A Bog’s Notion

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Yesterday.

Meanwhile…

Anyone?

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10 thoughts on “A Bog’s Notion

  1. gallantman

    Ever walk in these evergreen ‘forests’. Ugly. Desert like. No animal life. No undergrowth. Leech out the soil. Little wonder nature is revolting!!!!

  2. The Old Boy

    I wonder if the Green Party will work to abolish the incentives for the plantation of the odious Sitka spruce, which amount to letters of marque against the environment? Or will they continue to hide behind the flimsy excuse that “Sitka spruce has an important role to play in Carbon Sequestration”*?

    *Department of Agriculture policy document

    1. Nigel

      Oh God please yes. I mean, there are SO MANY things to be done and as far as I can tell everyone expects the Green Party to do everything while the other parties look on or get in the way as suits their impulse, so it’s going to be tough to prioritise, but conifer plantations have to go.

        1. Nigel

          Well I’m sure the opposition parties will do loads to adress the conifer plantation issue.

          1. dav

            civilwarshirts are setting the greens up as the mud guard for their poor governance, to be expected

  3. Daniel

    The land should have never been planted on, similar to many other locations in the west.
    The consequences are now clear to see:
    -bog habitat was lost to native species when originally planted.
    -trees are practically worthless now, as this process of slippage and trees falling over will continue as the trees gain in height and weight.
    -cant be efficiently harvested as the ground cant take the weight of the harvesting machines. leaning trees are too dangerous, too expensive and too much trouble to harvest.
    -long lasting damage done to the bog that forms the upper catchment to the river.
    -bog now unlikely to stabilize anytime soon with more slides to be expected now that the “skin” of the bog has been broken.
    -long lasting damage done to the river that supported native species, unlikely to recover with future slides expected.
    -local infrastructure damaged, restricting the local population accessing dwellings and farmland.
    -the historic bridge is unlikely to be restored in keeping with its original construction.
    -farmland down river covered in bog material and sludge, reducing farmers viable grazing land for years to come.

    Commercial plantation forestry being driven and motivated by greed.
    When something is motivated by greed it goes hand in hand with cutting corners and bending the rules.
    The reason for the rules and regulations is to try ensure that the benefits of any development (including forestry plantations) outweigh the harm that is done or can be done. maybe tens of thousands in value for the trees VS million in damage that their planting has resulted in. That’s not even including damage done to the respective habitats and species that is near impossible to put a cost against.

    to sum it up; A stated promoted environmental disaster and national scandal

    1. Johnny

      -thank you I had looked into this a little as Bord Na Mona was going to be in charge medical cannabis cultivation.

  4. Slightly Bemused

    Although not bog, I used work in programmes designed to stop landslides on hill and mountainsides that had been deforested for various reasons. While not an agronomist or forestry expert (I was the logistician) one thing that was clearly put across was not to use certain species, including this spruce, and many pines (also eucalyptus, very popular for building).
    Apart from them being non-native species, they are shallow rooted and do not local the soil. Indeed, they can cause bigger problems as the weight of the tree can add impetus to a landslide when the soil gets waterlogged.

    We tried as much as possible to plant native species, and worked in other ares to make managed mini plots for building materials and firewood. This latter, while we acknowledged it was not the most environmentally friendly, was needed as the reality was the local community were going to do it anyway, so the managed plots limited the damaged, and protected the native species on the hillsides by providing an easier accessible source.

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