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Letter to the Editor, Irish Farmer's Journal - on Pollardstown Fen

28th April 1999

In your "Up front" article of April 24th, 1999, P.J. Nolan states that the Kildare bypass has been suspended because of the danger to a rare form of snail.

He stated that the snail and the bog it comes from had not been heard of by anybody "until last Friday". The "bog" is actually an alkaline Fen called Pollardstown Fen, a site considered to be of international conservation value, which has been a National Nature Reserve since 1986.

Pollardstown Fen is also a proposed candidate SAC, and a Natural Heritage Area, a Council of Europe 'Biogenetic Reserve', and a site designated under the The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (the Ramsar Convention). An Foras Forbartha described it in 1981 as the "best developed fen in the country". As bogs go, it is rightly classed as a wonderbog of longstanding international repute!

Pollardstown fen is justifiably listed as a candidate Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the EU Habitat's Directive 1992, which was formally adopted into Irish law in 1997. This law primarily seeks to protect rare and declining wildlife habitats, some of which are listed as being of European priority. Pollardstown Fen has two such priority habitats (petrifying springs and saw sedge fen), as well as at least 6 species (Drepanocladus vernicosus - a moss; Euphrydryas aurina - the Marsh Fritilary butterfly; Vertigo geyeri and Vertigo moulinsiana - both snails; Lutra lutra - the otter; and Lampetra planeri - the lamprey) which are protected under the same law.

To pick out one of these species, a small snail, and suggest that it alone is the reason for environmental objection is disingenuous and is designed to induce a knee-jerk response in the public in favour of the road plan as it stands. The current design of the road involves cutting into the Kildare aquifer, an enormous source of high quality water for the Kildare area. It is the loss of water quantity and quality that worries environmentalists.

The truth of the matter is that EU money has been used for the implementation of the Habitats Directive, and EU money is required to build the road. To make both expenditures compatible a way should be found to build the road without impacting on the water resource, and subsequently the fen. That way nobody loses.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Foss, Chairman, Irish Peatland Conservation Council

P.S. A springing heifer isn't a calf - it's only an indicator of what is about to happen. Likewise, the snail is nothing in itself (no national treasure), but only a indicator of how complex and precious the bog system is.

ends