She mentioned the lynx are not a huge issue but wolves a growing challenge - even with guardian dogs. Great example of a landscape with both species-rich grasslands and woodlands alongside each other.

Will be long-term project but essentially forest-to-bog on deep peat, rhodo removal (has begun), expand native woodland where possible, control deer pop and keep sheep out.

For the symposium or for Nephin Forest ?

For more information and to reserve a free ticket: www.eventbrite.ie/e/biodiversi... @edeeyto.bsky.social

Agree! But it seems a bit inconsistent? Example here - except for Owenduff/Nephin complex the remainder of these SACs/SPAs (which are almost all blanket bog) seem to be in Cat. 3. I would've thought Cat 4. to be more appropriate but I could be misinterpreting

A lot of peatland is included in Cat. 3 (light brown), north mayo for example, which is a bit strange. Would be interesting to see underlying data behind it

Development of guidance and schemes for appropriate upland / commonage afforestation would be useful. A lot of the dark brown in the map is unsuitable for good reason (peat) but other areas more down to productivity rather than ecology (e.g. Glenveagh and Killarney NPs all dark brown)

Can this be accessed online Fintan?

Now open access !

Paper is not currently open access so please email or DM for a copy if interested!

Although forest to bog techniques have improved over the years, we hope the paper can help to inform the long term management of these sites and improve the chances of restoration success. We'll likely see many more of these projects in coming years in Ireland, including in Wild Nephin NP

The study also highlights the conservation importance of our remaining near-natural blanket bogs for threatened bird species such as golden plover and red grouse, and the complete community change which occurs following afforestation.

Overall we found that forest-to-bog restoration had benefits for Birds of Conservation Concern in Ireland (BoCCI) but the community response was variable as a result of differing vegetation structure at the restored sites which included increased broadleaf shrub, dwarf shrub and deadwood cover.