilleabháin – Rural recreation Officer. Forum Connemara

(But covers whole County). R.nishuibheallain@forumconnemara.ie, Tel.

087 737-5599

Biodiversity-related resources

Trees and tree planting- ‘Galway’s Living Landscapes Part 2: Trees and

Woodland’

o http://heritage.galwaycommunityheritage.org/content/heritage-

publications/galways-living-landscapes-part-2-trees-woodland

Native varieties of fruit trees- Irish Seed Savers Association

o www.irishseedsavers.ie

How to conduct a biodiversity audit

o http://www.devon.gov.uk/devon-community-toolkit-for-the-natural-

environment-feb-2012.pdf

Habitat mapping

o http://www.greenschoolsireland.org/_fileupload/biodiversity%20resou

rces/Habitat_mapping.pdf

o http://www.northwessexdowns.org.uk/uploads/docs/publications/Com

munities_publications/Parish_Wildlife_Toolkit_WEBv2.pdf

Developing nature or heritage trails/ walking routes

o www.irishtrails.ie/National_Trails_Office/Publications/Trail_Developme

nt/Guide_to_Planning_and_Developing_Recreational_Trails_in_Ireland.pdf

o www.noticenature.ie/Walking_Trails_in_Ireland.html

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o Rosaleen Ní Shuilleabháin, Rural Recreation Officer, FORUM Connemara

ltd. (Galway). Tel. 091 593410 or 087-7375599 , E-mail

r.nishuilleabhain@forumconnemara.ie

Interpretive signage/ materials

o http://www.roscommoncoco.ie/en/Services/Heritage/Publications/Tell

ing_People_About_Our_Heritage-

Interpretation_and_Signage_Guidance.pdf

o http://www.heritagecouncil.ie/fileadmin/user_upload/Publications/mis

cellaneous/Bored_of_Boards.pdf

o http://www.americantrails.org/resources/wildlife/Interpretive-trail-

signs-exhibits.html

Building bird or bat boxes

o http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/Default.aspx?tabid=270

o www.batconservationireland.org/pubs/reports/Leaflet_3_batboxes.pdf

Planting to attract wildlife and pollinators

o http://www.biodiversityireland.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Local-

communities_actions-to-help-pollinators_April-2016.pdf.

o www.butterflyconservation.ie/wordpress/?page_id=33

o http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/bees-needs

o https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/pdf/conservation-and-

biodiversity/wildlife/rhs_pollinators_plantlist

o https://www.rspb.org.uk/makeahomeforwildlife/wildlifegarden/

http://www.biodiversityireland.ie/projects/irish-pollinator-initiative/

o http://www.ipcc.ie/advice/wildlife-gardening-tips/

Creating a wildflower meadow

o http://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/meadows-grassland

o http://www.wildflowers.ie/

o http://www.bordbia.ie/consumer/gardening/organicgardening/Worksh

eets/Wildflowers%20meadows.pdf

o http://www.fingalbiodiversity.ie/resources/encouraging_garden_wildlif

e/Wildflower%20Meadows.pdf

Invasive species

o Contact Elaine O’Riordan for advice

o http://invasivespeciesireland.com/

o http://www.biodiversityireland.ie/projects/invasive-species/

o http://www.fisheriesireland.ie/Invasive-Species/invasive-species.html

Protected sites, species and habitats

o www.npws.ie

Environmental NGOs

BirdWatch Ireland

www.birdwatchireland.ie

Irish Peatland Conservation Council

www.ipcc.ie

Irish Wildlife Trust

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www.iwt.ie

An Taisce

www.antaisce.org

Irish Whale & Dolphin Group

www.iwdg.ie

Vincent Wildlife Trust

http://www.mammals-in-ireland.ie/

Conservation volunteers Galway

https://www.facebook.com/ConservationVolunteersGalway

Green sod land trust

http://www.greensodireland.ie/

Bat Conservation Ireland

http://www.batconservationireland.org/

State organisations

Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

www.ahg.gov.ie

National Parks and Wildlife

www.npws.ie

Environmental Protection Agency

www.epa.ie

Inland Fisheries Ireland www.fisheriesireland.ie National Biodiversity Data Centre www.biodiversityireland.ie The Heritage Council www.heritagecouncil.ie

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Funding

Funding Body Description More information

Heritage

Council

Heritage Grants for heritage projects-

includes community-based projects

(calls usually announced at the end of the

year or early in the new year for February

submission)

http://www.heritagecouncil.ie/grants/gra

nts/

Galway County

Council

Agenda 21 grants for community based

environmental projects

(calls usually announced during the

summer)

http://www.galway.ie/en/services/enviro

nment/environmentalawareness/communi

tyinitiatives/localagenda21/

Galway County

Council

Community Support Grants for

community projects including heritage

projects

(calls advertised on website and local

press early in the year)

http://www.galway.ie/en/services/commu

nityenterpriseeconomicdevelopment/finan

cialsupports/

Galway Rural

Development

Leader funding for community-based

development projects

www.grd.ie

The Ireland

Fund

The Ireland Funds support communities in

various ways including projects to protect

the natural environment.

https://www.theirelandfunds.org/

IPB Community Engagement Fund- The

purpose of this year’s fund is once again to

support projects rooted in the local area,

led by local people and to improve the

quality of life for those living in their

community.

http://cse.ipb.ie/

Janice Fuller, Consultant Ecologist, janicefuller@eircom.net

April 2016