Environmental protection virtually wipes out corncrake from callows

Date Published: 12-Oct-2011

THE failure to carry out routine drainage and dredging work on the Shannon – frequently held up on environmental issues – has led to the virtual wipe-out of the corncrake over recent years, a prominent farm leader has claimed this week.

Persistent Summer flooding over the past decade – caused by a combination of heavy rainfall and a narrowing of the Shannon channel – has meant that the nests of the corncrake have been washed away over recent years, according to Michael Silke, a local farmer in the Shannon Callows area.

Mr. Silke, who is also Chairman of the IFA’s National Flood Management Team, told the Connacht Tribune that the supreme irony of badly needed flood relief measures being held up on environmental grounds, was the virtual wipe-out over recent Summers of the corncrake, the curlew, red shank and lapwing.

“This is really very sad given the measures that farmers have agreed to, and supported, in relation to the preservation of the corncrake and other birds.

“Back in 2002, we had 58 calling males [corncrakes] and this year there has been none. What has happened here is that Summer after Summer, the floods have come and have just washed away the nests of the corncrakes that had been preserved in the meadows of the local farmers," he said.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.