Irish Government’s forestry strategy
threatens to wipe out the Hen Harrier
Ireland is the most westerly
outpost of the Hen Harrier’s global range. The species is in big trouble here
and has been falling towards extinction as its habitat is being lost majorly by
conversion to industrial forestry. If the Hen Harrier is lost from this
frontier due to habitat loss, it will not return nor cannot it be re-introduced
for that very reason – there will be no habitat.
There are already approximately
220 million non-native trees, covering more than half of the land within
Special Protection Areas that are supposed to be the last bastion of Hen
Harrier conservation in Ireland. These areas are designated in line with the EU
birds directive and national law and within these areas, member states are
supposed to “avoid pollution or deterioration of habitats…”.
Not many Rare Bird Alert readers
will need this, but a quick science lesson: Hen Harriers, as with other harrier
species, evolved in virtually treeless landscapes. Harriers are birds of open
country – steppe, prairie, mountain, swamp, moorland. This is why they nest on
the ground. The exception to this rule for Hen Harriers as it happens came in
Ireland, where for a number of years Don Scott observed harriers nesting on the
tops of stunted trees. This soon came to an end however, ultimately proving to
be maladaptive, as when the young harriers fell from the trees and were hidden
beneath the canopy, they could not be fed or rescued by their parents. Suffice
it to say that Hen Harriers and industrial plantation forestry dominated by
non-native sitka spruce do not mix well. Some private foresters with financial
interests in planting more land will tell you otherwise, in the same way as
chemical companies told us DDT was not reducing raptor populations for decades.
However, as with DDT, there are volumes of scientific studies and evidence from
the field as to who the silent killer is. Truth always wins out.
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