Serious threat to Corrib as funding to tackle invasive species is slashed

Galway’s war on weed faces defeat as funding for an important Lough Corrib project dries up.

Cuts to staffing levels and budget of Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) will sink efforts to rid Lough Corrib of the invasive pondweed, Lagarosiphon major.

A programme to control the spread of the invasive species on the lake has successfully curtailed the invader, known as Curly African Pondweed, over the past eight years.

But cutbacks mean the project will come to an end this October, with potentially devastating impacts on the local environment and economy.

Campaigners for the retention of the weed-control programme have warned of the risks if the species, a native of southern Africa, is not managed post-October.

They warn discontinuation of the project will:

■ Heighten risk of flooding

■ Threaten brown trout stocks

■ Damage tourism

■ Jeopardise Galway’s clean drinking water supply.

The Government, through junior minister Seán Kyne, the Galway West Fine Gael TD, has been warned of the consequences, and has been urged to intervene to secure long-term financing of the programme.

The weed was first discovered on the lake in 2005, and the following year various organisations came together to fund research and management programmes.

In recent years, IFI has run the project, which was co-funded by Galway County Council and the Office of Public Works (OPW).

At the height of the invasion it was estimated there was 92 hectares of the curly-leaved waterweed present. Through the success of the programme this had been reduced to “manageable” levels of below 10 hectares.

The management programme also helped to re-establish native species, and allowed previously infested areas to re-open for angling, boating and other recreational activities.

The methods used, according to Ms Moran, were modern and innovative and ‘borrowed’ by teams battling the weed overseas.

The cost of the project is about €220,000 per year, and the work was carried out jointly by IFI staff and GeoMara, a company based in Clarinbridge. Some €100,000 of the monies were provided by the Council and OPW, with the remainder provided by IFI.

“Unfortunately, due to repeated cuts in IFI’s exchequer funding and significant staff shortages it in no longer possible to fund this management programme, which in effect means that the weed control programme on Lough Corrib will cease as of Mid-October 2016. The achievements to date will be reversed and the weed level could potentially return to the initially estimated 92 hectares if left unmanaged. Some 61% of Lough Corrib has suitable depths for pondweed colonisation,” warned Helen Moran of GeoMara.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.