The Halting Environmental Loss Project in Lough Erne, Co. Fermanagh includes 19 sites covering a total of 2,500ha of agricultural land, owned and managed by over 140 farmers and inclusive of 1,200ha of potential breeding wader habitat. Out of the 19 sites within the county, 15 of these are located in the Upper Lough. The Upper Lough is an intricate network of waterways, islands and inland lakes, with a landscape dominated by lowland wet grassland, meadows and hedgerows. The remaining 4 sites are in the Lower Lough, which by comparison is dominated by a much larger expanse of water. Since March 2011, the Lough Erne Project Officer has been on the ground working with the local farming community to enhance breeding wader habitats on farmland by providing one to one advice in conjunction with periodic training events. The main focus of this was to encourage regular rush cutting regimes, promote a longer grazing season and endorse routine management of scrub.
Image: Rush control undertaken within the Lough Erne HELP Area
When comparing the 2011 breeding wader numbers in these core areas, with the baseline survey completed in the 1980’s, considerable declines were noted, with breeding waders declining by 83% overall . This result illustrated the severity of the decline and the dire need for effective habitat management. The declines were a result of changing land management with agricultural intensification and land abandonment as key drivers. To date the project has been successful in helping to re-establishing Lough Erne’s breeding wader numbers with a 54% increase from 2011-2014. The largest proportion (66%) of this increase is attributed to increases in snipe Gallinago gallinago indicating that this species is the most adaptable of the four waders, moving quickly into areas where rush has been cut and utilising swards of longer lengths.
Image: Lapwing in flight in the Lough Erne HELP Area
Over the course of the project 1600ha of rush has been cut, significant areas of scrub have been removed as well as the removal of boundary trees, with the objective of creating an open habitat in order to increase breeding wader abundance and breeding success. In the majority of cases this management approach was successful however, it was not without some complications. Given the complex nature of land ownership issues here in the county, it was often difficult to ascertain ownership of commonage areas which resulted in little or no changes to the current management regime. Another issue which was prevalent in the area was adverse weather, with the majority of agricultural land low lying, in floodplain areas and submerged for a significant proportion of the year. Furthermore given the high level of rainfall in the area, soil saturation was not uncommon, resulting in grassland bottoms being too wet to graze cattle or carry machinery thus holding the local Fermanagh farming community and the completion of habitat enhancement at the mercy of the weather.
Image: The extent of flooding in lowland Fermanagh mid-November 2014
The evidence from HELP is that on-going habitat enhancement is the key to restoring our threatened wading birds and that building partnerships with the local farming community through on-going support is the solution to achieving this. By providing advice to local farmers and by helping them comply with their agri-environment regulations, breeding wader abundance in the wider countryside is significantly improved. Although the majority of the increases demonstrated refer to increasing snipe numbers, the project has only been over a short period of time and if it were to be sustained over a longer period, significant increases would also be noted for curlew, lapwing and redshank. It really is a credit to all the Lough Erne farmers, terrific work has been done and the results speak for themselves!
By Sarah McCaffrey, RSPB Lough Erne Project Officer
Images 1 & 2 © Giles Knight & Image 3 ©Sarah McCaffrey